Jonathan M. Wainwright

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jonathan M. Wainwright after his liberation in August 1945.
Douglas MacArthur (seated) signs the Japanese document of surrender. Behind him Wainwright and Arthur Percival .

Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright (born August 2, 1883 in Fort Walla Walla , Washington , USA ; † September 2, 1953 in San Antonio , Texas (USA)) was an American military man and general in the American Army .

Life

Wainwright's ancestors served in the US military . His father was a cavalry - officer and commanded a squadron during the Battle of Santiago in the Spanish-American War .

After Jonathan Wainwright graduated from the West Point Military Academy in 1906 , he was sent to the Philippines in 1909 . In 1918 he was promoted to assistant to the chief of staff of the 82nd US Infantry Division and temporarily served in Koblenz . He later held this post with the 3rd US Army , which was stationed in Germany. In 1920 Wainwright was promoted to major . In 1936 he took over the 3rd Cavalry Regiment in Fort Myers , Virginia .

Two years later, Wainwright rose to brigadier general and returned to the Philippines to serve under General Douglas MacArthur . There he was given command of the troops in northern Luzon .

When the Japanese began the Battle of the Philippines on December 8, 1941 , Jonathan Wainwright and Douglas MacArthur were still preparing their own troops for a possible attack by the Japanese army . The invasion of the islands, which began in the following days, could not be repulsed by the Allied troops. They retired to the peninsula Bataan before the Bay of Manila back. While General MacArthur had to go to Australia on a speedboat - on the direct orders of the American President - Wainwright stayed with his troops. He capitulated on May 6, 1942, was captured there and had to take part in the Bataan death march with his soldiers . After a short stay in a camp in the Philippines, the Japanese took him to Formosa , which was then part of Japan, and finally to Manchukuo , where he remained in captivity until the end of World War II . After the Japanese surrender , he took part in the ceremony on September 2, 1945 on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay . Shortly afterwards he accepted the Japanese declaration of surrender in the Philippines. For his actions during the conquest of the Philippines by the Japanese and during his captivity, Jonathan Wainwright received the Medal of Honor on September 19, 1945 from the hands of then President Harry S. Truman .

On September 5, 1945, Wainwright was promoted to general and commanded the 4th US Army from January 1946 . He left the US Army two years later on August 31, 1947 and retired to San Antonio , Texas . There he died on September 2, 1953 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Since May 1946 Wainwright was a member of the Union of Freemasons and Shriners , his Lodge Union Lodge No. 7. is located in Junction City, Kansas.

Awards

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

Other honors

The following institutions and streets bear his name:

Movie

In the film MacArthur: Hero of the Pacific , his role is played by Sandy Kenyon.

Works

literature

  • Edward Murphy: Heroes of WW II: True Stories of the Men Who Earned our Nation's Highest Award . Ballantine Books, New York 1990, ISBN 0-345-37545-9 .
  • Duane Schultz: Hero of Bataan: The Story of General Jonathan M. Wainwright . St Martin's Press, 1981, ISBN 0-312-37011-3 .

Web links

Commons : Jonathan M. Wainwright IV  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jonathan Wainwright, Forward: Harry S. Truman: 10,000 Famous Freemasons . Macoy Publishing, Volume 4: QZ 1957 Edition, pp. 405-406.
  2. ↑ Jonathan Wainwright, Macoy publishing: Online Scanned Copy of 10,000 Fremasons . In: Volume 4, 1957 edition . Phoenixmasonry.org. Retrieved July 31, 2012.
  3. ↑ Jonathan Wainwright: Famous Freemasons . Pinal Lodge No. 30. Archived from the original on December 24, 2011. Retrieved July 28, 2012.
  4. ↑ General Jonathan Wainwright: Grand Lodge of Kansas-Masons . In: Masons of Kansas . kansasmasons.org. Retrieved July 30, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Wainwright, Jonathan M.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wainwright, Jonathan Mayhew (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American military and general in the American army
DATE OF BIRTH August 2, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Fort Walla Walla , Washington , USA
DATE OF DEATH 2nd September 1953
Place of death San Antonio , Texas (USA)