Carlos Brewer

Major General Carlos Brewer (5 December 1890 – 29 September 1976) was a United States Army officer who commanded the 12th Armored Division during World War II. After training the 12th Armored Division, he was not permitted to command the division in combat due to his age, so he requested his rank be reverted from major general to Colonel so that he could become an artillery officer in the European Theater of Operations (ETO). He innovated the method of field artillery targeting used in World War II, and implemented triangular organization of divisions.

Early life

Carlos Brewer was born on 5 December 1890 in Golo, Kentucky and attended West Kentucky College in Mayfield, Kentucky, until he entered United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York in 1909, graduating 15th in his class in 1913.

After graduation, Brewer went onto the Field Artillery Branch of the United States Army.

Military career Upon graduation from West Point in 1913, Brewer was commissioned as a second lieutenant and was assigned to the 3rd Field Artillery at Fort Sam Houston, serving along the Texas border until 1916 during the Mexican Revolution. In March 1916, he went with the 4th Field Artillery to the Panama Canal Zone. From August 1916 through 1921, he taught in the Department of Mathematics at the USMA, missing out combat during World War I.

During his period as Director of the Department of Gunnery, [Brewer] developed the technique of fire direction with a central fire direction center in the battalion which proved very effective in World War II. This procedure permitted the massing of fire of all the divisional artillery on a target that one battery had adjusted on, or on a target that the division commander had designated, in a matter of minutes. One big advantage of this central fire control is that a few specialists can perform the necessary technical operations for the entire battalion. As a result of this development, the division commanders were generally well pleased with the artillery support in World War II. In 1939, he was assigned to command the 25th Field Artillery Battalion at Madison Barracks, NY. In 1941, he was then transferred to Fort Benning, GA to command the 7th Field Artillery Regiment, where he developed the triangular division organization that was adopted during World War II. After 2 months of courses at the Naval War College, he served as Assistant, then Chief of Staff (G-3) for the newly activated 9th Infantry Division, now commanded by his mentor, Major General Jacob L. Devers, at Fort Bragg, NC from August 1940 to February 1942. On 26 June 1941, he was promoted to the temporary rank of colonel

On 16 February 1942, Brewer was promoted to temporary brigadier general and given command of a unit of the 6th Armored Division.

World War II combat Brewer had missed combat duty during World War I because he had been on the faculty teaching at West Point and was not enamored with having a non-combat command again. He requested termination of his rank of major general and permanent reversion to the rank of colonel,

He also was an avid chess player, and was one of twenty players at West Point who played simultaneous games against nine-year old Polish chess prodigy Samuel Reshevsky in 1920. Reshevsky won 19 of the 20 games, including the game against Brewer, which lasted just under two hours.

He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia.

Awards Major General Brewer's ribbon bar