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Harry J. Collins

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Harry John Collins
Nickname(s)"Hollywood Harry"
BornDecember 7, 1895
Chicago, Illinois, United States
DiedMarch 8, 1963 (aged 67)
Salzburg, Austria
Allegiance United States
Service / branch United States Army
Years of service1917–1954
Rank Major General
Service number0-7320
Unit Infantry Branch
Commands1st Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment
345th Infantry Regiment
42nd Infantry Division
2nd Infantry Division
8th Infantry Division
31st Infantry Division
Battles / warsWorld War I
World War II
Cold War
AwardsArmy Distinguished Service Medal
Silver Star
Bronze Star (2)
Other workVice president, North American Van Lines

Major General Harry John Collins (December 7, 1895 – March 8, 1963) was a decorated senior United States Army officer who commanded the 42nd "Rainbow" Infantry Division during World War II.

Biography

Early life and military career

Collins was born on December 7, 1895, in Chicago, Illinois. He graduated from the Western Military Academy in 1915 and attended the University of Chicago before leaving in 1917 to join the United States Army, after the American entry into World War I.[1]

Collins completed the course at the Officer Training Camp in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1917, received his commission as a second lieutenant in the Infantry Branch, and was assigned to the 3rd Infantry Regiment.[2]

Collins served with the 3rd Infantry on the Mexican Border at Eagle Pass, Texas, at the end of the Pancho Villa Expedition and during World War I.[3][4]

Between the wars

Collins remained with the 3rd Infantry, including assignments at Camp Sherman, Ohio, and Fort Snelling, Minnesota. In 1922, he was assigned to the 19th Infantry Regiment at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.[5] He completed the Infantry Officer Course at Fort Benning, Georgia, in 1926, and remained there as an instructor on the staff of the U.S. Army Infantry School.[6] From 1929 to 1930, he was an instructor at Fort Ethan Allen, Vermont, and he completed the Infantry Advanced Course at Fort Benning in 1930.[7]

A specialist with the placement and marksmanship of machine guns, he operated schools for machine gun operators at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and Fort Warren in the early 1930s.[8] Collins graduated from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff School in 1934 and the U.S. Army War College in 1935.[9]

He then served again in Hawaii, and in 1938 moved to Vancouver Barracks, Washington, where he was the Plans, Operations and Training Officer (S3) for the 7th Infantry Regiment, and then commanded the regiment's 1st Battalion.[10] After his battalion command he served as regimental executive officer until being assigned as assistant plans, operations and training officer (G3) and then intelligence officer (G2) for the 6th Infantry Division at Fort Snelling.[11]

World War II

At the start of World War II, Collins was assigned to the staff at the U.S. War Department and was sent to the United Kingdom as an observer and liaison officer.[12]

Upon returning to the United States in November 1941, Collins first served as the intelligence officer for the IV Corps.[13] The United States entered the war on December 7, 1941, on Collins' 46th birthday, with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. As a full colonel, he then activated the 345th Infantry Regiment at Fort Carson, part of the 87th Infantry Division.[14] In August 1942, Collins was named as the assistant division commander of the 99th Infantry Division at Camp Van Dorn, Mississippi, and promoted to the one-star general officer rank of brigadier general.[15]

In April 1943, he assumed command of the 42nd Infantry Division (the famed Rainbow Division) at Camp Gruber, Oklahoma, and was promoted to the two-star rank of major general. He trained the 42nd Division in the United States for 16 months before departure for overseas service. In December 1944, the division arrived on the Western Front in the European Theater of Operations. The 42nd Division, under Collins, played a major role in stopping the last German drive into Western Europe, known as the Battle of the Bulge.[16] The division then went on to take part in the Western Allied invasion of Germany.

