Brehon B. Somervell

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Brehon Burke Somervell
May 9, 1892(1892-05-09) – February 13, 1955 (aged 62)
Image:Brehon Somervell.jpg
Nickname Bill
Place of birth Little Rock, Arkansas
Place of death Ocala, Florida
Allegiance United States of America
Service/branch United States Army
Years of service 1914–1948
Rank General
Commands held Army Service Forces
Battles/wars Punitive Expedition into Mexico, World War I, World War II
Awards Distinguished Service Cross
Distinguished Service Medal (3)
Legion of Merit (2)

Brehon Burke Somervell (May 9, 1892 — February 13, 1955) was a General in the United States Army and Commanding General of the Army Service Forces in World War II. As such he was responsible for the U.S. Army's logistics. Following his death, the Washington Post lauded him as "one of the ablest officers the United States Army has produced."[1]

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[edit] Early life

Somervell was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, the only child of William Taylor Somervell, a physician, and wife Mary (formerly Burke), a schoolteacher. The two of them opened Belcourt Seminary, a girl's finishing school in Washington, D.C. in 1909.

Appointed to the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York in 1910, Somervell graduated in sixth in the 1914 class of 107 cadets. Like other high-ranking cadets of the period, he was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers.

[edit] World War I

Somervell traveled to Europe for his graduation leave and was in Paris when World War I broke out. Reporting to the U.S. Embassy for volunteer duty, he took charge of refugee funds, doling out $1,000,000 to help U.S. citizens get back home.

On return to the United States, he was posted to an engineer battalion at Washington Barracks, DC. Scoring high marks in his Garrison Officers' School examinations, he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant on February 28, 1915. During General Pershing's Punitive Expedition into Mexico on 1916, he was for a time depot manager at Columbus, NM, the main logistical base of the expedition. Later, he joined the expedition in Mexico, working on roads and as a supply officer.

Promoted to Captain on May 15, 1917, he helped organize the 15th Engineers at Pittsburgh, PA. A railroad outfit, it became the first engineer regiment sent overseas in July, 1917. The 15th Engineers worked on a several construction projects, including a munitions dump at Mehun-sur-Yevre and a depot and regulating station at Is-sur-Tille. For his role, Somervell was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal and promoted to Major on August 15, 1917 and Lieutenant Colonel on October 1, 1918. While visiting some friends at the 89th Division, he volunteered his services to its chief of staff, Colonel John C. H. Lee, who accepted him as a temporary replacement for his Assistant Chief of Staff, G-3, in charge of operations, who had been captured. For leading a daring reconnaissance to inspect damage to a bridge in front of American lines, Somervell was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

The 89th Division returned to the United States in June 1919 but Somervell remained behind as Assistant Chief of Staff, G-4, in charge of supply, of the U.S. Third Army, and subsequently the American Forces in Germany, as it was re-designated on July 2, 1919. There, he met Anna Purnell, a YMCA volunteer. The two were married in August 1919. They had three children together, all daughters. Anna died in January, 1942. Somervell later married Mrs Louise Hampton Hartman, a former student at Belcourt in March 1943. While in Germany, Somervell also met Walker D. Hines, a prominent New York corporate lawyer, whom he assisted with a survey of shipping and navigation on the Rhine River. For his services as a staff officer, Somervell was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal and promoted to the permanent rank of major on July 1, 1920.

[edit] Between the Wars

Returning to the United States in July 1920, Somervell reverted to his permanent rank and was posted to the Office of the Chief of Engineers in Washington, D.C.. His outstanding war record earned him a place at the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, where he once again ranked near the top of his class. After graduation he was posted to the 1st New York Engineer District but soon obtained leave to assist Hines with a special study of navigation on the Rhine and Danube Rivers. He then attended the Army War College, marking him out as one of the Army's best and most promising officers.

From 1926 to 1930 he was District Engineer, Washington, D.C. Engineer District. As such he became involved in a conflict between proponents of the development of hydroelectric power through damming the Great Falls of the Potomac River and the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. Despite his advocacy, the falls remain undammed to this day. In 1933, he teamed up with Hines again, for an economic survey of Turkey, which culminated in a seven volume report. Named as District Engineer for Ocala, Florida, Somervell got behind a project to build the Cross Florida Barge Canal. Somervell became the natural choice to head the project but although president Franklin D. Roosevelt allocated emergency funds for the canal in 1935, opponents of the canal protested that the canal would cause sea water to seep into the ground water, and work was stopped a year later. In the meantime, he was finally promoted to Lieutenant Colonel August 1, 1935.

In 1936, Somervell was appointed as head of the Works Project Administration in New York City. Over the For three and a half years he spent $10,000,000 a month on depression relief works. He coped with the local politicians and labor leaders. He upheld the right of workers to form unions and improved relations with left-wing groups, once declaring that "I wouldn't know a Red if I saw one, and wouldn't do anything about it if I did". The biggest project was the construction of LaGuardia Airport.

