Omar Bradley

Omar Nelson Bradley (February 12, 1893 – April 8, 1981) was a senior officer of the United States Army during and after World War II, rising to the rank of General of the Army. He was the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and oversaw the U.S. military's policy-making in the Korean War.

Born in

After the war, Bradley headed the Veterans Administration. He was appointed as Chief of Staff of the United States Army in 1948 and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1949. In 1950, he was promoted to the rank of General of the Army, becoming the last of the nine individuals promoted to five-star rank in the United States Armed Forces. He was the senior military commander at the start of the Korean War, and supported President Harry S. Truman's wartime policy of containment. He was instrumental in persuading Truman to dismiss General Douglas MacArthur in 1951 after MacArthur resisted administration attempts to scale back the war's strategic objectives. Bradley left active duty in 1953 (although remaining on "active retirement" for the next 27 years). He continued to serve in public and business roles until his death in 1981 at age 88.^[1]

Early life and education

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Omar Nelson Bradley, the son of

His mother moved with him to Moberly, where she remarried. Bradley graduated from Moberly High School in 1910. He was an outstanding student and athlete who was chosen captain of both the baseball and track teams.

Bradley was working as a 17-cents-an-hour

While Bradley was attending the academy, his devotion to sports prevented him from excelling academically; but he still ranked 44th in a class of 164. He was a baseball star and often played on semi-pro teams for no remuneration (to ensure his eligibility as an amateur to represent the academy). He was considered one of the most outstanding college players in the nation during his junior and senior seasons at West Point, noted as both a power hitter and an outfielder, with one of the best arms in his day. He rejected multiple offers to play professional baseball, choosing to pursue his Army career.^{[citation needed]}

While stationed at West Point as an instructor, in 1923 Bradley became a

At West Point, Bradley played three years of varsity baseball including the 1914 team. Every player on that team who remained in the army ultimately became a general. Bradley graduated from West Point in 1915 as part of a class that produced many future generals, and which military historians have called "

Bradley was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Infantry Branch of the United States Army and was first assigned to the 14th Infantry Regiment. He served on the Mexico–United States border in 1915, defending it from incursions due to the Mexican civil war. When the United States entered World War I in April 1917 (see the American entry into World War I), he was promoted to captain and sent to guard the Butte, Montana copper mines, considered of strategic importance. Bradley, who was assigned to command the second battalion of the 14th Infantry,^[6] joined the 19th Division in August 1918, which was scheduled for European deployment, but the influenza pandemic and the armistice with Germany on November 11, 1918, that fall intervened.

From September 1919 until September 1920, Bradley served as assistant professor of military science at South Dakota State College (now University) in Brookings, South Dakota.

During the difficult period

From 1929, Bradley taught again at West Point, studying at the U.S. Army War College in 1934. Bradley was promoted to lieutenant colonel on June 26, 1936^[8] and worked at the War Department; after 1938 he was directly reporting to U.S. Army Chief of Staff Marshall.

On February 20, 1941, Bradley was promoted to the (wartime) temporary rank of

Almost a year later, on February 15, 1942, over two months after the American entry into World War II, Bradley was made a temporary major general (a rank made permanent in September 1944) and soon took command of the 82nd Infantry Division (soon to be redesignated as the 82nd Airborne Division) before succeeding Major General James Garesche Ord as commander of the 28th Infantry Division in June.

Louisiana Maneuvers

The

Many Army officers present at the maneuvers later rose to very senior roles in World War II, including Bradley, Mark Clark, Dwight Eisenhower, Walter Krueger, Lesley J. McNair and George Patton.

Lieutenant Colonel Bradley was assigned to General Headquarters during the Louisiana Maneuvers but as a courier and observer in the field, he gained invaluable experience for the future. Colonel Bradley assisted in the planning of the maneuvers, and kept the General Staff in Washington, D.C. abreast of the training that was occurring during the Louisiana Maneuvers.^{[citation needed]}

Bradley later said that Louisianans welcomed the soldiers with open arms. Some soldiers even slept in some of the residents' houses. Bradley said it was so crowded in those houses sometimes when the soldiers were sleeping, there would hardly be any walking room. Bradley also said a few of the troops were disrespectful towards the residents' land and crops, and would tear down crops for extra food. However, for the most part, residents and soldiers established good relations.^[12]

World War II

Bradley's personal experiences in the war are documented in his award-winning book A Soldier's Story, published by Henry Holt & Co. in 1951. It was re-released by The Modern Library in 1999. The book is based on an extensive diary maintained by his aide-de-camp, Chester B. Hansen, who ghost-wrote the book using the diary; Hansen's original diary is maintained by the U. S. Army Heritage and Education Center, at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.^[13]

On March 25, 1942, Bradley, recently promoted to major general, assumed command of the newly activated 82nd Infantry Division.^[11] Bradley oversaw the division's transformation into the first American airborne division and took parachute training. In August the division was re-designated as the 82nd Airborne Division and Bradley relinquished command to Major General Matthew Ridgway, who had been his assistant division commander (ADC).

