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 née 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.[2][3] He attended Hughey Turner Training School, a college-preparatory school, where he played high school football,[4] but did not graduate.[5]
Simpson decided to pursue a military career and attend the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York.[6] 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.[3][7]
On 14 June 1905, a month after he turned 17, Simpson entered West Point.[8] He found the curriculum difficult, and by the end of his first year, he stood 116th in a class that now numbered 120; 29 members of the class had dropped out.[9] He was poor at mathematics, but excelled at equitation, and by the end of his second year his standing had risen to 107th out of 108, then to 100th out of 107 by the end of his third.[10] When eight cadets, two of whom were from the class of 1909, were found guilty of hazing and suspended,[11] it fell to Simpson, as a cadet captain, to escort them from the academy grounds.[12] Simpson graduated on 11 June 1909, ranked 101st out of 103 in his class, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant of Infantry.[13] Fellow members of his class included Jacob L. Devers (39th),[14]George S. Patton (46th),[15][6] and Robert L. Eichelberger (68th),[16] all of whom eventually reached four-star rank, and John C. H. Lee (12th), and Delos C. Emmons (61st), who reached three-star rank.[17]
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, 9 July 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Army Distinguished Service Medal to Lieutenant Colonel (Infantry) William Hood Simpson, United States Army, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services to the Government of the United States, in a duty of great responsibility during World War I, as Assistant Chief of Staff, 33d Division, during the Meuse-Argonne offensive and later as Chief of Staff of this division.[20]
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.[19] 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.[21][22][6] From 1 September 1923, to 28 May 1924, he was a student officer in the Advanced Course at the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia. He then attended the United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, from 15 August 1924, to 19 June 1925, when he was graduated as a distinguished graduate.[19][6]
Simpson commanded the Fourth United States Army from 29 September 1943, to 8 May 1944, with the three-star rank of lieutenant general as of 13 October 1943.[26] Fourth Army was re-formed when the combined headquarters of the Western Defense Command and Fourth Army were separated. A cadre was provided by the Western Defense Command, but all senior officers were approved or selected by Simpson. He brought his chief of staff, Colonel James E. Moore with him from XII Corps. Moore had previously served with him as chief of staff of the 35th and 30th Infantry Divisions. The Fourth Army headquarters was initially in San Jose, California, and it functioned as a training army. In search of more office space, the headquarters was moved to the Presidio of Monterey, California, on 1 November, and then to Fort Sam Houston in January 1944, when it took over the training mission of the Third United States Army, which had moved overseas.[27]
More personnel arrived in early 1944, enabling the Fourth Army to be split into a training army (the Fourth) and a headquarters to be deployed overseas, the Eighth, which was activated on 5 May 1944. Simpson and most of his staff became part of the Eighth Army headquarters. An advance party of the headquarters flew to the UK on 11 May, and Simpson met with the commander of the European Theater of Operations, United States Army, GeneralDwight D. Eisenhower, an Army War College classmate. At Eisenhower's request, Simpson's command was redesignated the Ninth United States Army to avoid confusion with the British Eighth Army. The main body of Ninth Army embarked for the UK on the ocean linerRMS Queen Elizabeth on 22 June.[28][29] Simpson observed the abortive start of Operation Cobra on 24 July with Lieutenant Generals Courtney Hodges and Lewis H. Brereton. They were forced to take shelter as errant American bombs dropped around them.[30] Lieutenant General Lesley J. McNair invited Simpson to watch the repeat of the bombardment with him the following day, but Simpson elected to return to his headquarters in England. Once again bombs fell short, and McNair was killed.[31]
