Courtney Hodges

Hodges was born in Perry, Georgia on 5 January 1887.^[2] He was the fourth of eight children.^[4] The Hodges family traces its roots back to England, and Hodges's branch arrived in America in 1750. After the American Revolution, they moved to Houston County, Georgia.^[5] Courtney's father, John, became the proprietor of the local newspaper, Houston Home Journal. Hodges attended Perry High School and graduated in 1903. Later, he enrolled at North Georgia Agricultural College (now known as the University of North Georgia). He became a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity.^[4]

After his first year at North Georgia, Hodges received an appointment to the United States Military Academy (USMA) in West Point, New York.^[4] He would have graduated with the class of 1909, but instead was dismissed from the Academy after his first year because he failed a geometry course.^[6] He then worked at a grocery store for a year.^[7]

In 1906, Hodges enlisted in the United States Army as a private and was assigned to Company L, 17th Infantry, at Fort McPherson, Georgia.^[7] He was promoted to the rank of sergeant, and in 1909 he performed well on the examination for prospective officers.^[8] He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Infantry in November, just a few months after his West Point classmates had graduated, and was assigned to the 13th Infantry.^[2][9] Early in his career, while stationed in the Philippines, he served with the future Army Chief of Staff, George C. Marshall, and later, while stationed in Mexico, he served with future General George S. Patton.^[4][10]

Hodges served at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, as well as in San Antonio, Texas, and the Philippine Islands.^[7] His first significant military operation was under the command of Brigadier General John J. Pershing, who led an expedition into Mexico to capture Pancho Villa after Villa had raided the town of Columbus, New Mexico in the spring of 1916.^[4]

Hodges served with the 6th Infantry Regiment, 5th Division, during World War I, which America entered in April 1917 (see American entry into World War I). He was promoted to lieutenant colonel and commanded a battalion in the 6th Infantry during the Saint-Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne campaigns of 1918.^[11] During the latter campaign, he led a scouting expedition across the Meuse River and penetrated the German lines, maintaining a bridgehead under 20 hours of constant enemy fire. His position became the leading point of the American advance across the Meuse.^[7] Over the course of the war, he earned the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism while leading an attack across the Marne River.^[12]

After occupation duty in Germany, Hodges spent the years 1920 to 1924 on the staff at West Point before attending and graduating from the United States Army Command and General Staff College in 1925.^[13][14] He then served as an instructor at the United States Army Infantry School, Fort Benning, Georgia, until 1926, and in a similar capacity at the Air Corps Tactical School at Maxwell Field, Alabama, until 1929.^[2][13]

For the next four years, he was a member of the Infantry Board at Fort Benning. Hodges then completed the United States Army War College in 1934. In 1938, he became an assistant commandant of the Army Infantry School before becoming commandant in 1940.^[2] While he was there, he formed a friendship with Omar Bradley, who would feature prominently in Hodges's future military career.^[13]

In May 1941, Hodges was promoted to major general. He was given various assignments, including Chief of Infantry, until he received command of X Corps, which was stationed in the USA, in 1942. In 1943, having been promoted to lieutenant general, he continued to command X Corps and then the Third Army. When the Third Army moved from the United States to England for the projected invasion of Europe, command of the army passed to General George Patton. Hodges was named deputy commanding general of the First Army under Lieutenant General Omar Bradley.^[15]

During Operation Overlord in June and July 1944, Hodges served under Bradley as the deputy commander of the First Army. In August 1944, Hodges succeeded Bradley as the commander of the First Army, taking over when Bradley moved up to command the 12th Army Group. Hodges served under the command of Bradley and General Dwight D. Eisenhower until Nazi Germany's surrender in May 1945. By the time he took command, "it was the largest and most experienced American field army on the Western Front. Consisting of the V, VII, and XIX Corps and controlling nine divisions, it had approximately 250,000 men."^[16]

Hodges's First Army advanced across France to assist in the liberation of Paris on 25 August 1944,^[17] before advancing through France, Belgium, and Luxembourg on its way to Germany. His troops were the first Allied forces to penetrate Germany, reaching the German border northwest of Trier on 11 September 1944. The first unit to do so was the 5th Armored Division, part of Major General Leonard T. Gerow's V Corps.^[18]

Hodges's troops had a major role in halting the Wehrmacht's major counteroffensive in the Ardennes: the Battle of the Bulge. When the German advance cut the First Army off from Bradley's 12th Army Group, his First Army was placed under the temporary command of the Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group, commanded by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, along with Ninth United States Army, on 20 December 1944. The First Army reverted to the 12th Army Group a few weeks later, on 17 January 1945.^[19][20]

Before, during, and after the Battle of the Bulge, the First Army fought the Germans in the Battle of Aachen and in the parallel five-month-long Battle of Hürtgen Forest to the southeast of Aachen, as part of the main U.S. effort to breach the Siegfried Line and advance through Germany to the Roer River. Hodges led the First Army in liberating most of Luxembourg in three days, from 9 to 12 September 1944. The city of Aachen was captured on 22 October, but the German counteroffensive in the Ardennes and the Battle of the Bulge took place before the army's other objectives could be completed. After the Battle of the Bulge, the Hürtgen Forest was secured, and on 10 February the Rur Dam was finally captured. The Siegfried Line campaign cost American forces nearly 140,000 casualties.

