Courtney Hodges

Hodges was born in Perry, Georgia, where his father published a small-town newspaper. He attended North Georgia Agricultural College (now known as the University of North Georgia) before transferring to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. He would have graduated with the Class of 1909, but he dropped out after just one year because of poor test scores ("found deficient" in mathematics).

In 1906 Hodges enlisted in the United States Army as a private and was assigned to Company L of the 17th Infantry. He quickly rose to the rank of sergeant and he received his commission as a second lieutenant in 1909 after performing well on a competitive examination. In his early career he served with future Army Chief of Staff George Marshall in the Philippines and future General George S. Patton in Mexico.

Hodges served with 6th Infantry Regiment, 5th Division, during World War I. He rose to lieutenant colonel and commander of a battalion in the 6th Infantry, in the St Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne campaigns of 1918 and earned the Distinguished Service Cross for heroism while leading an attack across the Marne River during the closing days of the war. After the war he was sufficiently well thought of that he became an instructor at West Point, even though he was not a West Point graduate.

After occupation duty in Germany, Hodges spent the years 1920 to 1924 on the staff at West Point before attending and graduating from the United States Army Command and General Staff College in 1925. He then served as an instructor at the Infantry School, Fort Benning, Georgia until 1926 and in a similar capacity at the Air Corps Tactical School at Maxwell field, Alabama until 1929.[2]

For the next four years, he worked as a member of the Infantry Broad at Fort Benning. Hodges then completed the United States Army War College in 1934. In 1938, he became an assistant commandant of the United States Army Infantry School. With his former mentor, George C. Marshall, now the War Department chief of staff Hodges became commandant of the Infantry School at Fort Benning in 1940.[2]

In May 1941 Hodges was promoted to major general. He was given various assignments, including Chief of Infantry, until he received command of the X Corps, which was stationed stateside, in 1942. In 1943, while commanding X Corps and then the Third Army, he was sent to England, where he served under the then commander of the First Army, Lieutenant General Omar Bradley.

During Operation Overlord in June and July 1944, Hodges served under Bradley as the deputy commander of the First Army. In August 1944, Hodges succeeded Bradley as the commander of First Army, taking over when Bradley moved up to command the 12th Army Group. Hodges served under the command of Bradley and General Dwight D. Eisenhower until Nazi Germany's surrender in May 1945.

Hodges's troops were the first ones to reach and liberate the French capital of Paris in large numbers, and then he led them through France, Belgium, and Luxembourg on their way to Germany.

During the failed British attack on Arnhem, Operation Market Garden, supply priority was given to the Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group, and the First Army was diverted to the north of the Ardennes to stage limited attacks to draw German defenders south, away from the target sites.

Hodges's troops had a major role in blunting the Wehrmacht's major counteroffensive in the Ardennes: the Battle of the Bulge. When the German advance cut the First Army off from the 12th Army Group and Bradley, his First Army was placed under the temporary command of the Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group, under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, along with Ninth United States Army, on 20 December 1944. The First Army reverted to the 12th Army Group on 17 January 1945.[4]

The Allied Army commanders hold a conference in a hayfield in Northwest France. Pictured are Lieutenant General Hodges, Lieutenant General Harry Crerar, commanding the Canadian First Army, General Sir Bernard Montgomery, commanding the Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group, Lieutenant General Omar Bradley, commanding the 12th Army Group, and Lieutenant General Miles Dempsey, commanding the British Second Army.

Before, during, and after the Battle of the Bulge, the First Army fought the Germans in the Battle of Aachen, and the parallel 5-month long Battle of Hurtgen Forest to the south of Aachen, as part of the main US effort to breach the Siegfried Line and advance through Germany to the Roer River. Hodges led first army to liberate most of Luxembourg in three days, from September 9 through to September 12, 1944. The city of Aachen was liberated on 22 October, but the German counter-offensive and the Battle of the Bulge took place before the other objectives could be completed. Once the Battle of the Bulge was won, the Hürtgen Forest was taken and on 10 February the Rur Dam was finally captured. The overall cost of the Siegfried Line Campaign in American personnel was close to 140,000.