Bradley then took command of the 28th Infantry Division, which was a National Guard division with soldiers mostly from the state of Pennsylvania.^[11]

North Africa and Sicily

Bradley did not receive a front-line command until early 1943, after

Bradley succeeded Patton as commander of II Corps in April and directed it in the final Tunisian battles of April and May, with Bizerte falling to elements of II Corps on May 7, 1943. The campaign as a whole ended six days later, and with it came the surrender of over 200,000 Axis Germans and Italians.^[15]

As a result of his excellent performance in the campaign, Bradley was promoted to Brevet lieutenant general on June 2, 1943^[8][16] and continued to command II Corps in the Allied invasion of Sicily (codenamed Operation Husky). The campaign lasted only a few weeks and, as he had in Tunisia, Bradley continued to impress his superiors, Eisenhower most notably, who wrote to Marshall about Bradley:

There is very little I need to tell you about him [Bradley] because he is running absolutely true to form all the time. He has brains, a fine capacity for leadership and a thorough understanding of the requirements of modern battle. He has never caused me one moment of worry. He is perfectly capable of running an Army. He has the respect of all his associates, including all the British officers that have met him.^[17]

Normandy 1944

On September 10, 1943, Bradley transferred to London as commander in chief of the American ground forces preparing to invade France in the spring of 1944. For D-Day, Bradley was chosen to command the

On June 10, 1944, four days after the initial Normandy landings, Bradley and his staff debarked to establish a headquarters ashore. During Operation Overlord, he commanded three corps directed at the two American invasion targets, Utah Beach and Omaha Beach. During July he inspected the modifications made by Curtis G. Culin to Sherman tanks, that led to the Rhino tank. Later in July, he planned Operation Cobra, the beginning of the breakout from the Normandy beachhead. Operation Cobra called for the use of strategic bombers using huge bomb loads to attack German defensive lines. After several postponements due to weather, the operation began on July 25, 1944, with a short, very intensive bombardment with lighter explosives, designed so as not to create more rubble and craters that would slow Allied progress. Bradley was horrified when 77 planes bombed short and dropped bombs on their own troops, including Lieutenant General Lesley J. McNair:^[18]

The ground belched, shook and spewed dirt to the sky. Scores of our troops were hit, their bodies flung from slit trenches. Doughboys were dazed and frightened....A bomb landed squarely on McNair in a slit trench and threw his body sixty feet and mangled it beyond recognition except for the three stars on his collar.^[19]

However, the bombing was successful in knocking out the enemy communication system, rendering German troops confused and ineffective, and opened the way for the ground offensive by attacking infantry. Bradley sent in three infantry divisions—the 9th, 4th and 30th—to move in close behind the bombing. The infantry succeeded in cracking the German defenses, opening the way for advances by armored forces commanded by Patton to sweep around the German lines.

As the build-up continued in Normandy, the Third Army was formed under Patton, Bradley's former commander, while Lieutenant General Courtney Hodges, whom Bradley had succeeded as Commandant of the Infantry School, succeeded Bradley in command of the First Army; together, they made up Bradley's new command, the 12th Army Group. By August, the 12th Army Group had swollen to over 900,000 men and ultimately consisted of four field armies. It was the largest group of American soldiers to ever serve under one field commander.

