Джозеф Лоутон Коллинз: Американский генерал и военный деятель

United States Army general

General Joseph Lawton Collins (May 1, 1896 – September 12, 1987) was a senior United States Army officer. During World War II, he served in both the Pacific and European Theaters of Operations, one of a few senior American commanders to do so. He was Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the Korean War. Collins' elder brother, Major General James Lawton Collins, was also in the United States Army. His nephew, Brigadier General James Lawton Collins Jr. served in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Another nephew, Michael Collins, was the command module pilot on the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 that put the first two men on the Moon and retired from the United States Air Force as a major general.

Collins was born into the large Irish Catholic family of New Orleans dry goods store and pub owner Jeremiah Bernard Collins and Catherine (Lawton) Collins on May 1, 1896. He attended the Catholic schools of Algiers and graduated from Boys High School in New Orleans in 1912. He attended Louisiana State University and competed for a congressional appointment to the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York. and was commissioned shortly before his twenty first birthday. His classmates included several future general officers, including Matthew Ridgway, Bryant Moore, Ernest N. Harmon, William C. McMahon, Norman Cota, Laurence B. Keiser, William W. Eagles, William Kelly Harrison Jr., Frederick Augustus Irving, and Mark W. Clark. Clark and Collins shared a birthday and as the two youngest cadets were known as the "class babies".

Collins reverted to the rank of captain in 1920. He married Gladys Easterbrook, a daughter of Army chaplain Edmund P. Easterbrook, on July 15, 1921, and was instructor in the department of chemistry at the USMA from 1921 to 1925. He graduated from the company officer course at the United States Army Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia in 1926, and from the advanced course at the United States Army Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma the year after. He was an instructor in weapons and tactics at the United States Army Infantry School from 1927 to 1931. It was during this time where he first encountered George C. Marshall, the future U. S. Army Chief of Staff, who was to play a significant role in Collins's future military career. Promoted to major in August 1932, he was executive officer of the 23rd Brigade in Manila, and assistant chief of staff, as a G 2 staff officer, with the Philippine Division from 1933 to 1934. Collins graduated from the United States Army Industrial College in 1937, and the United States Army War College the following year. He was then an instructor at the Army War College from 1938 to 1940. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel on June 25, 1940 and, now a full colonel (having been promoted on January 15, 1941),

Collins was later transferred to the European Theater of Operations (ETO), where he commanded the VII Corps in the Allied invasion of Normandy and on the Western Front through to the end of World War II in Europe in May 1945. Collins was chosen by Lieutenant General Omar Bradley, who had served with Collins at the Army Infantry School before the war and was then commanding the First Army in England, as a replacement for Major General Roscoe B. Woodruff, the original commander of VII Corps and one of Bradley's West Point classmates. Woodruff was senior to Collins but had no experience in amphibious operations. Collins was appointed after a brief interview with Bradley and General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, about his combat experience after Collins summed up his tactical approach in the Pacific as always targeting the high ground in an attack. Bradley turned to Eisenhower, claiming that Collins "talks our language." At the age of 47, this made Collins the youngest corps commander in the United States Army. Among the units serving under Collins' command in Normandy was the veteran 82nd Airborne Division, commanded by Major General Matthew Ridgway, a fellow graduate of the West Point class of 1917. VII Corps played a major role in the Normandy landings in June 1944 and the subsequent Battle of Normandy, including Operation Cobra. Collins was a favorite of the 21st Army Group commander, General Sir Bernard Montgomery, who after Operation Goodwood laid the path for VII Corps to break out in Operation Cobra on 27 July 1944. After Cobra was the Battle of the Falaise Pocket, which completed the destruction of the Wehrmacht in Normandy, the corps then took part in the liberation of Paris and the Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine. In early September VII Corps took approximately 25,000 prisoners during the Battle of the Mons Pocket. It later broke through the Siegfried Line and endured heavy fighting in the Battle of Hürtgen Forest. VII Corps later played a major role in the Battle of the Bulge, the largest battle on the Western Front during World War II, and finally took part in the Western Allied invasion of Germany. VII Corps is perhaps best known for the leading role it played in Operation Cobra; less well known is Collins' contribution to that plan. Collins was promoted to temporary three star rank of lieutenant general in April 1945 and permanent brigadier general in June. He was very highly regarded by General Omar Bradley, Collins' superior for most of the war, and many German senior commanders believed Collins, along with Lieutenant General Troy H. Middleton, commanding the VIII Corps, to be one of the best American corps commanders on the Western Front.

After the war, Collins was deputy commanding general and chief of staff of Army Ground Forces from August to December 1945. Later, he was director of information (later chief of public information) of the United States Army from 1945 to 1947. He was deputy, later Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army from 1947 to 1949 and was promoted to temporary general and permanent major general in January 1948. Collins was Chief of Staff of the United States Army from August 16, 1949, to August 15, 1953; as such he was the Army's senior officer throughout the Korean War. As a wartime chief of staff his primary responsibility was to ensure that adequately trained and equipped soldiers were sent to fight in Korea. He directed the Army's operation of the railroads, brought the first Special Forces group into the order of battle, and was closely associated with the development of the army's contribution to the newly established North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Collins was representative of the United States to the Military Committee and the Standing Group of NATO from 1953 to 1954. He was special representative of the United States in Vietnam with ambassadorial rank, 1954 to 1955, and returned to his NATO assignment. He retired from active service in March 1956, after almost 40 years of military service. General Joseph Lawton Collins died in Washington, D. C., on September 12, 1987, at the age of 91. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia.

Insignia Rank Component DateNo insignia Cadet United States Military Academy June 14, 1913No pin insignia at the time Second lieutenant Regular Army April 20, 1917 First lieutenant Regular Army May 15, 1917 Captain Temporary August 5, 1917 Major Temporary September 9, 1918 Captain Regular Army June 25, 1919 (Discharged as temporary major and resumed permanent rank of captain on March 10, 1920.) Major Regular Army October 1, 1932 Lieutenant colonel Regular Army June 25, 1940 Colonel Army of the United States January 13, 1941 Brigadier general Army of the United States February 14, 1942 Major general Army of the United States May 26, 1942 Lieutenant general Army of the United States April 16, 1945 Brigadier general Regular Army June 19, 1945 Major general Regular Army January 24, 1948 General Army of the United States January 24, 1948 General Regular Army, Retired March 31, 1956