The 9th Armored Division of the First Army captured the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen on 7 March 1945. The First Army was the first enemy of Germany to cross the Rhine since the Napoleonic Wars. By the time the bridge collapsed after 10 days, the First Army had built two heavy duty bridges across the Rhine and established a bridgehead 40 kilometers (25 mi) long, extending from Bonn in the north almost to Koblentz in the south, and 10 to 15 kilometers (6.2 to 9.3 mi) deep, occupied by five U.S. divisions. They advanced slowly, waiting for Montgomery and the 21st Army Group to launch Operation Plunder across the Rhine on 23 March.

A month later, Hodges's troops of the First Army met elements of the Soviet Red Army near Torgau on the Elbe River. Hodges was promoted to the rank of four-star general on April 15, 1945. He was only the second soldier in the history of the United States Army to make his way from private to general, the other being Walter Krueger who served in the Southwest Pacific Theater. Eisenhower referred to Hodges as the "spearhead and the scintillating star" of the United States advance into Germany, and sought to ensure that Hodges was properly recognised for his achievements despite "being seemingly overlooked by the headline writers."[5]

After the end of World War II in Europe on May 7, 1945, Hodges and the First Army were ordered to prepare to be sent the Pacific Theater for the proposed invasion of Japan in late 1945 to March 1946. However, that move became unnecessary when two atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, compelling Emperor Hirohito to order the defeated Japanese Empire to surrender immediately. The official surrender documents were signed in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. Hodges was one of the very few individuals present at the surrenders of both Nazi Germany in Reims, France, and of the Japanese Empire at Tokyo Bay.

After World War II, Hodges continued command of First Army at Fort Jay at Governors Island, New York, until his retirement in March 1949. He later acted as the Military Advisor to Sir Owen Dixon, United Nations Mediator to Kashmir.[6]

On June 22, 1928, Hodges married a young widow, Mildred Lee Hodges (Mildred Lee Buchner). He reportedly courted her by inviting her along to walk his dog and go shooting. They had no children.[3]

Hodges died in San Antonio, Texas, in 1966. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Section 2, Grave 890-A.

In Perry, Georgia, the State Route 7 Spur, a former section of U.S. Route 41/State Route 7, was named General Courtney Hodges Boulevard. A road in Dinant (Belgium) is named Avenue Général Hodges.

Although he possessed fine military reputation as a firm and skilled commander, Hodges was quiet and little known to his troops despite significant efforts to enhance his image and popularity. In his postwar memoirs, Omar Bradley who knew Hodges as well as anyone, wrote:

A spare, soft-voiced Georgian without temper, drama or visible emotion, Hodges was left behind in the European headline sweepstakes. He was essentially a millitary technician whose faultless techniques and tactical knowledge made him one of the most skilled craftsmen in my entire command. He probably knew as much about infantry and training as any man in the army. But he was unostentatious and retiring, Hodges occupied an almost anonymous role in the war. Yet as a general's general his stature among our U.S commanders was rivaled only by that of William H. Simpson. For Hodges successfully blended dexterity and common sense in such equal portions as to produce a magnificently balanced command. I had implicit faith in his judgement, in his skill and restraint. Of all my Army commanders he required the least supervision.[7]

Insignia	Rank	Component	Date
No insignia	Cadet	United States Military Academy	June 16, 1904 (Resigned June 17, 1905.)
Various	Enlisted	Regular Army	May 1, 1906
No insignia in 1909	Second lieutenant	Regular Army	November 13, 1909
	First lieutenant	Regular Army	July 1, 1916
	Captain	Regular Army	May 15, 1917
	Major	National Army	June 7, 1918
	Lieutenant colonel	National Army	October 31, 1918 [8]
	Major	Regular Army	July 1, 1920
	Lieutenant colonel	Regular Army	October 1, 1934
	Colonel	Regular Army	October 1, 1938
	Brigadier general	Regular Army	April 1, 1940
	Major general	Regular Army	May 1, 1941
	Lieutenant general	Army of the United States	February 16, 1943
	General	Army of the United States	April 15, 1945
	General	Retired List	March 31, 1949

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