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Vorlage:Importartikel/Wartung-2024-05

Generalmajor Edwin Forrest Harding

Edwin Forrest Harding (* 18. September 1886 – † 5. Juni 1970) kommandierte beim Beginn des Zweiten Weltkrieges die 32. Infanterie Division der US Army. Im Jahre 1909 schloss er sein Studium an der Militärakademie der USA auf Platz 74 unter seinen Mitschülern ab, zu denen unter anderen auch George S. Patton auf Platz 46 gehörte. Sein erstes Feldkommando war die 32. Infanterie Division der US Army. Diese Einheit absolvierte insgesamt 654 Kampftage im Zweiten Weltkrieg, mehr als jede andere US Division.

Jugend und Ausbildung

Edwin Forrest Harding wurde am 18. September 1886 in Franklin (Ohio) als Sohn von Clarence Henry (Larry) Harding, Manager eines Unternehmens, das Schreibpapier herstellte und seiner Frau Lilly geboren. Edwin Harding besuchte die High School Franklin und danach die Phillips Exeter Academy. Außerdem besuchte er ein Jahr lang die 'Charles Braden Preparatory Academy', eine spezielle Vorbereitungsschule für die United States Military Academy in West Point. Er bestand die Aufnahmeprüfung, wurde zur Akademie West Point zugelassen und schloss die Ausbildung im Jahre 1909 ab.

Frühe Militärzeit

Vor dem Zweiten Weltkrieg war Harding im Range eine Oberst Kommandeur des 27. Infanterieregiments der US Army. 1941 wurde er zum Brigadegeneral befördert und Stellvertretender Kommandeur der 9. Infanteriedivision.

Cover des Buches Infantry in Battle. Leitfaden für Offiziere für den Einsatz von Infanterie im Kampf. Harding war Editor des Buches, das heute noch in Gebrauch ist.

1934 war Oberst George C. Marshall, der spätere US Außenminister der stellvertretende Kommandeur in Fort Benning und wählte Harding als Ausbilder und übertrug ihm die Verantwortung für die Veröffentlichungen der Infanterieschule. Er überarbeitete Infantry in Battle, ein Buch über neue Ideen über die Organisation der Infanterie im Gefecht. Harding war Verantwortlich für die Planung des Buches, überwachte die Vorbereitungen und bearbeitete den Inhalt des Manuskriptes. Harding verstand das moderne Militär und war nicht nur Herausgeber des Buches 'Infantry in Battle', er hatte buchstäblich das Buch geschrieben.

The triangular division structure it described was composed of three regimental combat teams, each supported by its own simplified support and command structure. The organizational structure emphasized speed, agility, a lower casualty rate, and adaptability. This contrasted with the square division structure of World War I which was designed for attrition combat characteristic of trench warfare. Infantry in Battle is still used as an officer's training manual in the Infantry Officer's Course, and was the training manual for most of the infantry officers and leaders of World War II.

Positionen im Zweiten Weltkrieg

The 32nd Infantry Division had been scheduled to receive a year of training before it left the United States. It was authorized to have a peacetime strength of about 11,600 soldiers, but like almost all units in the National Guard and the Regular Army prior to World War II, was not at full strength nor was it assigned all of the equipment it was authorized. Training for many soldiers was incomplete. Harding was a leader who exuded confidence. The 2nd Battalion of the 126th Infantry Regiment was deployed on an extremely arduous flanking maneuver on the Kapa Kapa Trail on Papua New Guinea over a Vorlage:Convert divide toward Jaure. The total distance over the mountains to the Japanese positions was over Vorlage:Convert, and most of the trail was barely a goat path. The Kapa Kapa trail across the Owen Stanley divide was a "dank and eerie place, rougher and more precipitous" than the Kokoda Track on which the Australians were then fighting the Japanese. It was "one of the most harrowing marches in American military history."

