Samuel D. Rockenbach

Brigadier General Samuel D. Rockenbach around 1918

Samuel Dickerson Rockenbach (born January 27, 1869 in Lynchburg , Virginia , † May 16, 1952 in Washington, DC ) was an American officer in the United States Army , most recently Brigadier General , who led the Tank Corps, AEF and during World War I. is considered the father of the US tank weapon.

Life

Rockenbach was born the son of a former lieutenant in the Confederate Army and graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1889 . He received his patent as 2nd lieutenant in the cavalry in 1891 .

In the Spanish-American War of 1898 he served with the 10th Cavalry (" Buffalo Soldiers ") in Cuba and Puerto Rico , then in the Philippines and various other posts abroad. From 1905 to 1910 he served on the staff of the Philippines Division , where he was responsible for matters relating to the Philippine Scouts .

Shortly after the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Captain Rockenbach, who spoke fluent German, became an observer in the German Army . Due to the deteriorating diplomatic relations with the German Reich, he was recalled in the spring of 1915. He served in 1916 with the rank of major as Quartermaster General Pershing in the Mexican Expedition .

Pershing, who was impressed by Rockenbach's achievements in Mexico, chose him for his staff after the USA entered the war and his appointment as commander of the AEF in the spring of 1917.

In France, Rockenbach was initially quartermaster of Base Section No. 1 in Saint-Nazaire . In December 1917 he was appointed commander of the Tank Corps, AEF at the AEF headquarters in Chaumont . His most important collaborator was the then Captain and later General George S. Patton . Together they laid the organizational and tactical foundations of the tank corps and provided for the formation and training of a force that was to grow to a strength of 12,000 men by the end of the war. Rockenbach personally led the operations of a more than 400 vehicle strong tank formation, consisting of Patton's 1st Tank Brigade and a French assault artillery brigade , in the battles of St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne . After the war ended, the Brigadier General downgraded him to his pre-war rank of Colonel .

In July 1919 Rockenbach was recalled to the States, where he replaced Ira C. Welborn as head of the US Army Tank Corps. At the same time he was the site commander and head of the Armored Force School at Camp Meade , Maryland. The dissolution of the Tank Corps as a separate branch of service in 1920 forced him to join the infantry in order to keep his post at Camp Meade. Numerous subordinate officers, including Patton, left the site in frustration during this time. Despite the crushing budget cuts by Congress, Rockenbach attempted to develop a new medium tank model for the Army in the 1920s, but all models projected by the Ordnance Department proved unsuccessful. He also advocated the gradual transformation of the outdated branch of cavalry into a modern armored force. In 1924 he was replaced by James K. Parsons in Camp Meade and took over command of the Washington Military District. From 1927 to 1928 he commanded the 2nd Cavalry Brigade at Fort Bliss , then the 2nd Field Artillery Brigade at Fort Sam Houston until his retirement in January 1933 .

Rockenbach retired in Brownsville and died in 1952 at the age of 83 in the Walter Reed Military Hospital . He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery .

literature

• Robert S. Cameron: Mobility, Shock, and Firepower: The Emergence of the US Army's Armor Branch, 1917-1945. Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington, DC 2008.

Web links

• Samuel D. Rockenbach in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• Index to the Samuel D. Rockenbach Papers on the Virginia Military Institute website