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Contact Info
Home Town West Point
Last Address Washington, DC
Date of Passing Jan 03, 1984
Location of Interment West Point Cemetery - West Point, New York
Louis Aleck Craig Jr. was born at West Point, New York on July 29, 1891,a son of Army officer Louis Aleck Craig and Georgie (Malin) Craig.His siblings included brother Malin Craigand his paternal grandfather was James Craig.
After graduating from St. Luke's, a Catholic prep school in Wayne, Pennsylvania,Craig attended the United States Military Academy.He received his commission as a second lieutenant of Cavalry after graduating in 1913, ranked 56th in a class of 93.
Craig was initially assigned to the 5th Cavalry Regiment and served at Fort Huachuca, Arizonaand Fort Myer, Virginia.In March, 1914 Craig transferred to the Coast Artillery Corps and was assigned to Fort Hamilton, New York.
His subsequent assignments included Fort Howard, Maryland and Fort Grant, Panama Canal Zone. In August, 1916, Craig transferred to the Field Artillery and served with the 4th Field Artillery Regiment at Corozal, Panama Canal Zone.
In June, 1917, Craig returned to the United States and was assigned as an instructor for the officer training camp based at Madison Barracks, New York.In August, 1917 he was assigned to command a battery of the replacement battalion based in Syracuse, New York.
The battalion sailed for France in November, 1917 and upon arrival in December, Craig was assigned to the 5th Field Artillery Regiment.He was selected for attendance at the Army Staff College in Langres and after his May, 1918 graduation, Craig was assigned to the I Corps staff as an assistant plans and training officer.
In June, 1918 Craig was assigned to the 157th Artillery Brigade as adjutant, and in July he was posted to the 4th Division as assistant plans and training officer.From August to October, he was adjutant of the 4th Artillery Brigade, and from October to November he was assistant to the chief of artillery for Second United States Army.
Following the Armistice that ended the war, Craig served as chief of staff for the American Section of the Permanent International Armistice Commission in France.In February, 1919, he was posted to Trier, Germany to serve on the staff of the Army Center of Artillery Study.He served with the 17th Field Artillery Regiment at Ehrenbreitstein, Germany before returning to the United States with the regiment. He remained with the 17th Field Artillery at Camp Travis, San Antonio, Texas until August, 1920, when he returned to the Coast Artillery Corps.
Craig was then posted to Fort Barrancas, Florida as adjutant, followed by assignment to Fort McPherson, Georgia on the Fourth Corps Area staff.
Craig completed the advanced course for officers at Fort Sill, Oklahoma's Field Artillery School in 1923.He was then assigned as assistant professor of military science at Harvard University, where he remained until 1929, when he was selected for attendance at the United States Army Command and General Staff College.He graduated in 1931 and was assigned to Savannah, Georgia as the senior instructor for the Georgia National Guard.
From 1933 to 1936, Craig served as assistant inspector general for the Second Corps Area at Governors Island, New York, and he carried out a similar assignment for the Third Corps Area in Baltimore from 1936 to 1938.In 1938, Craig was nominated for attendance at the United States Army War College, and he graduated in 1939.
He was then posted to Fort Sill as commander of 1st Battalion, 77th Field Artillery Regiment.
In July, 1941 Craig was assigned as commander of the 18th Field Artillery Regiment at Fort Sill.In February, 1942 Craig was promoted to brigadier general and assigned as commander of the 72nd Field Artillery Brigade at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.He was promoted to major general in February, 1943 as commander of the 97th Infantry Division at Camp Swift, Texas.
In January, 1944 Craig was named to command the XXIII Corps at Camp Bowie, Texas.In August, 1944, he was assigned to command the 9th Infantry Division during combat in France.
Under his command, the 9th Infantry Division conducted offensive operations in France and Belgium and crossed the Meuse River at Dinant.The 9th Division then penetrated the Siegfried Line near Monschau, then drove to the Rur River between Langerwehe and Düren.During the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944-January 1945, the 9th Infantry Division held the left shoulder of the "Bulge" near Monschau.The division then took part in the drive to capture the Rur River dams, then continued to drive to the Rhine River near Bonn.