The Ninth Army headquarters moved to France, as it landed at Utah Beach on 29 and 30 August. It became active as part of Lieutenant General Omar Bradley's 12th Army Group on 5 September, when the Ninth Army took over command of the US forces in Brittany from Lieutenant General George S. Patton Jr.'s Third Army.[32] Simpson's first task was the capture of Brest. To overcome strong natural and man-made defenses, Simpson chose to employ overwhelming firepower. There were sufficient artillery pieces in the area, but not sufficient ammunition, especially for the heavier pieces. Over a two-week period, 40,000 long tons (41,000 t) of artillery ammunition was brought forward from dumps in Normandy and the UK.[33] The battle commenced on 8 September, and after much hard fighting the city was liberated on 20 September 1944.[34]
Rhineland Campaign, 8 February – 5 March 1945
Simpson moved his headquarters to Arlon, where it opened on 2 October, and two days later the Ninth Army relieved First Army in the southern portion of its line, taking over the center of the 12th Army Group's front in the Ardennes between the First and Third Armies.[35] The stay at Arlon was brief; on 10 October, Simpson received word that Ninth Army was to take over the northern sector of the 12th Army Group's front adjoining Field MarshalBernard Montgomery's Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group. This was a consequence of Eisenhower's decision to reinforce that sector. The plan was for the Ninth Army to envelop the Ruhr industrial area to the north while First Army enveloped it to the south.[36][37]
Reflecting on the decision later, Bradley opined that the "uncommonly normal" Ninth Army staff collaborated with the 21st Army Group better than the more temperamental First Army staff did.[38] Ninth Army's attack on the Siegfried Line north of Aachen commenced on 16 November, heralded by artillery and aerial bombardment that included attacks by heavy bombers of the Eighth Air Force and RAF Bomber Command.[39] Progress was slow and costly. Simpson's offensive ended on 14 December, but on the Roer River rather than the Rhine, due to the flooding threat posed by Roer dams upstream.[40]
The Urft Dam (Urfttalsperre) held 161,000,000 cubic feet (4,550,000 m3) of water, and the Rur Dam (Schwammenauel) held another 2.31×109 cubic feet (65,500,000 m3). The Germans could demolish them to create a disastrous flood. Alternatively, through controlled demolition, they could release 7,100 cubic feet per second (202 m3/s). This would put the river into a flood condition that would cause it to rise by 3 feet (0.91 m), increase the speed of the current by 10 feet per second (3.0 m/s) and increase the width to 1,200 feet (370 m). This would preclude a crossing attempt for ten to twelve days.[41]
Eisenhower was anxious about accepting an army commander without operational experience in the war, but senior officers with such experience were few in May 1944. By 1 October, however, Eisenhower was sufficiently impressed by Simpson's performance to write to the Chief of Staff of the Army, General George C. Marshall, and recommend that Simpson's temporary rank of lieutenant general be made substantive.[42] According to Colonel Armistead D. Mead, Simpson's G-3 (Operations) officer:
General Simpson's genius lay in his charismatic manner, his command presence, his ability to listen, his unfailing use of his staff to check things out before making decisions, and his way of making all hands feel that they were important to him and to the army... I have never known a commander to make better use of his staff than General Simpson.[43]
During the crisis of the Battle of the Bulge, the Ninth Army came under Montgomery's command on 20 December. The Ninth Army took no part in the battle, but was stripped of eight divisions to reinforce the First Army, and took over part of its front. After the battle was over in early 1945, the Ninth Army remained with Montgomery's 21st Army Group for the final attack into Germany.[40][44] For Operation Grenade, the crossing of the Roer, the Ninth Army was reinforced, its strength increased from five to twelve divisions.[45] The major obstacle to the advance was the river itself, as the dams were still in German hands.[41]
The British Second Army commenced Operation Veritable, the northern part of a pincer movement to clear the Rhineland, on 8 February 1945. Montgomery's plan was for Operation Grenade, scheduled to commence on 10 February 1945, to form the southern part of the pincer, but there was still no word of the capture of the Roer dams by the First Army. Montgomery left the decision of whether to delay Operation Grenade up to Simpson, but postponement would make the task of both the British troops already fighting more difficult, and increase the risk that the Germans would detect the Ninth Army's preparations. Simpson watched the river slowly rise, but could not be certain whether it was the result of German demolition or increased flow due to snow melt. Finally, he postponed the attack. His decision was the correct one; the waters continued to rise and the river level was up 5 feet (1.5 m) on 9 and 10 February.[46]
