Barksdale Hamlett

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General Barksdale Hamlett

Barksdale Hamlett, Jr. (born December 30, 1908 in Hopkinsville , Christian County , Kentucky , † August 26, 1979 in Washington, DC ) was an American general in the US Army who served, among other things, from 1957 to 1959 during the Berlin- Crisis commander of the American sector of Berlin and between 1962 and 1964 Vice Chief of the General Staff of the Army ( Vice Chief of Staff of the Army ) was.

Life

Military training and time until World War II

Hamlett, son of Barksdale Hamlett and his wife Daisy Crume Hamlett, was accepted to attend the US Naval Academy in Annapolis after graduating from Adair County High School in Columbia in 1925 , but then began his officer training at the US Military Academy in West Point in 1926 , which he completed in 1930. At the same time he was promoted to lieutenant (Second Lieutenant) and transferred to the field artillery. First he served in the C battery of the 2nd Infantry Division's 12th Field Artillery Regiment in Fort Sam Houston and then as a vehicle officer and deputy battery chief of the 11th Field Artillery Regiment belonging to the Hawaii Division in the Schofield Barracks . In 1932 he was transferred to the 18th field artillery regiment in Fort Sill , where he was first assistant communications officer, before he attended a course and a special course for vehicle officers at the US Army Field Artillery School there in 1933 . He then worked at Fort Sam Houston from 1936 to 1939, successively vehicle officer and then adjutant of the 15th field artillery regiment and, most recently, aide-de-camp of Brigadier General Lesley J. McNair .

1939 Hamlett became the first balloon squadron of the US Army Air Corps on the belonging to Fort Sill military airport Henry Post Army Airfield reassigned, and completed various courses balloonist. After that he was shooting instructor at the local US Army Field Artillery School and in 1940 for Captain (Captain) promoted after one such promotion was necessarily provided as a result of new legislation after at least ten years of service.

Second World War

After the attack on Pearl Harbor and the associated entry of the USA into the Second World War on December 8, 1941, Hamlett became an artillery officer in the II. US Corps. In 1942 he took part in the landing of Béthioua near Oran as an officer in the 1st Infantry Division as part of the Allied invasion of North Africa . For his services there he was awarded the Silver Star on July 9, 1943 . In 1943 he returned to the USA at the request of the current commander of the ground forces (US Army Ground Forces) , Lieutenant General McNair, where he was responsible for training the divisions, corps and armies stationed in the USA in preparation for a transfer abroad. He was then transferred to the headquarters of the US Army Ground Forces in Washington, DC, in order to write a manual on the principles for corps artillery units based on his observations in North Africa. Most recently, after General McNair was fatally wounded on July 25, 1944 at Saint-Lô , he was Assistant General Staff Officer (G 3) of the US Army Ground Forces until September 1944 .

Following moved Hamlett in September 1944 as commander of the artillery units to the Major General John L. Pierce commanded the 16th Armored Division ( 16th Armored Division ) and received as such the brevet of colonel. With this unit after he took part in lighter skirmishes in Germany and Czechoslovakia and later in the liberation of Pilsen on May 6, 1945 and the siege of Prague . After the division was transferred to the Sudetes , he became the military governor of a district that consisted of 187 parishes and villages. After the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht on May 8, 1945, the artillery units of the 16th Panzer Division were merged to form the 190th Field Artillery Group to take part in the planned Operation Downfall , the Allied invasion of the Japanese Empire . He was in command of this group until the surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945.

Postwar and Korean War

At the beginning of the Korean War, Hamlett was largely responsible for the logistical planning of the landing at Incheon on September 15, 1950

After the end of the Second World War, Hamlett completed a course of study at the École militaire in Paris between 1945 and 1946 and, after his return to the USA in 1946, became the head of the shooting department of the US Army Field Artillery School in Fort Sill, before taking another course between 1948 and 1949 from the National War College (NWC) at Fort Lesley J. McNair . In December 1949 he was transferred to the headquarters of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers in occupied Japan ( Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers ) , General Douglas MacArthur , and was there as staff officer for logistics (G 4). For his achievements there, he was awarded the Legion of Merit . During the Korean War in 1951 he became head of the supply department and later head of the planning department (G 4). In this role he was largely responsible for the logistical planning of the landing at Incheon . In the further course of the Korean War, he took over the post of artillery commander of the 24th Infantry Division in December 1951 and was honored with another Legion of Merit for his military services in this function.

