Alan G. Kirk

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Alan G. Kirk aboard the USS Ancon (July 1943)

Alan Goodrich Kirk (born October 30, 1888 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , † October 15, 1963 in New York City ) was an American admiral and diplomat . He was Commander in Chief of the Western Naval Task Force in the Allied Landing in Normandy in 1944 and in October 1944 US Commander in Chief of the Navy in France. After the war he served as the United States Ambassador to Belgium and as an envoy in Luxembourg (1946–1949) and then as ambassador to the Soviet Union (until 1952) and from 1962 to 1963 in the Republic of China (Taiwan) .

Life

Youth, joining the army and pre-war

Alan G. Kirk was born in Philadelphia on October 30, 1888. In 1909 he graduated at the United States Naval Academy and then served on a gunboat of the US Navy in China . During the First World War , he oversaw tests at the US Navy training ground in Maryland . In the early 1920s he was a consultant in the White House .

On June 7, 1939, Kirk, meanwhile a captain , reached the British capital London as a naval attaché , where the press described him as " discreet, personable, and leanly academic " (German: " prudent, respectable and not very academic "). When he returned to Washington in 1940 , he had gathered a lot of important information from the Royal Navy . At the end of the year, Kirk became Chief of Naval Intelligence , which he remained until March of the following year. Later a little more than six months him command was a destroyer division passed, after which he in November to Rear Admiral ( Rear Admiral was promoted).

Second World War

left to right: Alan G. Kirk, Omar N. Bradley , Arthur Struble , Hugh Keen

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Kirk was criticized, along with a few others, for suspected failure of the reconnaissance, but was transferred to London in March 1942 as Chief of Staff of the Commander-in-Chief of the US Naval Forces in Europe, Harold R. Stark . He was then the commander of the amphibious forces of the Atlantic Fleet in Great Britain until 1943 .

In Operation Husky , Kirk commanded the Central Naval Task Force , which Admiral H. Kent Hewitt and General George S. Patton viewed as the most important of the task forces, and successfully led Troy H. Middleton and his 45th Infantry Division on July 10, 1943 Country. His men recorded only 90 losses. Kirk received the Legion of Merit for his service in the Operation .

After several planning conferences in England, Kirk was appointed Commander in Chief of the Western Naval Task Force in Operation Overlord on February 20, 1944 . The Western Naval Task Force was split into two subgroups. Forces U and O should start in Dartmouth and Weymouth and approach the American beach sectors. They were to operate with the 1st US Army under Lieutenant General Omar N. Bradley on the landing beaches of Omaha and Utah Beach . The convoys for Utah and Omaha Beach consisted of a total of 16 attack force transports (→ naval warfare during Operation Overlord ). The naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison described Kirk: “ the key American Naval figure in Neptune-Overlord. "(German:" the American key figure in [the operation] Neptune / Overlord "). In October 1944, a few months after he was promoted to Vice Admiral, Kirk took command of the US Navy in France .

post war period

Kirk resigned from the US Navy as an admiral on March 1, 1946 and served, among other things, as ambassador to Belgium and envoy to Luxembourg until 1949 , after US President Harry S. Truman had nominated him for it. He was also the US representative during the United Nations Special Conference in the Balkans . He was then Ambassador to Moscow from 1949 to 1952 after his predecessor Walter Bedell Smith fell ill, and from 1962 to 1963 in the Republic of China. In 1952 he was President of the American Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia for a few months .

Alan G. Kirk died on October 15, 1963 in a hospital in New York. He was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery . His wife Lydia Chapin Kirk (1896–1983) is buried next to him.

The US Navy named the frigate USS Kirk after him.

literature

  • Mark M. Boatner III: The Biographical Dictionary of World War II , Presidio Press, Novato, 1996, ISBN 0-89141-624-2
  • Barrett Tillman: Brassey's D-Day Encyclopedia: The Normandy Invasion - A to Z , Potomac Books Inc., 2004, Virginia, ISBN 1-57488-761-0
  • David MacGregor: Kirk, Alan Goodrich In: American National Biography Online , February 2000
  • Papers of Alan G. Kirk, Operational Archives Branch, Naval Historical Center, Washington, DC
  • Clark G. Reynolds: Famous American Admirals. - New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1978 (reprint Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, February 2002. - ISBN 1-55750-006-1 )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Current Biography Yearbook 1944 , quoted from: Mark M. Boatner III: The Biographical Dictionary of World War II , Presidio Press, Novato, 1996, ISBN 0-89141-624-2 , p. 280
  2. ^ Barrett Tillman: Brassey's D-Day Encyclopedia: The Normandy Invasion - A to Z , Potomac Books Inc., 2004, Virginia, ISBN 1-57488-761-0 , 131
  3. ^ Hoover institution: "Radio Liberty: 50 years" ( Memento of July 14, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
predecessor Office successor
Charles W. Sawyer US Ambassador to Brussels
April 1, 1946–6. May 1949 		Robert Murphy
Walter Bedell Smith US Ambassador to Moscow
July 4, 1949–6. October 1951 		George F. Kennan
Everett F. Drumright US Ambassador to Taipei
July 5, 1962-18. January 1963 		Jerauld Wright
personal data
SURNAME Kirk, Alan G.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kirk, Alan Goodrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American admiral and diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH October 30, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia , Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH October 15, 1963
Place of death New York City