Orlando Ward

Orlando Ward
Born	November 4, 1891 Macon, Missouri, United States
Died	February 4, 1972 (aged 80) Denver, Colorado, United States
Place of burial	Fairmount Cemetery, Denver, Colorado, United States
Allegiance	United States
Service / branch	United States Army
Years of service	1914–1953
Rank	Major General
Unit	Cavalry Branch Field Artillery Branch
Commands	1st Armored Division 20th Armored Division 6th Infantry Division V Corps
Battles / wars	Pancho Villa Expedition World War I World War II
Awards	Distinguished Service Cross Distinguished Service Medal Silver Star Purple Heart

Major General Orlando Ward (November 4, 1891 – February 4, 1972) was a career United States Army officer who fought in both World War I and World War II. During the latter, as a major general, he commanded the 1st Armored Division during Operation Torch and during the first few months of the Tunisia Campaign, before being relieved in March 1943. He trained and returned to Europe in 1945 as Commanding General (CG) of the 20th Armored Division.

Ward also served as Secretary to the Army Chief of Staff, General George Marshall, in the critical years prior to the war and made major contributions to field artillery procedures in the 1930s that, a decade later, made the American field artillery especially effective in World War II.

Early life and career

Orlando Ward graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1914 as a second lieutenant in the Cavalry Branch of the United States Army. His first assignment was as a lieutenant of black cavalry troops (E Troop, 9th Cavalry Regiment) on border patrol in the wilds of Arizona and New Mexico. He later was part of John J. Pershing's forces chasing Pancho Villa into Mexico. He was awarded the Mexican Service Medal for serving on this campaign.

Recognizing that the horse had a limited future, he became interested in artillery and transferred to the Field Artillery Branch.

He served on the Western Front with the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) during World War I. At the Second Battle of the Marne, in July 1918, under conditions that rendered other officers in charge useless, he took charge of the 2nd Battalion of the 10th Field Artillery Regiment and kept the battalion effective until the tide of Germans was turned back. He was later awarded the Silver Star for his actions. He continued to serve on the Western Front until the war ended with the Armistice with Germany on November 11, 1918.

During the quiet period between the wars, he continued in field artillery, but was assigned posts like ROTC instructor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (where Charles Lindbergh was one of his students). Eventually, he became an instructor at the U.S. Army Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, where he and others developed key forward observer procedures that made the United States artillery effective in the upcoming war.

World War II

Ward was Secretary to General George Marshall, the U.S. Army Chief of Staff, from July 1939 to August 1941, a critical time of building up in preparation for the American entry into World War II, Ward assisting in finding the resources to build the military while political forces were fighting to keep the United States out of the war and to help Britain. He worked closely there with Walter Bedell Smith and Omar Nelson Bradley.

He left that post (and was promoted to the two-star rank of major general) to become the second commander of the 1st Armored Division in March 1942. He supervised the deployment of his division across the Atlantic Ocean to French North Africa, which was brought piecemeal (with a layover in Northern Ireland) as part of Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of French North Africa, and subsequent operations. The failure of the 1st Armored Division to arrive intact and deploy as a single entity would have important consequences in later action against German forces in the Tunisia Campaign.

The 1st Armored's first action against the Germans was not promising, when Combat Command 'B' and other Allied forces were thrown back after an advance by German forces. On the night of 10–11 December 1942, during withdrawal from Medjez el Bab, the focal point of the enemy attack, scores of combat vehicles of the 1st Armored's Combat Command 'B' — tanks, half-tracks, and tank destroyers — had bogged down in thick mud and had to be abandoned. The tanks were so badly mired that the advancing Germans themselves could not extricate them. It was a crippling loss. In its brief experience in action, Combat Command 'B' had lost 32 medium and 46 light tanks. The combat vehicles that remained were in poor condition after their long overland journey to the front lines.

