William H. Simpson

General William Hood Simpson (18 May 1888 – 15 August 1980) was a senior United States Army officer who served with distinction in both World War I and World War II. He is best known for being the commanding general of the Ninth United States Army in northwest Europe during World War II.

A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, where he was ranked 101st out of 103 in the class of 1909, Simpson served in the Philippines, where he participated in suppression of the Moro Rebellion, and in Mexico with the Pancho Villa Expedition in 1916. During World War I he saw active service in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive on the Western Front on the staff of the 33rd Division, for which he was awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal and Silver Citation Star. Between the wars he served on staff postings, attended the Command and General Staff College and the Army War College, and commanded the 3rd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment.

During World War II he commanded the 9th Infantry Regiment and was the assistant division commander of the 2nd Infantry Division. In succession he commanded the 35th and the 30th Infantry Divisions, the XII Corps, and the Fourth Army. In May 1944, with the three-star rank of lieutenant general, he assumed command of the Ninth Army. Simpson led the Ninth Army in the assault on Brest in September 1944, and the advance to the Roer River in November. During the Battle of the Bulge in December, Simpson's Ninth Army came under command of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery's Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group. After the battle was over in early 1945, the Ninth Army remained with Montgomery's 21st Army Group for Operation Grenade, the advance to the Rhine, and Operation Plunder, its crossing. On 1 April the Ninth Army made contact with the First Army, making a complete encirclement of the Ruhr, and on 11 April, it reached the Elbe.

After the war ended, Simpson commanded the Second United States Army, and served in the Office of the Chief of Staff. He retired from the army in 1946. In retirement, he lived and worked in the San Antonio, Texas, area. He was a member of the board of directors of the Alamo National Bank, and succeeded General Walter Krueger as a member of the board of directors of the Chamber of Commerce of San Antonio. He died in the Brooke Army Medical Center on 15 August 1980, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Early life and military career William Hood Simpson was born on 18 May 1888, at Weatherford, Texas, the son of Edward J. Simpson, a rancher, and his wife Elizabeth Hood, the daughter of Judge A. J. Hood, a prominent lawyer. His father and uncle had fought with the Confederate Army under Nathan Bedford Forrest in the American Civil War. He lived in Weatherford until he was five or six years old, when the family moved to Hood's ranch near Aledo, Texas. He did not start school until he was eight years old, when he started riding a horse several miles each day to the local school in Aledo. He attended Hughey Turner Training School, a college-preparatory school, where he played high school football, but did not graduate.

Simpson decided to pursue a military career and attend the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York. He was friends with Fritz G. Lanham, the son of Samuel Lanham, the Governor of Texas (and a former law partner of Judge Hood). Through Lanham he was able to secure an appointment from his local Congressman, Oscar W. Gillespie. Competition was not fierce; only one other boy applied. As Simpson's academic credits were insufficient to qualify for automatic admission, Simpson had to sit an entrance examination at Fort Sam Houston in May 1905. A physical examination was conducted while he was there. He passed both, and was accepted into the class of 1909. it fell to Simpson, as a cadet captain, to escort them from the academy grounds. Simpson graduated on 11 June 1909, ranked 101st out of 103 in his class, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant of Infantry. Fellow members of his class included Jacob L. Devers (39th), George S. Patton (46th), and Robert L. Eichelberger (68th), all of whom eventually reached four-star rank, and John C. H. Lee (12th), and Delos C. Emmons (61st), who reached three-star rank.

Early military career and World War I Simpson's first assignment was with the 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, which was stationed at Fort Lincoln, North Dakota.

Between the wars Upon returning to the United States in May 1919, Simpson was posted to the 6th Division at Camp Grant, Illinois, as its chief of staff from 15 June 1919, to 25 August 1920. He reverted to his substantive rank of captain on 30 June 1920, but was promoted to major again the following day. From 26 August to 30 December, he served as its assistant chief of staff (G-3). He served in Washington, D.C., in the Office of the Chief of Infantry from 1 January 1921, to 1 August 1923. In El Paso, Texas, on Christmas Eve, 1921, he married Ruth Krakauer, an English-born widow whom he had first met while at West Point. In August 1945 the headquarters of the Ninth Army was redeployed to Camp Shanks, New York. In mid-September it was moved to Fort Bragg and inactivated on 10 October 1945.

Eisenhower summarized his experience with Simpson as follows:

For his services as commander of the Ninth Army, Simpson was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and a second Army Distinguished Service Medal. He also garnered foreign decorations that included being made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire by the UK, a Grand Commander of the Order of Orange-Nassau by the Netherlands, and a Grand Officer of the Order of Leopold with palm by Belgium. He also received the Legion of Honor and the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 from France, the Soviet Union's Order of Kutuzov, and the Croix de Guerre 1940 with palm from Belgium. and was buried alongside his first wife Ruth in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

Military decorations

Dates of rank