World War II Album: The War in View #6

Brigadier General Edwin D. Patrick. Major General Edwin Davies Patrick (January 11, 1894 – March 15, 1945) was an American general who was the commander of the 6th Infantry Division during World War II.

During World War II, Patrick served on the staff of Admiral William Halsey for a brief period and then became chief of staff of general Walter Krueger's 6th Army. He was the commander of the task forces in the battles of Wakde and Noemfoor. Afterwards, he was given command of the 6th Infantry Division.

During the Philippines campaign of 1944-45 Patrick was inspecting troops near Mount Mataba, south of Montalban, east of Manila on March 14. A Japanese soldier, who had remained in hiding behind American lines, opened fire from 75 yd (69 m) with a machine gun, mortally wounding Patrick, who died the next day.

General Patrick was buried in the Manila American Cemetery on 26 November 1945.

Edwin Patrick was one of only three American division commanders to die in combat action in World War II. The other two were Maurice Rose and James Edward Wharton. Patrick was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Distinguished Service Medal.

A Navy transport ship, USNS General Edwin D. Patrick (T-AP-124), was named in his honor.

Major General Edwin D. Patrick (center), Major General Oscar Griswold (left) and Major General Charles P. Hall (right, pointing) on March 13, 1945.

Funeral service for MG Edwin D. Patrick, CG, 6th Infantry Division, who was mortally wounded in action on Luzon on 14 March 1945. Date 16 March 1945.

German tanks cross the Czech border, in violation of the 1938 Munich agreement. Pohorelice, Czechoslovakia, March 15, 1939. The first two vehicles are Pz II light tanks and the third is a Pz I. [US National Archives]

Covert OSS operations were often in the field for extended periods, and resupply became problematic. The issue was resolved partially with the airdrops of needed matériel into the dense jungle below. This photo shows supplies descending earthward along the Thai-Burmese border.

Colonel Nicol Smith (right), the OSS agent designated to gather information in Thailand, a U.S. intelligence blind spot, walks with U.S. Navy Captain John Ford (second from right) behind Japanese lines in Burma.

OSS operatives in Thailand negotiate a jungle trail on horseback during a clandestine operation against the Japanese.

A German soldier views the destruction in a French town during the invasion of 1940.

A German medic tends to a wounded soldier during the 1940 invasion of France.

Colonel Friedrich Hossbach served as Hitler’s military adjutant from 1934 to 1938.

Goose stepping German soldiers parade down a Berlin street.

A Marine grimly inspects dead Japanese soldiers, their uniforms burned off when they were blasted out of a pillbox at Iwo Jima.

This Japanese war painting shows defenders taking cover behind wrecked U.S. equipment while firing on advancing Marines on Iwo Jima.

Amtracs and other craft were crippled by Japanese shellfire and the violent surf at Iwo Jima. More LVTs unload in the background.

Marines leave their foxholes to attack one of the island’s two vital airfields. The nearest upright Marine is carrying a shotgun found useful for clearing trenches and caves.

Marines in the 4th Division hug the loosely packed black volcanic sand on Iwo Jima mere moments before Japanese artillery and machine gun fire erupts.

Wary of potential resistance, German soldiers advance cautiously along a Norwegian road in April 1940. The Germans were somewhat surprised by the tenacity of the Norwegian troops who defended their country.

Indicative of the low altitude at which German airborne troops jumped into combat, this photo was taken from a Ju 52 transport aircraft on April 9, 1940.

During a lull in the fighting against the Germans at Konigsvinter, northeast of Oslo, Norwegian soldiers enjoy the momentary respite. These troops fought valiantly against a German attack there on April 28.

Their Ju 52 aircraft in the background, German infantrymen just airlifted to Norway prepare to march toward the ongoing fighting.

German paratroopers, some mounting bicycles, quickly assemble in their drop zones near the Norwe- gian town of Dombås in central Norway.

Photographed on April 15, 1940, German soldiers march toward their assigned positions after landing at the military airport of Stavanger.

German airborne troops retrieve their parachutes after landing in Norway north of the capital city of Oslo in April 1940.

Signpost on Majuro, showing direction and distances to several locations in the Pacific Ocean, and a few "stateside" attractions, March 1944. One sign points to the command post of CO B, 104th Engineer Battalion, U.S. Army, a short distance away. Majuro Atoll, Marshall Islands.

Gutted buildings mark the path of retreating Japanese forces in Manila as American infantrymen cautiously push forward to clear the area of enemy snipers, 15 February 1945.

U.S. Army Military Policemen reading about the German surrender, 1945.