Dachau liberation

Main article: Dachau concentration camp § Liberation

The 42nd Division was credited with the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp. As commander of the 42nd Division, Collins had defied convention by naming Rabbi (Captain) Eli Bohnen as the division chaplain, despite not having a large number of Jews in the division. According to contemporary accounts, Collins was moved by the plight of the prisoners he saw at Dachau, and took extraordinary measures to ensure they immediately received housing, food and medical attention. His example enabled Bohnen to successfully appeal for assistance from civilians in the United States, requesting items that the army was not prepared to supply, including kosher foods, religious articles and cash donations.[17]

Postwar

Following Victory in Europe Day, the 42nd assumed occupation duty in western Austria, with Collins serving as military governor. In July 1948, he was appointed commander of the 2nd Infantry Division at Fort Lewis, Washington, and later assumed command of New York-New Jersey area headquarters at Fort Totten, New York.[18]

In January 1951, he was assigned to command the 8th Division at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. A year later he was appointed military attache in Moscow, afterwards returning to the United States to command the 31st Infantry Division at Camp Atterbury, Indiana.[19]

Retirement, death and burial

Gravestone of Major General Harry J. Collins in Salzburg.

He retired from the army after 37 years in 1954 and worked as a vice president for North American Van Lines and a consultant to the Human Research Organization at George Washington University.[20]

Collins subsequently moved to Colorado, where he lived until retiring to Salzburg, where many Dachau survivors were initially transported after the liberation of the camp. In his later years he was in ill health and used a wheelchair as the result of injuries sustained in a car accident.[21]

He died on March 8, 1963, and was buried at the Saint Peter's churchyard cemetery in Salzburg.[22][23]

Family

Collins' first wife was Maude Alice McAlpin Collins (1897–1955).[24] They were the parents of a daughter, Patricia Coyle Collins (1919-2000). Patricia Collins was the wife of army officer M. Griffith Berg, who became a Japanese prisoner of war, and died in the Philippines in 1944. She later married Robert C. Williams (1914-2000).

During his occupation duty in Austria, Collins met Irene Gehmacher, a native of that country. After his divorce from his first wife, he married Irene, who died in 1987.[25]

Controversy

Recent writers have found fault with Collins and other officers who performed occupation duty after World War II, suggesting that they requisitioned luxury items from the Hungarian Gold Train for furnishing their offices and quarters — items allegedly taken from Jewish families by the Nazis during the war. Many items were not returned to their original owners, who could not be located, but were later sold at auctions, with the proceeds used to aid war refugees.[26]

Decorations

Collins was an honorary citizen of both Salzburg and Linz.[27]

Collins' ribbon bar included:[28]

Bronze oak leaf cluster
Bronze star
Bronze star
Bronze star
1st Row Army Distinguished Service Medal Silver Star Bronze Star Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster
2nd Row Army Commendation Medal Mexican Border Service Medal World War I Victory Medal American Defense Service Medal
3rd Row American Campaign Medal European–African–Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with three service stars World War II Victory Medal Army of Occupation Medal
4th Row National Defense Service Medal Chevalier of the Legion of Honor (France) French Croix de guerre 1939-1945 with Palm Officer of the Order of the Crown of Italy