By 7 March 1945, the 9th Armored Division of the First Army had captured the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen.^[21][22] The First Army was the first Allied army to cross the Rhine since the Napoleonic Wars. By the time the bridge collapsed 10 days later, the First Army had built two heavy-duty bridges across the Rhine and established a bridgehead 40 kilometers (25 mi) long, extending from Bonn in the north almost to Koblenz in the south, and 10 to 15 kilometers (6.2 to 9.3 mi) deep, held by five U.S. divisions. The army then advanced slowly while waiting for Montgomery and the 21st Army Group to launch Operation Plunder across the Rhine on 23 March.

Together with the U.S. Ninth Army, the First Army encircled over 300,000 German troops in the Battle of Ruhr Pocket.^[23][24] A month later, Hodges's troops of the First Army met elements of the Soviet Red Army near Torgau on the Elbe River.^[23] Hodges was promoted to the rank of four-star general on 15 April 1945,^[25] thus becoming the first of two soldiers in the history of the United States Army to advance from private to general, the other being Walter Krueger, who served in the Southwest Pacific Theater. Bradley later wrote that Hodges and the First Army deserved significant credit for their performance during the conflict.

Eisenhower described Hodges as a central figure in the United States' advance into Germany and noted that his contributions were sometimes less prominently highlighted in the contemporary media than those of his peers.^[26][25]

After the end of World War II in Europe on 7 May 1945, Hodges and the First Army were ordered to prepare to be sent to the Pacific Theater for the proposed invasion of Japan from late 1945 to March 1946. However, that move became unnecessary when the Empire of Japan surrendered, with the official surrender documents signed in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945. Hodges was one of the few individuals present at the surrenders of both Nazi Germany in Reims, France, and the Empire of Japan in Tokyo Bay.^[25]

• 
  Lt. Gen. Courtney Hodges
• 
  U.S. Army General Courtney Hodges (left) greets Soviet Army Major General Gleb Baklanov (right) after the meeting of Soviet and U.S. forces on the Elbe

After World War II, Hodges continued in command of the First Army at Fort Jay on Governors Island, New York, until his retirement in March 1949. He later served as military adviser to Sir Owen Dixon, United Nations mediator to Kashmir.^[27]

On 22 June 1928, Hodges married Mildred Lee Buchner, a young widow. He reportedly courted her by inviting her along to walk his dog and go shooting. They had no children.^[28]

Hodges died in San Antonio, Texas, in 1966. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Section 2, Grave 890-A.

In Perry, Georgia, the State Route 7 Spur, a former section of U.S. Route 41/State Route 7, was named General Courtney Hodges Boulevard. A road in Dinant (Belgium) is named Avenue Général Hodges. In Maastricht (Netherlands), the Generaal Hodgesstraat is named after him.

Although he possessed a military reputation as a firm and skilled commander, Hodges was quiet and little known to his troops despite significant efforts to enhance his image. Eisenhower characterized General Courtney Hodges as a leader of the United States' military advance into Germany. Eisenhower even worked to ensure that Hodges received recognition for his command, also noting that Hodges appeared to receive less attention from contemporary news media than other military figures.^[26][25] In his postwar memoirs, Omar Bradley, who knew Hodges as well as anyone, described him as a quiet Georgian whose tactical knowledge and infantry expertise made him one of the most skilled commanders among Bradley's commanders. Bradley wrote that only William H. Simpson rivaled Hodges among U.S. commanders, and that "of all my Army commanders he required the least supervision."^[29]

Hodges has been criticized for his performance during the Battle of Hürtgen Forest. British historian Jonathan Trigg called it one of the "most ill-conceived and unnecessary offensives of the whole northwest Europe campaign", adding that Hodges "lacked tactical imagination" and that "it was a miracle that he retained Eisenhower’s confidence."^[30]

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  Headstone in Arlington National Cemetery
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  Composite portrait of General Hodges at the Museum of Aviation
• 
  Painting of General Hodges at the Perry Area Historical Museum in Perry, Georgia

Hodges's honors and awards included:^[28]

United States

	Distinguished Service Cross
	Army Distinguished Service Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters
	Silver Star
	Bronze Star Medal
	Mexican Service Medal
	World War I Victory Medal with three Campaign Stars
	Army of Occupation of Germany Medal
	American Defense Service Medal
	American Campaign Medal
	Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
	European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with five service stars
	World War II Victory Medal