A General’s Life (an autobiography by Bradley, Omar Nelson) PDF
Preview A General’s Life (an autobiography by Bradley, Omar Nelson)
V, **y* u i />. i ^ '<>, L i AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY BY i' 1 i] AND CLAY BLAIR TM H. I I <V -v- > .« A ^Tj Inthefinal yearsofhislonglife, five-starGeneralof theArmyOmarBradleybegantheambitioustaskof TouUn writing his autobiography He chose to"wf5rK>wirt} CORSICAX\Jf HHooAmnmeie-i*c Clay Blair, an expert on World War II, and granted Mr. Blairnumerous interviews and full access to all SARDINIA o hispersonalpapers.Theresultofthiscollaborationis an extraordinary autobiography, vivid and compel- sicPamla ling, a sweeping and vital slice of"American history TORCH Omar Bradley grew up in near-poverty in rural n/a/42 Bmrte Bone Missouri. He won an appointment to West Poiht when the prime candidate failed the rigorous Bnfuiax entrance examinations. A good student and out- standing athlete, Bradley missed action in France in WorldWarI andbelievedhiscareertoberuinedasa result. Nevertheless,hesteadilyadvancedinapeace- time army reduced to barely 100,000 men until he •CHCTTT RTH AFRICA caughtthe eye ofGeneral George C. Marshall, who <ND SICILY sent Bradley to serve with General Dwight Eisen- howerinNorthAfricaearlyinWorldWarII. Bradley 1942,-AUG.30,J943 provedhimselfaskilledbattlefieldgeneral thereand inSicily, andhewaschosentoleadAmericantroops BNC;U5HCHANNEL in the D-Day invasion of France. He eventually Cherbow & commanded four field armies (1.3 million men) in > Europe, the largest American fighting force in his- tory. His victorious campaign in Europe has earned O General Bradley an esteemed place in American history. Whatdistinguishesthisautobiography isnotonly the enthralling narrative ofthese events but General Bradley's total candor in evaluating his wartime colleagues. Bradley rates Eisenhower as an able diplomatbutapoorbattlefield manager; he assesses George Patton as a leader with so many grave personal faults that Patton was only reluctantly chosen to participate in the invasion ofFrance; and BradleydepictsMontgomeryasanoverratedgeneral whose style of warfare was already outmoded and whosemegalomaniamadehimnearly impossibleto work with. GeneralBradley'spost-WorldWarIIcareerisless well known but no less important. As head of the Veterans Administration, he managed the enormous task of coping with 15 million new veterans, com- pletely transforming the VA in the process. He (continuedon backflap) Digitized by the Internet Archive 2012 in http://archive.org/details/generalslifeautOObrad ArnoldNewman A GENERAL'S LIFE ** AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY B^i GENERAL OF THE ARMY OMAR BRADLEY N. and Clay Blair SIMON AND SCHUST1 R NEW \ (>Rk Grateful acknowledgment is made to thefollowingfor permission to reprint the materials listed: ThePattonPapers, Vol. II(1940-1945), edited by Martin Blumenson. Copyright © 1974by Martin Blumenson. Reprinted by permissionofHoughton Mifflin Company. Triumph in the West (Vol. II ofThe Alanbrooke Diaries), edited by Arthur Bryant. Copy- right © 1959by Arthur Bryant. Reprinted by permission ofDoubleday & Company, Inc. and Collins Publishers, London. ThePapers ofDwightDavidEisenhower, nine volumes, edited by Alfred D. Chandlerand Louis Galambos. Copyright © 1970-1978. Reprinted by permission ofThe Johns Hopkins University Press. Memoirsby BernardMontgomery. Copyright © 1958by BernardLaw,ViscountMontgom- eryofAlamein. Reprinted by permission ofCollins Publishers, London. The Eisenhower Diaries (Vol. IV), edited by Robert H. Ferrell. Copyright © 1981. Re- printed by permission ofW.W. Norton and Company, Inc. Maps copyright © 1983 byRafaelD. Palacios Commelin. Copyright © 1983 by Estate ofGeneral ofthe ArmyOmarN. Bradley and Clay Blair All rights reserved includingthe rightofreproduction inwhole orin part in anyform Published by Simon and Schuster A Division ofGulf& WesternCorporation Simon & SchusterBuilding RockefellerCenter 1230Avenue ofthe Americas New York, New York 10020 Simon and Schusterandcolophonare trademarksofSimon & Schuster Designedby Eve Kirch Productionby Richard L. Willett Photo research by Vincent Virga Manufactured in the United States ofAmerica Library ofCongress Catalogingin Publication Data Bradley, OmarNelson, 1893- Ageneral's life. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. B—radley, OmarNelso—n, 1893- . 2. United —States History,—Military 20th century. 3. Generals United States Biography. 4. United States. Army—Biography. I. Blair, Clay, 1925- . II. Title. E745.B693 1983 940.54'2i'0924 [B] 82-19404 ISBN 0-671-41023-7 To Kitty, my beloved wife, who saved my life and filled every day ofit—withjoy. Omar N. Bradley
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