Carl A. Spaatz

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Carl Spaatz

Carl Andrew "Tooey" Spaatz (born June 28, 1891 in Boyertown , Berks County , Pennsylvania , † July 14, 1974 in Washington , District of Columbia) was a 4-star general in the US Air Force and from 1947 to 1948 its first Chief of Staff . During the Second World War , he served as supreme commander in the Allied invasion of Italy , the invasion of Normandy and the Pacific War, and in the bombing of German military and industrial plants. He gave the orders for the atomic bombs to be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki . He is the only general who was present both at the signing of the surrender of the Wehrmacht in Reims and Berlin and at the surrender of the Italian army as well as at the signing of the surrender of Japan on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

Origin, training and beginning of the military career

Spaatz was born as Carl Andrew Spatz as a descendant of German immigrants. In 1937 he added a second "a" to his name for better pronunciation (instead of spats or spots in English, now spoken like the "a" in father ).

He attended the US Military Academy at West Point and graduated in 1914. After a brief service in the infantry, he moved to the Aviation Section of the US Army Signal Corps in October 1915 . There he served in 1916 under General John J. Pershing in the First Aero Squadron during a military mission in Mexico. In July 1916 he became First Lieutenant and in May 1917 Captain .

First World War

Spaatz commanded the 31st Aero Squadron during World War I and directed the training of the American Aviation School in Issoudun , France . Towards the end of the war he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) for three kills and his service with the 13th Aero Squadron . In June 1918 he was then promoted to Brevet Major . His assistant became Captain (later Major General) Charles Willoughby .

Interwar years

From February 1920 he held the rank of captain again, before he finally received the rank of major in July. Between January 1 and 7, 1929, he set a flight record when he and Captain Ira Eaker kept the Question Mark test machine in the air for 150 hours in the Los Angeles area . From August 1935 he attended a course at the Staff College ( United States Army Command and General Staff College ) Fort Leavenworth in Kansas , which he signed in June 1936th In September 1935 he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel .

Second World War

The focus is on air warfare

During World War II he worked on the staff under Major General Henry H. Arnold in Europe. First he was sent to England in November 1939 as an observer with the Army Air Corps , now with the temporary rank of colonel . From May 1942 he was in command of the 8th US Air Fleet and thus head of the US Air Force operations in the European theater of war. They consisted largely of long-range bombers of type Boeing B-17 , the Flying Fortresses (Flying Fortress) of which were built during the war about 12,000. In December 1942 he became the commander of the 12th Air Fleet in North Africa and in February 1943 the command of the entire Allied Air Force in North Africa ( Allied Northwest African Air Force ). He later became Deputy Commander in Chief of the Mediterranean Air Command under Arthur Tedder . In January 1944 he took command of the US Strategic Air Forces in Europe , with the commanders of the 8th Air Fleet (stationed in England) Lieutenant General Jimmy Doolittle and the 15th Air Fleet (stationed in Italy) Lieutenant General Nathan F. Twining among himself. He was u. a. responsible for the long-range bombers, which were supposed to disrupt German supplies and war production as part of the Combined Bomber Offensive and, if possible, destroy them. From July 1945 he led the US Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific from Guam with the rank of general , the strategic bombing of Japan, which finally culminated in the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki .

Reviews of his decisions

His strategic decisions have not been undisputed. Against the objections of the British, he insisted on daytime attacks by the American bomber fleet against the German targets, even at the price of higher own losses, in order to be able to concentrate the attacks more closely together with the Royal Air Force. Contrary to the official general order to attack mainly German supply lines, he insisted on attacking German oil production directly and had the Romanian oil fields and the German hydrogenation plants bombed.

He fully supported the objective of the two atomic bombs.

post war period

In July 1945 President Truman nominated him for permanent promotion to general . In February 1946 he became Commanding General of the Army Air Forces or, after their regrouping, first Chief of Staff of the US Air Force created in 1947. In June 1948 he retired with the rank of general. After that he was u. a. served on the Advisory Board of the General Staff of the US Air Force from 1952 until his death in 1974 and was editor of Newsweek for military issues until 1961 .

He was married and had daughters.

Spaatz was buried in the United States Air Force Academy cemetery in Colorado Springs , Colorado .

Awards

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

Dwight D. Eisenhower said of Carl Spaatz that Carl Spaatz and Omar N. Bradley were the two US generals who contributed most to the victory in Europe .

In 1967 he was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame .

The highest award today for the Civil Air Patrol 's Cadets is the General Carl A. Spaatz Award . Carl A. Spaatz Field was called the Reading ( Pennsylvania ) airfield . There is the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum there . The Carl A. Spaatz Center at Air University and the Antarctic Spaatz Island are also named after him.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Carl A. Spaatz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.bridica.com/EBchecked/topic/557304/Carl-Spaatz
personal data
SURNAME Spaatz, Carl A.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sparrow Carl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American general
DATE OF BIRTH June 28, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Boyertown , Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH July 14, 1974
Place of death Colorado Springs , Colorado