Джордж Говард Бретт: Американский генерал Второй мировой войны

United States general

George Howard Brett (7 February 1886 – 2 December 1963) was a United States Army Air Forces General during World War II. An Early Bird of Aviation, Brett served as a staff officer in World War I. In 1941, following the outbreak of war with Japan, Brett was appointed Deputy Commander of a short lived major Allied command, the American British Dutch Australian Command (ABDACOM), which oversaw Allied forces in South East Asia and the South West Pacific. In early 1942, he was put in charge of United States Army Forces in Australia, until the arrival of Douglas MacArthur. Brett then commanded all Allied Air Forces in the Southwest Pacific Area. In November 1942, he was appointed commander of the US Caribbean Defense Command and remained in this post for the rest of the war.

When his immediate superior, Major general Henry H. "Hap" Arnold, was temporarily transferred to the Army General Staff in November 1939, Brett acted as Chief of the Air Corps. In May 1941, he formally became Chief of the Air Corps for a four year term, but the June 1941 reorganisation that made Arnold the Chief of United States Army Air Forces made the post of Chief of the Air Corps somewhat redundant.

The outbreak of war between the United States and Japan in December 1941 changed things and Brett received new orders. He first flew to Rangoon and then, in the company of the Sir Archibald Wavell, the British Commander in Chief, India, on to Chungking where the two met with Generalissimo Chiang Kai shek. They obtained a promise of Chinese troops to assist in the defence of Burma. Near Rangoon, Wavell's and Brett’s aircraft was attacked by Japanese aircraft and they were forced to make an emergency landing at a friendly aerodrome in Burma. The area was then bombed by the Japanese, but neither general was harmed. Brett was appointed Deputy Supreme Commander of the American British Dutch Australian Command (ABDA), under Wavell, on 1 January 1942, and was promoted to lieutenant general on 7 January 1942. The rapid advance of Japanese forces through South East Asia had soon split the Allied controlled area in two. Brett departed Java for Australia on 23 February 1942, reaching Melbourne the next day, where he resumed command of US Army Forces in Australia. ABDA was formally dissolved on 25 February.

Already, General Douglas MacArthur had also been ordered to Australia. Brett received warning from the Chief of Staff, General George Marshall that MacArthur would call on him to send a flight of long range bombers to Mindanao. The only aircraft that Brett could find were B 17s of the 19th Bombardment Group which had seen hard service in the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies campaigns. Brett approached Vice Admiral Herbert F. Leary, the commander of naval forces in the Anzac Area, to ask for a loan of some of twelve newly arrived navy B 17s. Leary refused. Brett therefore sent four of the 19th Bombardment Group's old planes. Only one, a B 17 with no brakes piloted by Lieutenant Harl Pease, made it to Mindanao; two turned back with engine trouble, while a fourth ditched in the sea, its crew managing to escape. MacArthur was incensed and sent a message to Marshall. A message from Washington, D. C. persuaded Leary to release four new B 17s to Brett and these aircraft reached Mindanao on 16 March 1942 and managed to bring MacArthur and his party to Australia. Despite the lack of brakes, Pease also made it back, carrying sixteen refugees. It fell to Brett to telephone Prime Minister John Curtin and inform him of MacArthur's arrival. Although Curtin was unaware of MacArthur's impending arrival, and had expected that Brett would command American forces in Australia, he was persuaded to issue a recommendation that MacArthur be made Supreme Commander South West Pacific Area. While Brett considered that he was on "very friendly terms" with Curtin, Brett felt that Curtin was "more interested in keeping the party line on wages, hours and working conditions than in the threat posed by the Japanese." General George Kenney later recalled that I think he [Brett] made his initial mistake in sort of spurning this Labor government crowd and taking up with the conservative crowd, who had been ousted by the Labor Party and who were not going to get back into power. But Brett figured they were, so he accepted entertainment from them and entertained them in return and became quite close to them. They, in turn, kidded him along and told him they knew he was going to be the commanding general of all the Allied Forces in Australia Yes, and he believed it, which was too bad. The April 1942 reorganisation that established the Southwest Pacific Area reduced the United States Army Forces in Australia to a supply and administrative organisation that would soon be renamed the Services of Supply. Brett instead became commander of Allied Air Forces, Southwest Pacific Area, with his headquarters in Melbourne. One of MacArthur's first orders to Brett was for a bombing mission to the Philippines, an order which was delivered personally by MacArthur's chief of staff, Major General Richard K. Sutherland. Brett protested that his planes were worn out, his men were tired, losses might be high, and the Philippines were lost anyway. Sutherland told him the MacArthur wanted the mission carried out. Brett delegated it to Brigadier General Ralph Royce, who led the mission in person. Brett awarded Royce the Distinguished Service Cross. Henceforth, communications with Sutherland would be handled by Brett's chief of staff, Air Vice Marshal William Bostock. MacArthur personally wrote a reprimand to Brett. Further disagreements between MacArthur and Brett followed. On 6 July 1942 Marshall radioed MacArthur to offer him Major general George Kenney or Brigadier general Jimmy Doolittle as a replacement for Brett. MacArthur selected Kenney. Brett returned to the United States in his B 17, "The Swoose", on 4 August 1942. The day before, MacArthur awarded him the Silver Star "for gallantry in action in air reconnaissance in the combat zone, Southwest Pacific Area, during the months of May, June and July 1942."

After a time with no command, Brett was appointed commander of the US Caribbean Defense Command and the US Army's Panama Canal Department in succession to Lieutenant general Frank M. Andrews in November 1942. In 1945, the Inspector General, Lieutenant General Daniel Isom Sultan, investigated a series of allegations against Brett regarding the misuse of Army funds and property. He reported to Marshall that most of the charges were distortions of mission related events and expenditures, that the remaining allegations had no basis in fact, and that no further action be taken. Brett requested voluntary retirement and retired on 30 April 1945 with the rank of major general, only to be immediately recalled to active duty the next day as a temporary Lieutenant general and as Commanding General of the Caribbean Defense Command and Panama Canal Department. On 10 October 1945, Brett handed over command to Lieutenant general Willis D. Crittenberger. For his service in Panama, Brett was awarded a second Distinguished Service Medal. The citation noted "his broad grasp of military strategy and superior knowledge of air and ground tactics" and that "he succeeded admirably in impressing the republics of Central and South America with the importance and necessity of hemispheric solidarity, imbued them with American ideals, coordinated their use of arms and equipment and indoctrinated them with American training methods – all of which fostered continued improvement in the relations between all America republics."