In a first for World War II, General Douglas MacArthur ordered the 128th Infantry Regiment to be flown from Australia to New Guinea, the greatest distance the Air Force had airlifted men up to that time. When he learned how the trek across the Vorlage:Convert mountain divide was so debilitating and lengthy, Harding requested that the remainder of the division be flown to the Buna area, to join Australian units in an assault on the main Japanese beachheads in eastern New Guinea. A local priest informed the Allies that there was a landing field on the western slopes and MacArthur ordered the rest of the 32nd flown across the Owen Stanley Range, becoming the first U.S. Army artillery flown into combat in the Pacific in World War II.

Attacked Buna

Allied Advance Across Owen Stanley Range September 26 - November 15, 1942.

With no roads through the jungle, the only way to keep the troops furnished with the food, ammunition and other goods necessary to operate against the Japanese was via airborne supply. This proved to be very problematic in the deep razorback ridges of the Owen Stanley Mountains. Because of a lack of parachutes, material was shoved off airplanes at a height of 40 or more feet, and were often damaged or completely lost due to mis-drops.

Japanese bunker at Buna made from coconut logs

Harding's division was tasked with attacking Buna on November 19, 1942. General Douglas MacArthur received intelligence from Brigadier General Charles Willoughby, who told MacArthur before the operation that there was "little indication of an attempt to make a strong stand against the Allied advance." The intelligence led him to believe that Buna was held by about 1000 sick and malnourished soldiers. Harding was nearly killed before the attack began. He was on board a coastal trawler with his headquarters company when it was attacked by Japanese aircraft. Harding saved himself by diving overboard and swimming to shore. The attack destroyed many of the supplies Harding was relying on for the upcoming attack.

Combat stalemate

Harding accepted MacArthur's decision to rely on direct air support in place of tanks or heavy artillery, and his troops were stopped cold by formidable Japanese field fortifications. With the only artillery support provided by a single 25-pounder battery with limited ammunition, the division was unable to make further progress against these positions. A stalemate ensued. When the 32nd Division failed to advance, MacArthur became so concerned about the lack of progress that he sent Major General Robert L. Eichelberger, commander of I Corps, to report on the situation. MacArthur famously said to Eichelberger,

Harding relieved of command

Eichelberger and his staff flew into Buna, and on December 2, he inspected the left or westward-lying U.S. front, the Urbana Force. Two of his staff officers, Colonels Clarence A. Martin and Gordon B. Rogers, inspected the right flank, which was designated the Warren Force. They found the troops were ill with malaria, dengue fever, tropical dysentery, and other ailments. They discovered the men had few rations, causing them to lose weight, and lacked hot meals, vitamins, and cigarettes. Some were unshaven, their uniforms and boots were dirty and in tatters, and they showed "little discipline or military courtesy". Having been on the front at Buna for two weeks with virtually no progress to show for it except for hundreds of casualties, their morale was very poor.

Eichelberger relieved Harding on December 2, 1942. (Harding and Eichelberger had been West Point classmates in 1909.) Eichelberger also sacked the regimental commanders and most battalion commanders. He replaced Harding with the division's artillery commander, Brigadier General Albert W. Waldron.

Eichelberger later noted that after he relieved Harding he "ordered the medicos to take the temperature of an entire company of hollow-eyed men near the front. Every member, I repeat, every member of that company was running a fever." Eichelberger found the men lacked even the oil and patches require to keep their guns free of rust. He put an officer in charge of supply who ignored all protocols to obtain whatever the men needed. Eichelberger conspicuously wore his three stars on his shoulders among the front-line troops, ignoring the rule that officers remove their insignia at the front because they would attract enemy fire. He lost thirty pounds in thirty days at the front.

Martin later admitted, after some experience with the Japanese defenses, that had attacks been continued on the day he conducted his inspection, they would not have been successful.

