Mark Wayne Clark
Mark Wayne Clark (
May 1,
1896 -
April 17,
1984) was an
American general during
World War II and the
Korean War.
Clark was a descendent of Revolutionary leader General
George Rogers Clark and a cousin of General
George Marshall. He was born in Madison Barracks,
New York, but spent much of his youth in
Illinois. Clark graduated from
West Point in 1917. He had gained an early appointment to the military academy, but lost time from illnesses. He was appointed to the rank of captain in the infantry in 1917 and served in
France during
World War I in the 11th Infantry, where he was wounded.
Between the wars, Clark served as a deputy commander of the
Civilian Conservation Corps district in
Omaha, Nebraska. He attended the
Command and General Staff School in 1935 and the
Army War College in 1937.
During World War II, He was the Deputy Commander for
Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa. He landed by
submarine weeks before the invasion to negotiate with the
Vichy French at
Cherchell on October 21 â€" 22, 1942.
|
Clark On board USS Ancon (AGC-4) during the landings at Salerno, Italy, 12 September 1943. |
Clark was the youngest officer to become Lt. General in 1943, and was given command of the
US Fifth Army shortly before the
Salerno landings in
Italy in September
1943. In December 1944 he assumed command of the
British/American 15th Army Group, putting him in command of all ground troops in Italy. His conduct of operations remains controversial, particularly the attack on
Monte Cassino, the slow progress of conquering Italy, and the failure to entrap and capture German units during the Battle of the
Winter Line, when Clark sent his units towards Rome, in an attempt to be the first to enter the city, rather than to exploit a gap in the German positions. As a result of Clark's actions, the
Gothic Line was not broken for another year, and the provisional governments and safe areas which the Allies had encouraged the
Italian Partisans to set up were smashed by the German Army, at great loss to the
partisans.
Because of problems Americans had in Italy, some people had a low opinion of General Clark. Doctor Charles Schueller, a former Army Captain who served from October 1942 - February 1946, felt Clark was wrong to attempt going up the
Apennines. In the book
Hometown Heroes: Dubuque Remembers WWII, Schueller had this to say;
"Bonehead General Mark Clark; he was the first man in history to think that he could go up the Apennines, but there was only one road, and that one hugged the coast. And the rest of it was mountains, and you had to fight your way up."Monte Cassino - I was there. Mark Clark, in his wisdom, thought that was the highest promontory mountain, and that the Germans were using that as a lookout and could see where we were. Well, what the hell, they didn't need it, they had the rest of the mountains, and they didn't need that damn place. And the Germans had respected the monks and their culture, because the Germans did not go in there."But Clark got the idea that the Germans in the monastery were the reason they couldn't make any headway up the mountains...So they decided to bomb the hell out of it."1At the war's end he was Commander of Allied Forces in Italy and, later, U.S. High Commissioner of
Austria. Returning home, he commanded the U.S. Sixth Army.
During the
Korean war, he took over as commander of the
United Nations forces in April 1952, succeeding General
Matthew Ridgway. It was Clark who signed the cease fire agreement with
North Korea in 1953.
After retiring from the army, General Clark served (1954-66) as president of
The Citadel military academy, at
Charleston, S.C. An Interstate spur (I-526) connecting North Charleston and Mount Pleasant bears his name. He wrote two volumes of memoirs:
Calculated Risk (1950) and
From the Danube to the Yalu (1954).
Mark Clark's quick rise from field officer through general officer ranks has been attributed to his relationship with Generals
George Marshall and
Dwight Eisenhower.
Among his awards and decorations are the
Distinguished Service Cross,
Distinguished Service Medal, Grand Croix
LĂ©gion d'honneur Clark is buried at
The Citadel.
*
Mark Clark Expressway*
Historical Sound from General Clark (1946)
*
Biography from the Korean War Encyclopedia*
General Mark W. Clark -
TIME magazine cover of July 7, 1952
1. Koontz, Ian M.D. et Al.
Hometown Heroes: Dubuque Remembers WW II. 2001: Woodward Communications, Inc. Dubuque, Iowa.