Kasserine Pass

At the Battle of Kasserine Pass in February 1943, the first major battle between the Americans and Germans during World War II, elements of the 1st Armored Division were sent reeling back by a series of sudden enemy offensive thrusts. The dispersal of the 1st Armored Division into separate combat commands across the front by British Lieutenant General Kenneth Anderson, commanding the British First Army, with the connivance of his immediate superior, Major General Lloyd Fredendall, the U.S. II Corps commander, had angered Ward from the start, as it greatly weakened the division's ability to repulse concentrations of German armor and to shift his forces in response to enemy thrusts (Fredendall was later relieved of command and replaced by Major General George Patton). However, Ward also bore responsibility for his failure to consult British tank commanders on German panzer tactics and to disseminate that information to his subordinate commanders . As a consequence, elements of the 1st Armored Division at Faïd fell victim to one of Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel's familiar tactics when they pursued German tanks feigning retirement into a screen of 88 mm high-velocity German anti-tank guns, resulting in large American armor losses.

End of the Tunisian campaign

After the rout at Kasserine, Patton at first counseled, then admonished Ward of the need for personal leadership of his division in order to keep German forces under pressure. Impatient with the progress of the 1st Armored, Patton took the unusual step of ordering Ward to personally lead a night assault on the Meknessy Heights, a series of stubbornly defended knolls in front of the 1st Armored Division's lines. Ward obeyed the order, and the attack was initially successful. Wounded in the eye, he was awarded a Purple Heart, Silver Star, and later the Distinguished Service Cross. However, the stalemate east of Meknassy continued, and it appeared to Patton that Ward was still overcautious and too reluctant to incur casualties when conducting offensive operations. By 1 April 1943 the American offensive that had begun at El Guettar had bogged down against stiffened Axis defenses. With the concurrence of British General Sir Harold Alexander, commanding the Allied 18th Army Group, Patton finally relieved Ward of duty. Patton's actions were in keeping with personal written instructions to him from General Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander in North Africa, after Fredendall was sacked: "You must not retain for one instant any man in a responsible position where you have become doubtful of his ability to do his job."

Recent scholarship suggests that political factors may also have played a significant part in Ward's relief. "Ward’s dismissal covered up Alexander’s incoherent plans for the American commitment to North Africa; in its wake, Patton’s failure to punch through the German line and prove American superiority was assuaged as well. Ike kept the upper-level alliance intact (if not healthy) by sacrificing the position of a lower-level subordinate."

Ward was replaced with Major General Ernest Harmon, who had successfully intervened to remedy Fredendall's inaction during the battles of Kasserine Pass. Ward was the only general relieved of his command by Patton during World War II. Returning to the United States, Ward was briefly Chief of the Field Artillery Branch before returning to a combat command in September 1944, where he assumed command of the 20th Armored Division. He led the division on the Western Front in the Allied invasion of Germany. The end of World War II in Europe came soon afterwards, on May 8, 1945, known now as Victory in Europe Day.

Postwar career

After the war, Ward had two major assignments, first as head of the 6th Infantry Division in Korea (prior to the war there), and later as Chief of Military History, where he oversaw the production of the famous "Green Books," the official U.S. Army military history of World War II. He also briefly commanded V Corps.

Decorations

Major General Ward´s decorations included the Distinguished Service Cross, the Army Distinguished Service Medal, the Silver Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster, Purple Heart, the Mexican Border Service Medal, World War I Victory Medal, American Defense Service Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, and the National Defense Service Medal.

See also

• Rick Atkinson (2002). An Army at Dawn. ISBN 0-8050-6288-2.
• Martin Blumenson. Kasserine Pass. ISBN 0-8154-1099-9.
• Carlo D'Este (1996). Patton: A Genius for War. Harper-Collins. ISBN 9780060927622.
• Gugeler, Russell A. (2008). Major General Orlando Ward: Life of a Leader. Red Anvil Press. ISBN 978-1-932762-89-1.
• George F. Howe (1979). The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division. The Battery Press, Inc. ISBN 0-89839-025-7.
• Richard H. Johnson, Jr. (2009). Investigation into the Reliefs of Generals Orlando Ward and Terry Allen (PDF). US Army Command and General Staff College.

External links

• U.S. Army in World War II Series ("The Green Books")
• "Orlando Ward". Find a Grave. Retrieved 2008-07-31.
• Investigation into the Reliefs of Generals Orlando Ward and Terry Allen