Haislip, Wade Hampton “Ham”.

Haislip, Wade, born three months after Adolf Hitler (see Alois Hitler) (did you know), on 09-07-1889 in Woodstick, Virginia.   the son of Reuben Drake Haislip (1850-1940), and Morizetta Susnnah, born Heller Haislip (1856-1940) and had two brothers and two sisters: Theresa Haislip Williams (1877-1947), Irene Drake Haislip ( 1879-1955), Louis Drake Haislip (1882-1883) and Frederick Frazier Haislip ( 1887-1970). The family moved at age two to Staunton, Virginia. He was commissioned a second lieutenant of infantry upon graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1912. He served with the American Expeditionary Forces, first in World War I, then in the occupation of Germany. During World War I he participated in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Prior to World War II he held a series of staff assignments, including time in the Budget and Legislative Planning Branch of the War Department General Staff from 1938 to 1941, and Assistant Chief-of-Staff for personnel. In World War II, he organized the 85^th Infantry Division,  known as Custer Division, named after the famous cavalry commander George Armstrong Custer. Custer was killed in the battle of Bighorn, age 36 on 25-06-1876, and buried on West Point Cemetery. Through the entire campaign, the 85^th Division suffered some 7,268 casualties with 1,717 killed in action. Three soldiers from this division earned the Medal of Honor. Haislip served as commander from April 1942 to February 1943. He next took command of XV Corps and served with it through Normandy, France, Rhineland and Central Europe campaigns. He became commander of Seventh United States Army, and was in that billet when World War II ended in August 1945. The Seventh Army  was the first American formation of Field Army, size to see combat in World War II and the commander was Georg Smith Patton. The seventh Army was involved in the invasion of Sicily together with the British Eighth Army  the victors of El Alamein, under General Bernard “Monty” Montgomery. , here with his dogs, named Rommel and Hitler. By the time the army was fighting the Second Battle of El Alamein it had reached a size of over 220.000 men in 10 divisions and several independent brigades. During the entire North African campaign, the Germans and Italians suffered 620,000 casualties, while the British Commonwealth lost 220.000 men and captured including 35.478 confirmed dead. The Free France forces had 20.000 killed, wounded and missing. USA: 2.715 killed, 8.978 wounded, 6.528 missing and Italy: 22.341 dead and missing 340.000 captured. Germany: 18.594 dead, 3.400 missing and 130.000 captured. Vichy France: 1.346 dead, 1.997 wounded. Allied material losses:  2.000 tanks destroyed, 1.400 aircraft destroyed, Axis material losses: 800 Aircraft destroyed, 6.200 guns, 2.500 tanks, 70.000 vehicles destroyed or captured. The assault forces included units of the French Army Bunder General, Jean de Lattre de Tassigny and the 6^th Army Group , commanded by Lieutenant General,Commander 6^th Army Group, Jacob Devers. Wade Haislip retired in 1951 and became Governor of the Soldiers Home in Washington, D.C.Lieutenant General Wade H. Haislip, here with General George Patton of the Third Army , congratulates Technical Sergeant Charles H. Coolidge after presenting him with the Medal of Honor, Germany, 18-06-1945. Coolidge was drafted into the United States Army on 16-0-6-1942. He received basic training at Fort McClellan in Alabama. He was then sent to Camp Butner, North Carolina and Camp Edwards in Massachusetts, where he was assigned to M Company, 3rd Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment, 36th “Texas” Infantry Division. In April 1943, his unit was shipped overseas to Oran in Algeria, and in September took part in the Salerno landings and then continued to fight in the first half of the Italian campaign. While serving as a machine gun section leader and sergeant, he was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in action in Italy on 31-05-1944, shortly before the capture of Rome.On 24-10-1944, Coolidge was a technical sergeant in charge of a group of machine-gunners and riflemen of M Company, who were to hold a vital hilltop position in France near the German border. During four days of attacks at Hill 623, east of Belmont-sur-Buttant in the Vosges Mountains in France, Coolidge and his group held off numerous enemy infantrymen, plus two tanks on October 27 using grenades. One tank unsuccessfully fired five separate rounds directly at Coolidge. For his actions above and beyond the call of duty during the battle, Coolidge was presented the Medal of Honor by Lieutenant General Wade H. Haislip during a ceremony at an airfield near Dornstadt, Germany on 18-06-1945. He survived the war and died 06-04-2021 (aged 99) in Chattanooga, Tennessee, U.S.Death and burial ground of Haislip, Wade Hampton “Ham”. He died at the old age of 82 of a stroke, on 23-11-1971 and is buried with his wife Alice, born Shepherd, who died old age 90 in 1987, on the National Cemetery of Arlington, Section 7. Close by in Section 7, the Major General, Commander 1^st Division Northwest, Clift Andrus, Air Force Lieutenant General, Operation “Market Garden”, Louis Brereton and General, Chief of Staff of Sixth Army, Georg  Decker. Major General, Commander 35^th Division, nickname “Santa Fe”  Paul Baade. Total casualties of this division in 264 days of combat – 7.296, killed in action – 1.018 and wounded in action – 6.278.