Ллойд Френдендалл: Американский генерал Второй мировой войны.

American general during World War II

Lieutenant General Lloyd Ralston Fredendall (December 28, 1883 – October 4, 1963) was a general officer of the United States Army who served during World War II. He is best known for his leadership failure during the Battle of Kasserine Pass, leading to one of America's worst defeats of World War II, for which he was relieved of his command. He was in command of the Central Task Force landings during Operation Torch in North Africa, and led II Corps during the early stages of the Tunisian Campaign. In February 1943, while in command of the II Corps, his forces were defeated by German forces commanded by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and General Hans Jürgen von Arnim in the Battle of Kasserine Pass. After this debacle, Fredendall was relieved of command of II Corps by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander in North Africa, and replaced by Major General George S. Patton. In spite of being relieved of command, Fredendall was promoted to lieutenant general in June 1943, assumed command of Second Army and was greeted in the United States as a hero.

Lloyd Ralston Fredendall was born on December 28, 1883, at Fort D. A. Russell near Cheyenne, Wyoming. His father, Ira Livingston Fredendall (December 7, 1846 – February 6, 1935), was on active duty in the United States Army when Fredendall was born. Ira became sheriff of Laramie County before receiving a commission in the Quartermaster Corps during the Spanish–American War. The elder Fredendall retired as a major in 1914, returned to active duty during World War I to supervise construction at several bases in the western United States, and retired again as a lieutenant colonel. As a result of his father's connections in the service and with local and state politicians, Fredendall secured an appointment from Wyoming Senator Francis E. Warren to enter the class of 1905 at the United States Military Academy (USMA). Described by a classmate as "a very soldierly little fellow, but extremely goaty in mathematics," Fredendall performed poorly in math as well as in general deportment, and was dismissed after just one semester. His mother persuaded Senator Warren to re appoint Fredendall the next year, but he dropped out again. Although the senator was willing to nominate him for a third attempt, the academy declined to readmit him. Instead, Fredendall attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1903 to 1904 as a member of the class of 1907. He took the officer's qualifying exam in 1906, and scored first out of 70 applicants. On February 13, 1907, he received his commission in the United States Army as a second lieutenant in the Infantry Branch. He built a record as an excellent teacher, trainer, and administrator, and ended the war as a temporary lieutenant colonel. Fredendall was assigned to command the U. S. II Corps in its advance into Tunisia against German forces. (He thus became the second oldest of the 34 generals to serve as a U. S. Army corps commander in World War II, after Innis P. Swift, commander of the I Corps in the Pacific.) II Corps served under the British First Army, whose commander, Lieutenant General Kenneth Anderson, considered Fredendall incompetent well before the loss at Kasserine. Fredendall was given to speaking and issuing orders using his own slang, such as calling infantry units "walking boys" and artillery "popguns." Instead of using the standard military map grid based location designators, he made up confusing codes such as "the place that begins with C." This practice was unheard of for a general and distinguished graduate of the Command and General Staff School, who had been taught to always use standardized language and procedures to ensure clarity when transmitting orders under the stress of combat. Fredendall's informality often led to confusion among his subordinates, and precious time was lost attempting to discern his meaning. During the advance into Tunisia, Fredendall used an engineer company of the 19th Engineer Regiment to build a large, dug in corps headquarters bunker 70 mile (113 km) behind the front in a place called Speedy Valley (nine miles southeast of Tébessa). Blasted and drilled out of solid rock, the bunker (actually two U shaped complexes running 160 feet (49 m) into the hillside) took three weeks to construct. An anti aircraft battalion was emplaced to protect the headquarters. Fredendall also ordered a bulletproof Cadillac similar to Eisenhower's, and regularly phoned Oran to find out why it was not being delivered faster. Then Brigadier General Omar Bradley called the headquarters "an embarrassment to every American soldier," and General Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander in North Africa, after viewing the elaborate structure, reminded his senior commanders that even generals must assume personal risk in combat. Fredendall rarely visited the front lines, and had a habit of disregarding advice from commanders who had been farther forward and had actually reconnoitered the terrain. He split up units and scattered them widely, and at critical defense points had positioned U. S. forces (against advice) too far apart for mutual support or effective employment of artillery, the strongest American arm. During the Battle of Kasserine Pass, Eisenhower sent Major General Ernest N. Harmon to report on the fighting, to assist Fredendall and the other Allied commanders, and to determine whether Fredendall or his 1st Armored Division commander, Major General Orlando Ward, should be replaced. Harmon noted that Fredendall and his superior, Anderson, rarely saw each other, and failed to properly coordinate and integrate forces under their command. Fredendall was barely on speaking terms with Ward, whom he had deliberately left out of operational meetings after Ward had repeatedly protested the separation of his command into weaker 'penny packet' forces distributed across various sectors of the front. Allied forces were bereft of air support during critical attacks, and were frequently positioned by the senior command in positions where they could not support each other. Subordinates later recalled their utter confusion at being handed conflicting orders, not knowing which general to obey—Anderson or Fredendall. While interviewing field commanders, Harmon heard much criticism over what many Allied officers viewed as a cowardly, confused, and out of touch command. Noting that Fredendall seemed out of touch (and at one point, intoxicated), he requested and received permission to go to the front and intervene where necessary to shore up Allied defenses. On March 5, 1943, after the American rout at Kasserine Pass, Eisenhower visited II Corps headquarters and conferred with Brigadier General Bradley. Eisenhower asked "What do you think of the command here?" Bradley's response was "It's pretty bad. I've talked to all the division commanders. To a man they've lost confidence in Fredendall as the corps commander." British General Sir Harold Alexander, the 18th Army Group commander, informed Eisenhower that he would welcome a replacement for Fredendall. Eisenhower offered the II Corps command to Harmon, who declined on the grounds that it would be unethical to appear to personally benefit from his negative assessment of Fredendall. Eisenhower then decided on Major General George S. Patton as Fredendall's replacement. On March 5, 1943, Eisenhower personally flew to Tebessa to inform Fredendall of his decision to replace him, which he couched in terms of a routine reassignment. Eisenhower arranged the replacement so that Fredendall's reputation was not formally brought into disrepute, an action some believe he soon came to regret. On March 6, 1943, Patton replaced Fredendall. When Patton arrived at II Corps headquarters, Fredendall was at breakfast. Patton had disliked Fredendall in 1941 when they were both division commanders at Fort Benning, Georgia. After a brief conference, Patton formally relieved him, saying II Corps "was primarily a tank show and I know more about tanks." Patton noted in his diary that Fredendall was "Very nice, conducted himself well – very well." In a letter to his wife Beatrice that day, Patton even wrote that "Fredendall is a great sport, and I feel sure, is a victim largely due to circumstances beyond his control." However, only a week later, after an initial inspection of his new command, Patton had completely changed his mind: "I cannot see what Fredendall did to justify his existence." Fredendall was the first of seven American corps commanders in World War II to be "relieved of command", most for medical reasons. In his after action report for the Kasserine battles, the 2nd Armored Division commander, Major General Ernest N. Harmon, called Fredendall both a moral and physical coward and later said he was "a son of a bitch".