Simpson (left) crosses the Rhine in an LCVP with Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery, Winston Churchill and Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke
Operation Grenade was finally launched on 23 February, even though the water level had not yet completely returned to normal.[47] The attack was successfully concluded on 5 March, with the Rhine reached.[48] Next came Operation Plunder, the 21st Army Group's crossing of the Rhine; the Ninth Army's part was called Operation Flashpoint.[49] The Rhine was crossed on 24 March 1945.[50] On 1 April, the Ninth Army made contact with First Army, making a complete encirclement of the Ruhr.[51] Three days later, the Ninth Army reverted to the control of Bradley's 12th Army Group.[52] On 11 April, the Ninth Army reached the Elbe.[53]
On 10 March, Montgomery had written to Simpson:
I would like to tell you how very pleased I have been with everything the Ninth Army has done. The operations were planned and carried through with great skill and energy. It has fallen to my lot to be mixed up with a good deal of fighting since I took command of the Eighth Army before Alamein in 1942; and the experience I have gained enables me to judge pretty well the military calibre of Armies. I can truthfully say that the operations of the Ninth Army, since 23 February last, have been up to the best standards.[42]
After Victory in Europe Day, the Ninth Army participated in the occupation of Germany. On 6 May, it took over the First Army's units, allowing the First Army headquarters to redeploy to the Pacific.[54] Further regrouping followed, as most of the area covered was earmarked to be administered by the UK or Soviet Union. On 15 June, all units of the Ninth Army were handed over to the Seventh United States Army, and Ninth Army headquarters prepared to redeploy to China.[55] Simpson flew to China, where he met with Lieutenant General Albert C. Wedemeyer, the American commander there. Simpson was informed that he would become the Commanding General, Field Forces, and deputy theater commander. The end of the war in Asia came before this occurred.[56] 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.[57]
Eisenhower summarized his experience with Simpson as follows:
If Simpson ever made a mistake as an Army Commander, it never came to my attention. After the war I learned that he had for some years suffered from a serious stomach disorder, but I would never have suspected during hostilities. Alert, intelligent, and professionally capable, he was the type of leader that American soldiers deserve. In view of his brilliant service, it was unfortunate that shortly after the war ill-health forced his retirement before he was promoted to four-star grade, which he had so clearly earned.[58]
After the war ended, Simpson commanded the Memphis, Tennessee-based Second United States Army from 11 October to 14 November 1945. He then returned to Washington, D.C., working in the Office of the Chief of Staff as a member of the Military Intelligence Board, and President of the War Department Reorganization Board from 15 November 1945, until 4 April 1946. He retired from the army with a physical disability on 30 November 1946.[26] On 4 August 1954, he was promoted to full general on the retired list by a special Act of Congress that advanced officers who had commanded armies or the equivalent to that rank.[59][60]
After retirement, Simpson 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 was also chairman of the board of the Alamo chapter of the Association of the United States Army, and spearheaded a drive to raise $750,000 for the construction of the Santa Rosa Children's Hospital.[5][21]
His wife Ruth died in 1971, and soon thereafter, Simpson moved into the Menger Hotel in downtown San Antonio, where he was very popular with the staff. He suffered from phlebitis and neuritis, and was generally confined to his room. In 1978, at the age of 90, he met Catherine Louise (Kay) Berman, a retired civil-service worker from a military family 33 years his junior, and the two were married on 9 April 1978. They moved out of the Menger Hotel and into a home they built in Windcrest, Texas.[21][61]
^Empric, Bruce E. (2024), Uncommon Allies: U.S. Army Recipients of Soviet Military Decorations in World War II, Teufelsberg Press, p. 62, ISBN979-8-3444-6807-5
Bartoli, Jonelle Ryan; McClurkin, Brenda S. (2012). Weatherford: The Early Years. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN978-0-7385-8549-9. OCLC769988267.
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