See also

References

  1. ^ Sam Dann, editor, Dachau 29 April 1945: The Rainbow Liberation Memoirs, 1998, page 232
    - University of Chicago, Annual Register, 1916, page 517
  2. ^ U.S. Government Printing Office, Journal of the United States Senate, Volume 65, Issue 2, Part 1, 1932, pages 487, 608
    - National Infantry Association, Infantry Journal, Volume XIX, July to December 1921, pages 325, 448
    U- .S. Army Adjutant General, U.S. Army Register, 1918, page 834
    - U.S. Army Adjutant General, World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, entry for Harry John Collins. Retrieved April 19, 2014
  3. ^ "Collins". indianamilitary.org. July 4, 2010. Retrieved September 22, 2013.
  4. ^ - U.S. Army Adjutant General, Official U.S. Army Register, 1918, page 19
  5. ^ Army and Navy Register, The Army: Infantry, April 2, 1921, page 344
    - National Infantry Association, Infantry Journal, Volume 22, Issues 1-5, 1923, page 575
    - Army and Navy Register, The Army: Infantry, September 30, 1922, page 335
  6. ^ National Infantry Association, Infantry Journal, Volume 35, 1929, pages vii, 50, 361
  7. ^ U.S. Army Adjutant General, Official U. S. Army Register, 1946, page 135
  8. ^ "S.A. Gunners Seek Trophy", Brownsville Herald, January 15, 1931
  9. ^ U.S. Army Adjutant General, Official Army Register, 1942, page 175
  10. ^ Army and Navy Journal, Inc., Army and Navy Journal, Volume 77, Issues 1-26, 1939, page 167
    - William C. C. Cavanagh, Richard H. Byers, Jeffrey E. Phillips, Dauntless: A History of the 99th Infantry Division, 1994, page 17
  11. ^ Army-Navy Publishers, Inc., Pictorial Review: Sixth Infantry Division Archived 2014-04-21 at the Wayback Machine, 1941, page 11
  12. ^ Sam Dann, editor, Dachau 29 April 1945: The Rainbow Liberation Memoirs, 1998, page 232
  13. ^ Army and Navy Journal, Inc., Army and Navy Journal, Volume 79, Issues 1-26, 1941, page 265
  14. ^ Jerome M. Rosow, Public Affairs Press, American Men in Government: A Biographical Dictionary and Directory of Federal Officials, 1949, page 80
  15. ^ Western Military Academy Shrapnel, Brig. Gen. Collins, 1915, to Command Rainbow Division, April 22, 1943
  16. ^ Associated Press, "Rainbow Division to be Reactivated at Oklahoma Camp", Milwaukee Journal, April 15, 1943
    - New York Department of Military and Naval Affairs, History & Bibliography of the "Rainbow". Retrieved April 19, 2014
  17. ^ George M. Goodwin, Ellen Smith (editors), "Our Rabbi with the Rainbow Division: A World War II Reminiscence, The Jews of Rhode Island, 2004, pages 205-212
    - Judah Nadich, Eisenhower and the Jews, 1953, page 186
    - Yehûdā Bauer, Flight and Rescue: Brichah, 1970, page 56
    - Alex Grobman, Rekindling the Flame: American Jewish Chaplains and the Survivors of European Jewry, 1944-1948, 1993, page 97
  18. ^ Margaret Middleton Rivers, Mendel & Me: Life with Congressman L. Mendel Rivers, 2007, page 115
    - United States Civil Service Commission, Official Register of the United States, 1951, page 149
    - Army and Navy Journal, Inc., Armed Forces Journal International, Volume 107, Issues 27-45, 1970, page 23
  19. ^ "Collins". indianamilitary.org. July 4, 2010. Retrieved September 22, 2013.
    - Western Military Academy Shrapnel, Maj. Gen. Harry J. Collins, Class 1915, to Post in Moscow, January 10, 1952
    - Army and Navy Journal Inc., Army, Navy, Air Force Journal, Volume 91, Issues 27-52, 1954, page 1460
  20. ^ Army and Navy Journal, Incorporated, Armed Forces Journal International, Volume 93, Issues 1-26, 1955, page 396
    - "General Harry J. Collins Returns to Springs Area", Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegram, November 7, 1960
  21. ^ Kenneth D. Alford, Allied Looting in World War II, 2011, pages 243-344
  22. ^ Trudy Ring, Noelle Watson, Paul Schellinger (editors), Northern Europe: International Dictionary of Historic Places, 2013, page 664
  23. ^ Associated Press, Stars and Stripes, Recent Deaths: Gen. Harry J. Collins, March 11, 1963
  24. ^ 1920 United States Federal Census, entry for Harry J. Collins, retrieved April 19, 2014
    - Texas Death Certificates, 1903–1982, entry for Maude Alice Collins. Retrieved April 19, 2014
    - Maude Collins at Find a Grave
  25. ^ "General Collins, '15 Weds Austrian Bride", Western Military Academy Shrapnel, December 8, 1949
  26. ^ Kenneth D. Alford, Allied Looting in World War II, 2011, page 237
    - Tim Golden, "G.I.'s Are Called Looters of Jewish Riches", New York Times, October 15, 1999
  27. ^ U.S. Army in Germany, U.S. Forces, Austria: 42nd Infantry Division, retrieved April 20, 2014
  28. ^ "Valor awards for Harry J. Collins". militarytimes.com. July 4, 2010. Archived from the original on September 27, 2013. Retrieved September 22, 2013.
    - "Collins". indianamilitary.org. July 4, 2010. Retrieved September 22, 2013.
Military offices
Preceded by
Newly activated post
 Commanding General 42nd Infantry Division
1943–1946 		Succeeded by
Post deactivated
Preceded by Commanding General 2nd Infantry Division
1948–1950 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Commanding General 8th Infantry Division
1951–1952 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
??
 Commanding General 31st Infantry Division
1952–1953 		Succeeded by
??
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