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d o g f a c e  s o l d i e r   V I P s

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surf section : Jacob Devers || Alexander Patch
MARK W. CLARK || Lucian K. Truscott Jr.
Edward H. Brooks || John W. O'Daniel
John E. Dahlquist || William W. Eagles
Jean de Lattre || Sir Harold Alexander
George C. Marshall || Audie L. Murphy
Keith L. Ware || Lucian Adams
Russell E. Dunham || Wilburn K. Ross
John J. Tominac || James P. Connor
David C. Waybur || Otto Skorzeny
Hiroshi Oshima
_______________________________________

3rd Division Patch      « «   RETREAT  |||  ADVANCE   » »

Mark Clark - 5th Army WWII
 
 

5th Army



Mark W. Clark

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MARK WAYNE CLARK graduated West Point as 110th in a class of 139 in 1917 and commissioned a second lieutenant assigned to the infantry. In WWI Clark saw action with the 11th Infantry in France, where he was wounded in action and later decorated for bravery.

Clark graduated from the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1935, and served as deputy chief of staff for the Civilian Conservation Corps, VII Corps area at Omaha, Nebraska, prior to entering the Army War College.

In 1940 Clark seved as a lieutenant colonel at Fort Lewis, Washington. He was a close acquaintance with George Marshall and a longtime friend of Dwight D. Eisenhower. In August 1941, Clark was named assistant chief of staff for operations of the general headquarters, U.S. Army, and a month after the American entry into the war, Clark was appointed deputy chief of staff of Army Ground Forces, and less than six months later, chief of staff.

In October 1942, Clark became deputy commander in chief of the Allied Forces in the North African Theater and subsequently planned the invasion of North Africa. Prior to the invasion, he made a secret trip by submarine to the North African coast to meet with friendly French officers in the German-occupied territories. As deputy commander of Anglo-American invasion forces, Clark took into protective custody the opportunistic Adm. Jean Francois Darlan, the highest-ranking French officer in French North Africa, and induced him to renounce the Vichy government.

In 1943, Clark commanded the Fifth Army in the Italian Campaign, the first to be activated in the European Theater, leading the force in the capture of Naples October 1, 1943, and Rome on June 4, 1944. As commander of the 15th Army Group, comprised of American and British forces, he accepted the surrender of German forces in Italy and Austria in May 1945. In June of that year he was appointed commander in chief of the U.S. occupation forces in Austria, and U.S. high commissioner for Austria. In June 1947, Clark returned home and assumed command of the Sixth Army, headquartered at the Presidio in San Francisco, and two years later was named chief of Army Field Forces.

While he was much admired by his personal staff, others found him self-seeking, vainglorious, arrogant, and too concerned about gaining publicity. In 1948, his superior, General Jacob L. Devers, chief of Army Field Forces, evaluated Clark as "a cold, distinguished, conceited, selfish, clever, intellectual, resourceful officer" and "very ambitious". Devers also noted that Clark "secures excellent results quickly" and gave him a "superior" performance rating. Although he held some of his British wartime counterparts in contempt, Clark managed to impress Churchill and other European leaders. Charles DeGaulle, oddly, called him "simple and direct", and Clark's blunt appraisal of the Soviets and his well-publicized calls for greater American military preparedness in the early years of the Cold War earned him more admirers than critics during his service in Austria.

Following the removal of General Douglas MacArthur, Clark was named commander in chief, U.N. Command, and commanding general, U.S. Army Forces Far East on April 30, 1952, succeeding Lieutenant General Matthew B. Ridgway.

On his arrival in Tokyo in May 1952, Clark was confronted with the military deadlock in Korea along the 38th Parallel and the stalled Armistice negotiations with the North Koreans. Clark advocated an offensive that would have included attacks on bases across the Yalu River, but his plan, which would have widened the war, was not approved.

Clark relinquished his Far East command October 7, 1953, and retired from the service at the end of that month. He accepted the presidency of The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, a post he held until his retirement in 1955, when he was named president emeritus.

He wrote his memoirs, From the Danube to the Yalu in 1954 and spoke frequently on the threat of Communism and the need for greater U.S. military preparedness. In the 1960s, he renewed his friendship with Eisenhower that had been strained during the Korean War.

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