[edit] World War II

In December 1940, Somervell was appointed as head of the Construction Division of the Quartermaster Corps, and was promoted to the temporary rank of Brigadier General on January 29, 1941. His immediate concern was the construction of a series of camps to house the draftees who were now pouring into the Army, which were scheduled for completion by April 1941. Reasoning that time was more important than money, Somervell pushed the project through to completion on time. The cost increased by $100 million but the job was completed on time. He was also responsible for constructing new facilities to hold stores and munitions, for which $700 million was allocated by December 1940. By February, he was responsible for a work force 485,000 people employed on military construction projects. By December, 375 projects had been completed and 320 were still underway, with a total value of $1.8 billion.

The best known of these projects was The Pentagon, an enormous office complex to house the War Department's 24,000 staff together in one building. On the afternoon of Thursday, July 17, 1941, Somervell gave Major Hugh J. Casey until Monday to design the building. Over that weekend, Casey and his staff roughed out the design for a four-story, five-sided structure, with an estimated cost of $33 million. President Roosevelt subsequently moved the site of the building, over Somervell's objections, but Somervell still pursued his own designs, making important changes, including the addition of a fifth storey. The outbreak of war led to a new urgency and by May 1942, some 13,000 workers were working around the clock on the building, which was completed in early 1943 at a cost of $63 million, costs having blown out due to the emphasis on speed and the additional floor.

Somervell hoped to become Chief of Engineers but was passed over in favor of Brigadier General Eugene Reybold, the Assistant Chief of Staff (G-4) on the War Department General Staff. Worse, Somervell's post was abolished on the transfer of the Construction Division to the Corps of Engineers. Somervell instead received Reybold's former assignment. As G-4, Somervell strove to implement President Roosevelt's war production goals against a rising tide of opinion that they were unattainable and impractical, yielding an unbalanced force.

Within weeks, however, the tables were turned. The Army Chief of Staff, General George Marshall, implemented sweeping changes to the War Department designed to greatly reduce the number of people reporting to him so as to free his time for planning and conducting a global war. Three huge new commands were created by Executive Order Number 9082 of February 28, 1942, "Reorganizing the Army and the War Department":[2] the Army Air Forces under Henry H. Arnold, the Army Ground Forces under Lesley J. McNair and the Services of Supply, under Somervell. As such, he was not only promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General over the heads of many more senior officers, but some of them now found themselves his subordinates, including Reybold. He was answerable to two men, the Chief of Staff, General Marshall, and the Under Secretary of War, Robert P. Patterson. Somervell built up a good working relationship with both, based on his ability to get things done.

The Services of Supply were renamed the Army Service Forces in March, 1943, as the term "supply" was felt to be too narrow a description of the broad range of logistic activities carried out by the organization.

Somervell was often accused of being stubborn, arrogant, and impatient. Some saw him as an empire-builder, who spent too much time feuding with other agencies. A 1943 attempt by Somervell to abolish the Technical Services failed amid false rumours that he was being considered for the post of Army Chief of Staff if General George Marshall was sent to Europe to command the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force. Somervell sometimes pushed extravagant "white-elephant" projects, such as Canol, which he continued long after the strategic imperative behind it had faded.

In the end, though, his contributions towered over his faults. Somervell understood logistics and its paramount importance in modern warfare, and he spared no effort to ensure that the American fighting man had all he needed for victory. General George C. Marshall and Secretary of War Henry Stimson both said in letters that they depended on Somervell,[3] and under-secretary of War Robert Patterson, awarding Somervell his third Distinguished Service Medal, said that "[i]n organizing and directing the world-wide supply lines on which our troops depended for their offensive power, General Somervell [had] performed a service without parallel in military history.[4]

[edit] Later life

Somervell retired from the Army on 30 April 1946 and moved back to Ocala, Florida. He accepted an offer to become president of Koppers, a Pittsburgh-based company that mined coal and manufactured and sold coal-based products. Applying the same managerial techniques that he had employed in the Army, he thoroughly reorganized the company, and doubled revenues and trebled profits over the next five years. He suffered a severe heart attack in September, 1954 and returned to his home Ocala to recuperate, and in early 1955 he decided to resign as president and withdraw from day-to-day operations. There, he died of a heart attack on February 13, 1955, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, overlooking his "brain child,"[5] the Pentagon.

[edit] Military career

[edit] Awards and decorations

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Steve Vogel, The Pentagon: a History 358 (2007).
  2. ^ Franklin D. Roosevelt: Executive Order 9082 Reorganizing the Army and the War Department
  3. ^ Vogel, supra, at 327-8.
  4. ^ Id. at 328.
  5. ^ Vogel, supra, at 358.

[edit] General references

  • Ohl, John Kennedy, Supplying the Troops: General Somervell and American Logistics in World War II, Northern Illinois Press, 1994
  • Millett, John D., The Organization and Role of the Army Service Forces, Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, 1954
  • "SOS", Time, June 15, 1942

[edit] External links