In March, 1945 Craig commanded all US troops at the Remagen Bridgehead until they resumed the offensive, including the 99th, 78th, and 9th Infantry Divisions.When the 9th Infantry Division resumed its offensive, it continued to the Ruhr Pocket and the Harz Mountains, then made contact with Soviet forces east of the Mulde River at the end of April.
In May, 1945 Craig was named to command the XX Corps in Germany.From June to July, 1945 Craig was commander of Third United States Army.In October he was named to command the Seventh Service Command based at Omaha, Nebraska.In February, 1946 he was assigned to command the Sixth Service Command in Chicago.When Fifth United States Army was activated on June 11, 1946, Craig was appointed as its deputy commander.
From August, 1947 to April, 1948 Craig was inspector general of the United States European Command.In April and May 1948, he served as commander of the United States Constabulary in Germany.In July, 1948 Craig was appointed Inspector General of the Army, and he served until retiring in May 1952.
WWII - European Theater of Operations/Central Europe Campaign (1945)/Battle of the Ruhr Pocket
From Month/Year
March / 1945
To Month/Year
April / 1945
Description The Ruhr Pocket was a battle of encirclement that took place in late March and early April 1945, near the end of World War II, in the Ruhr Area of Germany. It marked the end of major organized resistance on Nazi Germany's Western Front, as more than 300,000 troops were taken prisoner.
Background
In March 1945, Allied Forces crossed the Rhine river. South of the Ruhr, General Omar Bradley's U.S. 12th Army Group's pursuit of the disintegrating German army resulted in the capture of the Ludendorff Bridge across the Rhine at Remagen by the U.S. First Army. Bradley and his subordinates quickly exploited the crossing made on March 7, 1945, and expanded the bridge head until the bridge collapsed 10 days later.
North of the Ruhr on March 23, 1945, Field Marshal Montgomery's British 21st Army Group launched Operation Plunder and crossed the Rhine at Rees and Wesel.
The battle
Having crossed the Rhine, both Army Groups fanned out into the German hinterland. In the south, while Third Army headed east, the First Army headed northeast and formed the southern pincer of the Ruhr envelopment. In the north, the U.S. Ninth Army, which since the Battle of the Bulge had been assigned to Montgomery's British 21st Army Group, headed southeast forming the northern pincer, while the rest of 21st Army Group went east and northeast.
Facing the Allied armies were the remnants of a shattered Wehrmacht, a few SS training units, and large numbers of Volkssturm (militia units for aging men, including some World War I veterans) and Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth) units, composed of boys as young as 12.
Lead elements of the two Allied pincers met on April 1, 1945, near Lippstadt. By April 4, the encirclement was completed and the Ninth Army reverted to the command of Bradley's 12th Army Group. Within the Ruhr Pocket about 430,000 German soldiers of Army Group B, which comprised 21 divisions of the Wehrmacht, and millions of civilians were trapped in cities heavily damaged by numerous bombings.
While the main operations headed further toward central and northern Germany, American forces concentrated on the pocket, taking it section by section. On April 12, 1945, the U.S. 1st and 9th Armies divided the area coming from the south; the smaller, eastern part surrendered the next day. The western part continued a weak resistance until April 18 and April 21, 1945. Rather than surrender and violate his personal oath to Adolf Hitler that he would fight to the death, the commander, Field Marshal Walter Model, committed suicide in a forest south of the city of Duisburg.
German anti-Nazi resistance groups in Düsseldorf attempted to surrender the city to the Allied armies in the so-called "Aktion Rheinland" in order to spare Düsseldorf from further destruction. However, SS units were able to crush the resistance, and executed a number of those involved. Executions of foreign labourers, political prisoners, etc. by the Gestapo had already been occurring since February. The act of resistance did accomplish a cancellation of further bombings on the city by another 800 bombers, through contact with the Americans. Düsseldorf was captured by Americans on 17 April without any notable fighting.
The surviving 325,000 German soldiers from the Ruhr Pocket, and some civilians, were imprisoned in a complex of temporary prison enclosures known as Rheinwiesenlager (in English, "Rhine meadow camps").