Patrick, Edwin Davies.

Patrick, Edwin, born 11-01-1894 in Perry County, Indiana, was the son of John Thomas Patrick and Anna Elnore Menninger, sister of Carl Frederick Menninger, founder of the Menninger Clinic. Patrick was raised in Tell City, Indiana, and entered the Indiana National Guard 11-02-1915 and was commissioned ‘Second Lieutenant in the Infantry 21-03-1917. After duty in Kansas, California, Oklahoma, and North Carolina. Edwin joined the 14^th Machine Gun Battalion in France to participate in the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne offensives. Following his return to the United States in July 1919, he was stationed at various posts until May 1926 when he went to Tientsin, China, to serve with the 15^th Infantry Division. He returned to the United States in July 1929 to remain until after the start of World War II.  Assigned to the Southwest Pacific in December 1942, he was promoted to Brigadier General 26-04-1943.

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 6^th Army. He was the commander of the task forces in the battles of Wakde and Noemfoor. Appointed commander of a regimental combat team in May 1944, Patrick participated in the conquest of New Guinea. In September he assumed command of the 6^th Infantry Division , nickname “Red Star”  and in January 1945 joined in the battle to liberate Luzon, in the Philippines.

Death and burial ground of Patrick, Edwin Davies.

Major General Edwin D. Patrick (center), Major General Oscar Woolverton Griswold (left) and Major General Charles Philip “Chink” Hall   (right, pointing) on 13-03-1945.

General Patrick was mortally wounded by Japanese machine gun fire near Mountain Mataba, south of Montalban, Luzon on 14-03-1945, age 51, and was buried in the American military cemetery in Manila. Funeral service for Major General Edwin D. Patrick.

Patrick was one of only three American division commanders to die in combat action in World War II.  A Navy transport ship, USNS General Edwin D. Patrick (T-AP-124), was named in his honour. Edwin Davies Patrick is reburied on the Greenwood Cemetery in Tell City, Perry County, Indiana.

The other two to die in combat, were U.S. 2* Infantry General. Commander Third Armoured Division.  Maurice Rose and Major General and commanded the 28th Infantry Division in the Battle of Normandy, James Edward Wharton. Patrick was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Distinguished Service Medal.

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