Later commands

MacArthur had initially promised Harding a new assignment elsewhere in the Southwest Pacific, but Harding was recalled to the United States a few weeks later. In 1943, he was made Commander of the Mobile Force in the Panama Canal Zone, and in 1944 Commander of the Antilles Department in the Caribbean, an unimportant assignment comprising 20 forts, camps and fields in the lesser islands from Cuba, Haiti, Costa Rica to Aruba, and portions of northern South America. In 1945, he was made Director of the Historical Division at the War Department for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. There he oversaw the planning of the Army's comprehensive history of World War II. He submitted a plan on December 18, 1945, in which he estimated that the full historical series would contain about 120 volumes, although only 101 of them were described.

Harding retired after 37 years of military service in 1946.

Externe links

• Edwin Harding at Find A Grave
• Generals of World War II

Literatur

• Ancell, R. Manning & Miller, Christine: The Biographical Dictionary of World War II Generals and Flag Officers: The US Armed Forces. Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut 1996, ISBN 0-313-29546-8 (englisch). 
• Anders, Leslie: Gentle Knight: The Life and Times of Major General Edwin Forrest Harding. Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio 1985, ISBN 0-87338-314-1 (englisch). 
• Campbell, James: The Ghost Mountain Boys: Their Epic March and the Terrifying Battle for New Guinea—The Forgotten War of the South Pacific. Three Rivers Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-307-33597-5 (englisch). 
• Gailey, Harry: MacArthur Strikes Back. Presidio Press, Novato 2000, ISBN 0-89141-702-8. 
• Larrabee, Eric: Commander in Chief: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, His Lieutenants, and Their War. Naval Institute Press, Annepolis 2004, ISBN 1-59114-455-8 (englisch). 
• Milner, Samuel: Victory in Papua. United States Department of the Army, 1957, ISBN 1-4102-0386-7 (englisch). 
• Huber, Thomas M.: Eichelberger at Buna: A Study in Battle Command. In: Studies in Battle Command. Faculty Combat Studies Institute, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, archiviert vom Original am 1. Januar 2007; abgerufen am 30. März 2024 (englisch). 
• Mages, Robert: One Green Hell. U.S. Army Military History Institute, 25. Oktober 2009, abgerufen am 17. April 2024 (englisch). 
• Samuel Milner: United States Army in World War II, The War in the Pacific. The Japanese Offensive Collapses. 1957, archiviert vom Original am 7. Mai 2009; abgerufen am 18. April 2024 (englisch). 
• Samuel Milner: United States Army in World War II, The War in the Pacific. Victory in Papua. 1957, archiviert vom Original am 7. Mai 2009; abgerufen am 18. April 2024 (englisch). 
• McCarthy, Dudley: South-West Pacific Area - First Year. In: Australia in the War of 1939-45. 1959, abgerufen am 17. April 2024 (englisch). 
• The Infantry Journal Incorporated: Infantry in Battle. Garrett and Massey, 1939, archiviert vom Original am 27. Februar 2009; abgerufen am 17. April 2024 (englisch). 
• Kent G. Budge: Harding, Edwin Forrest (1886-1970). In: The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia. 2009, archiviert vom Original am 1. Oktober 2011; abgerufen am 17. April 2024 (englisch). 
• Frederick Stonehouse: Combat Engineer! The History of the 107th Engineer Battalion (1881-1981). Archiviert vom Original am 22. April 2001; abgerufen am 17. April 2024 (englisch). 
• Conn Stetson: Historical Work in the United States Army 1862-1954. United States Army Center of Military History, archiviert vom Original am 26. Februar 2009; abgerufen am 9. April 2024 (englisch). 
• 1st Battalion - 120th Field Artillery Regiment. Archiviert vom Original am 19. November 2008; abgerufen am 30. März 2024 (englisch). 
• World War II: Buna Mission. 2006, archiviert vom Original am 23. Oktober 2008; abgerufen am 10. April 2024 (englisch). 
• The Infantry Journal Incorporated: Infantry in Battle. Garrett and Massey, Washington, D.C. 1939, ISBN 0-940328-04-6 (englisch).