November 12, 1944: U.S. medics are seen as they treat wounded comrades at a portable surgical unit during the 36th Division’s drive on Pinwe, Burma.

Original Marmon-Herrington CTL-3 light tank in use by the Marines around 1939.

Marmon-Herrington T16 light tank in U.S. service in Alaska, 1943.

Marmon-Herrington MTLS next to the M22 Locust.

Infanterie Panzer Mk.II 748(e). The Germans captured a handful of British Matilda II infantry tanks during the North African Campaign. They were deployed in the same campaign and received good reviews by their crews. Amusingly, however, their captured use often confused troops on both sides.

5 cm KwK 38 L/42 auf Matilda(e). During the fighting in Africa, the Germans captured several British Matilda infantry tanks, different production versions. Other Matildas were captured on the Eastern Front. One Matilda II was converted to a self-propelled gun. The original turret was removed and in its place was mounted a 50mm tank cannon KwK 38 L/42, the same gun version of the PzKpfw III. Additional armament consisted of two machine guns. This vehicle was used in 1942 in the Lehrkommando Hochsee school unit in Terneuzen in the occupied Netherlands. The tank was named “Oswald.” In late 1942, the tower was removed . The vehicle’s fate is unknown, probably later ended up in the scrap yard.

5 cm KwK 38 L/42 auf Matilda (e).

Panzerjäger I in Tripoli, Libya, 1941.

Cruiser Mk IV tanks of 5th Royal Tank Regiment, 3rd Armoured Brigade, 1st Armoured Division, drive through a Surrey village, July 1940.

The Commander-in-Chief Home Forces, General Sir Bernard Paget, in the turret of a Crusader tank of 42nd Armoured Division during a large-scale exercise near Malton in Yorkshire, 29 September 1942.

Finschhafen, New Guinea. 9 November 1943. A Matilda tank of 4th Australian Armoured Brigade plowing ahead towards the battle area in an effort to drive the Japanese out of strongposts held near the Finschhafen area. The tank, named Clincher, has a logo on the front of a crocodile under a palm tree over a boomerang. Other unit identification markings have been whited out by the censor.

Churchill tank moves over a bridgelayer bridge, ETO.

Covenanter tanks harbored by the side of a road during Exercise 'Spartan', UK, 6 March 1943.

A Matilda tank knocked out during battle near Tobruk, 15 December 1941.

Panzerkampfwagen III wreck, Normandy beach.

Churchill tanks crossing a Bailey bridge over the Antwerp-Turnhout canal at Rijckevorsel during the attack north of Antwerp, 22 October 1944.

M10 17-pdr tank destroyer (Achilles) of 117 Battery, 75th Anti-Tank Regiment, Holland, 4 October 1944.

Three old age pensioners put the finishing touches to this Valentine Mark I at a factory, somewhere in the North East of England.

Warsaw Uprising: German armored fighting vehicle SdKfz 251 captured by the Polish insurgents, from 8-th "Krybar" Regiment, on Na Skarpie Boulevard on August 14, 1944 from 5th SS 'Viking' division. This picture taken in Okólnik gardens. Standing first from the right Capitan Cyprian Odorkiewicz "Krybar" commander of "Krybar" Regiment. To the left insurgent with polish flag on his sleeve is Wacław Jastrzębowski "Aspira". In the front (backward) reporters and film crew of insurgent press.

Covenanter tanks of the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, 9th Armoured Division, on parade at Guisborough in Yorkshire, UK, 19 August 1941.

Humber Mk I armored cars of the Inns of Court Regiment, 9th Armoured Division, on parade at Guisborough in Yorkshire, UK, 19 August 1941.

Fort Benning. Halftrack scout cars. America's irresistible might grows every day. Soldiers of the armored forces training in halftrack scout cars at Fort Benning, Georgia are turning rapidly into hard, smart fighting men.

German 88mm FLAK guns positioned near Arras, France in May 1940.

U.S. soldiers, weapons at the ready, advance warily toward German positions across the Tunisian desert.

An abandoned Italian CV 33 tankette sits nearby as Field Marshal Erwin Rommel surveys the ground before elements of his Afrika Korps.

A column of Panzer III tanks rolls along a desert road.

American M3 Lee tanks raise clouds of dust as they race across the Tunisian desert.

A GI ducks as an explosion in the near distance goes off in Tunisia.

American generals George S. Patton, Jr. (left) and Dwight D. Eisenhower discuss troop dispositions in Tunisia in early 1943.

99th Division vehicles at the 1st Battalion, 395th Infantry aid station, December 15, 1944.