1952 Hamlett was appointed Brigadier General (Brigadier-General) promoted and assistant for planning coordination in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army of Planning. In 1955 he returned to Europe and became the commander of the artillery of the VII US Corps ( VII Corps ) stationed in Germany , the so-called "The Jayhawk Corps". In May 1956 he received his promotion to Major General (Major-General) and took over the post as commander in Würzburg stationed 10th Infantry Division ( 10th Infantry Division ) .

Commander of the American Sector of Berlin and the Berlin Crisis in 1958

On June 4, 1957, Hamlett succeeded Major General Charles L. Dasher as Commander of the American Sector of Berlin and remained in this position until December 15, 1959, whereupon Major General Ralph M. Osborne took over on December 20, 1959.

During his tenure, the Berlin crisis fell on November 27, 1958, when the Soviet Union under Nikita S. Khrushchev sent a note to the three western occupying powers of Berlin , the USA , Great Britain and France . The note announced that the Soviet Union would transfer control of the routes between West Germany and West Berlin to the GDR if a Four Power Agreement were not reached within six months , with which West Berlin would be transformed into a Free City would. This note linked the Berlin , Germany and disarmament issues . In October 1959, the government of the GDR announced its intention to hoist the GDR flag at 78 railway stations in the western sector after the rail journeys were made by the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR).

In November 1959, Hamlett, as chairman of the western allied three-power command, informed the representative of the Soviet control commission in Berlin, Marshal Matwei W. Sakharov , that if the GDR flag was raised in the western sector, the West German police would remove it and in the event that these were prevented, Allied troops would take over and the Soviet Union would be held responsible for any resulting unrest. The GDR government revoked its plans three days later while he was being dismissed from his post as American Sector Commander.

General and Vice Chief of Staff of the Army

After his return to the United States in 1960 Hamlett of assistive Deputy Chief of Staff in January of the army for military operations (Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff of the United States Army for military operations) , and then in January 1961 Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army (Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army) and received as such in March 1961 was promoted to Lieutenant General (Lieutenant General) .

On April 1, 1962 Hamlett became the General promoted and took over as successor to General Clyde D. Eddleman the post of Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Army ( Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army ) . As such, he was deputy to General Earle Wheeler , Chief of Staff of the Army , and during this time he played a key role in establishing the US Assault Command along with General Curtis E. LeMay , Chief of Staff of the Air Force STRICOM ( United States Strike Command ) . At the same time he played a key role in the operations in the Cuban Missile Crisis and in the beginning of the Vietnam War . In March 1964 he suffered a serious heart attack and retired on September 3, 1964 from active military service, whereupon General Creighton W. Abrams became the new Vice Chief of Staff of the Army . On August 24, 1964, he was awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal for his services .

After his retirement, Hamlett served as President of Norwich University - The Military College of Vermont, founded in 1819, from 1965 to his resignation in 1972, and as President of the Retired Officers Association from 1974 to 1975.

Hamlett was married to Frances Valencia Underwood Hamlett and was buried in the US Military Academy cemetery after his death.

Awards

Selection of awards, sorted based on the Order of Precedence of Military Awards :

Web links

  • Entry in the Hall of Valor

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dieter Krüger, On the Abyss? The Age of Alliances: North Atlantic Alliance and Warsaw Pact 1947 to 1991. Fulda 2013, p. 69 f.
personal data
SURNAME Hamlett, Barksdale
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hamlett, Barksdale, Jr. (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American officer, general in the US Army
DATE OF BIRTH December 30, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Hopkinsville , Christian County , Kentucky
DATE OF DEATH August 26, 1979
Place of death Washington, DC