At Eisenhower's recommendation, Fredendall returned to the United States. Eisenhower's aide made a report on Fredendall to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in which he communicated, without elaboration, Eisenhower's view that Fredendall should be reassigned to a training command. As a result, Fredendall spent the rest of the war in training assignments in the United States. Because he had not been formally reprimanded by Eisenhower, he was eligible for appointment to lieutenant general and three star assignment, which he duly received, along with a hero's welcome on his return to the United States. and at first even granted interviews to members of the press. However, after a sarcastic comment on his generalship by a Time magazine reporter, Fredendall changed his mind, and largely blocked further press coverage of his command. The widespread custom of theater commanders to transfer senior commanders who had failed in battlefield assignments to stateside training commands did not in any way improve the reputation or morale of the latter, who were now saddled with the difficult job of convincing a disgraced commander to take the lead in advocating radical improvements in existing army training programs—programs which, like Fredendall himself, had contributed to the embarrassing U. S. Army reverses in North Africa. Fredendall served through the end of the war in 1945, and retired on March 31, 1946.

Fredendall died in San Diego, California, on October 4, 1963. He is interred at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery Officers Sections, Site 52 A, along with his wife Crystal Daphne Chant (July 23, 1890 – April 30, 1972).

In "The New Normal", an episode of the television series Blue Bloods, New York City Police Commissioner Frank Reagan negatively reviews the performance of a precinct commander by drawing a parallel between the captain's poor leadership of his precinct and Fredendall's conduct at Kasserine Pass. Fredendall was portrayed by William Boyett in Ike: The War Years.

Berlin, Robert H. "U. S. Army World War II Corps Commanders: A Composite Biography" The Journal of Military History, Vol. 53, No. 2 (April, 1989), pp. 147–168
Patton, George S., and Martin Blumenson. The Patton Papers: 1940–1945. Da Capo Press, 1996. Tucker, Spencer C. World War II: A Student Encyclopedia. ABC CLIO, 2005. page 474.