A pair of Japanese soldiers fires a Type 89 grenade launcher in combat.

A machine gunner of the 3rd Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment transports a heavy machine gun across a snow-covered trail in the Damengstat area of France on November 13, 1944.

Carrying their weapons and heavy equipment, American soldiers trudge up a steep incline toward frontline positions in the Colmar Pocket, January 1945.

From the vantage point of an American roadblock, this view looks down a deserted road and into the French town of Sigolsheim, January 2, 1945.

The shoulder patch of the 3rd Infantry Division prominently visible on his uniform, First Lieutenant Eli Whiteley receives the Medal of Honor for his heroism on Hill 351 in the Colmar Pocket. President Harry S. Truman presents the medal on August 23, 1945.

U.S. infantrymen of the Ninth Army accept the surrender of a German soldier on November 18, 1944.

Near St. Helene, France, a heavy machine gun section of the 1st Battalion, 30th Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division moves forward along a stream under the watchful eye of a covering rifleman.

Lined up along a road to await transportation to long-term captivity, German prisoners of war appear fatigued and defeated on December 5, 1944.

Soviet marines man a trench on the forward edge of their defensive positions near Novorossiysk.

Wading ashore from oar-driven barges called bolinders, Soviet marines assault German strongpoints on the Black Sea coast.

German soldiers crouch and fire their weapons from a trench line as Soviet troops advance against them.

Painting by Viktor G. Puzirkov of Soviet marines storming ashore.

Portrait photograph of General Douglas MacArthur circa 1944. The original print is inscribed: "To Admiral Nimitz. With regard and admiration. Douglas MacArthur." US Naval History and Heritage Command.

Jagdpanzer IV 70(V) (Sd.Kfz 162/1), November 11, 1944.

Maj. Gen. James Gavin negotiates a well-trodden path in Belgium during the beginning phases of the Battle of the Bulge.

Cold and frostbitten, members of the 82nd Airborne march with tanks of the 2nd Armored Division and advance into the northern sector of the Bulge.

A lone US paratrooper makes his way across a field to the assembly area as his comrades make their way to the ground.

Adjusting his parachute pack, James Gavin prepares to jump into Holland during Operation Market Garden in September of 1944. Despite being injured in the jump, Gavin retained command of the 82nd Airborne.

Gesturing towards a map of the landing area, Gavin holds a briefing for his staff shortly before the Holland jump.

Dotting the sky, men of the 82nd Airborne exit a C-47 transport aircraft and descend earthward.

Transport aircraft fly low over an open field as the 82nd Airborne conducts a training exercise in North Africa.

Maj. Gen. James M. Gavin.

Prior to their D-day jump into Normandy, members of the 82nd Airborne check over their gear.

A Dutch Resistance member traces an official signature onto a forged identity document.

Three Allied airmen rescued by an escape line, and dressed in civilian clothes go unnoticed amongst a crowd of German soldiers in Paris.

A group of French fighters in Chateaudun seen with weapons obtained through Allied supply drops.

German soldiers head for the front lines in Normandy in this photo taken sometime in June 1944 after the Allied D-Day landings.

Shortly after the fighting at La Fière concluded, these American soldiers paused for a photographer with the heavily damaged manor house in the background.

These tanks of German Panzer Ersatz und Ausbildungs Abteilung 100 (100th Tank Replacement and Training Battalion) were knocked out during the intense fighting that unfolded around the La Fière causeway. All three of the vehicles seen here are French-made tanks that were captured by the Germans in 1940. This image was taken from a reel of motion picture footage filmed by a Signal Corps photographer on June 10, 1944.

This 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper takes cover beside a roadway near La Fière, his bazooka nearby.

An American 57mm antitank weapon fires at German armor and troop concentrations in Normandy.

A British tanker, its back broken by a German torpedo and blackened from the ensuing fire, is intentionally beached by the tug that was sent to its aid off the island of Aruba in the Caribbean.

Seen from the deck of the British cruiser Bellona, a number of merchant vessels laden with supplies en route to the Soviet Union.

A German U-boat commander tracks a British merchant ship through his periscope during an attack on a convoy, June 1942.

Soviet marines prepare to embark on a raid against German positions.

Admiral William F. Halsey, reading at his desk on board USS New Jersey (BB-62), his flagship, while en route to conduct raids on the Philippines, December 1944. US Naval History and Heritage Command.

Admiral William Halsey, Commander, Third Fleet On the bridge of his flagship, USS New Jersey (BB-62), while en route to carry out raids on the Philippines, December 1944. US Naval History and Heritage Command.