Falaise pocket

Hitler's refusal to allow his army to flee the rapidly advancing Allied pincer movement created an opportunity to trap an entire German Army Group in northern France.^[20] After the German attempt to split the US armies at Mortain (Operation Lüttich), Bradley's Army Group and XV Corps became the southern pincer in forming the Falaise pocket, trapping the German Seventh Army and Fifth Panzer Army in Normandy. The northern pincer was formed of Canadian forces, part of British General Sir Bernard Montgomery's 21st Army Group. On August 13, 1944, concerned that American troops would clash with Canadian forces advancing from the north-west, Bradley overrode Patton's orders for a further push north towards Falaise, while ordering Major General Wade H. Haislip's XV Corps to "concentrate for operations in another direction".^[21] Any American troops in the vicinity of Argentan were ordered to withdraw.^[22] This order halted the southern pincer movement of Haislip's XV Corps.^[23] Though Patton protested the order, he obeyed it, leaving an exit—a "trap with a gap"—for the remaining German forces.^[23] Around 20,000–50,000 German troops (leaving almost all of their heavy material)^[24] escaped through the gap, avoiding encirclement and almost certain destruction.^[23] They would be reorganized and rearmed in time to slow the Allied advance into the Netherlands and Germany.^[23] Most of the blame for this outcome has been placed on Bradley.^[25][26] Bradley had incorrectly assumed, based on Ultra decoding transcripts, that most of the Germans had already escaped encirclement, and he feared a German counterattack as well as possible friendly fire casualties.^[27] Though admitting that a mistake had been made, Bradley placed the blame on General Montgomery for moving the British and Commonwealth troops too slowly, though the latter were in direct contact with a large number of SS Panzer, paratroopers, and other elite German forces.^[28][29]

Germany

The American forces reached the "Siegfried Line" or "Westwall" in late September. The success of the advance had taken the Allied high command by surprise. They had expected the German Wehrmacht to make stands on the natural defensive lines provided by the French rivers, and had not prepared the logistics for the much deeper advance of the Allied armies, so fuel ran short.

Bradley's Army Group now covered a very wide front in hilly country, from the

Bradley's command took the initial brunt of what would become the Battle of the Bulge. For logistical and command reasons, General Eisenhower decided to place Bradley's First and Ninth Armies under the temporary command of Field Marshal Montgomery's 21st Army Group on the northern flank of the Bulge. Bradley was incensed, and began shouting at Eisenhower: "By God, Ike, I cannot be responsible to the American people if you do this. I resign."^[34] Eisenhower turned red, took a breath and replied evenly, "Brad, I—not you—am responsible to the American people. Your resignation therefore means absolutely nothing."^[35] Bradley paused, made one more protest, then fell silent as Eisenhower concluded, "Well, Brad, those are my orders."^[35]

At least one historian has attributed Eisenhower's support for Bradley's subsequent promotion to (temporary) four-star general (March 1945, not made permanent until January 1949) to, in part, a desire to compensate him for the way in which he had been sidelined during the Battle of the Bulge.^[36] Others point out that both Secretary of War Stimson and General Eisenhower had desired to reward General Patton with a fourth star for his string of accomplishments in 1944, but that Eisenhower could not promote Patton over Bradley, Devers, and other senior commanders without upsetting the chain of command (as Bradley commanded these people in the theater). A more likely explanation is that as Bradley commanded an Army Group and was the immediate subordinate of Eisenhower, who was promoted to five star rank in December 1944, it was only appropriate that he should hold the next lower rank.^[37][38]

Victory

Bradley used the advantage gained in March 1945—after Eisenhower authorized a difficult but successful Allied offensive (on a broad front with British

Command style

Unlike some of the more colorful generals of World War II, Bradley was polite and courteous in his public appearances. A reticent man, Bradley was first favorably brought to public attention by war correspondent Ernie Pyle, who was urged by General Eisenhower to "go and discover Bradley".^[39] Pyle subsequently wrote several dispatches in which he referred to Bradley as the GI's general, a title that would stay with Bradley throughout his remaining career.^[40] Will Lang Jr. of Life magazine said "The thing I most admire about Omar Bradley is his gentleness. He was never known to issue an order to anybody of any rank without saying 'Please' first."

While the public at large never forgot the image created by newspaper correspondents, a different view of Bradley was offered by combat historian S. L. A. Marshall, who knew both Bradley and George Patton, and had interviewed officers and men under their commands. Marshall, who was also a critic of George S. Patton,^[41] noted that Bradley's "common man" image "was played up by Ernie Pyle...The GIs were not impressed with him. They scarcely knew him. He's not a flamboyant figure and he didn't get out much to troops. And the idea that he was idolized by the average soldier is just rot."^[42]

While Bradley retained his reputation as the GI's general, he was criticized by some of his contemporaries for other aspects of his leadership style, sometimes described as "managerial" in nature.

One controversy of Bradley's leadership involved the lack of use of specialized tanks (Hobart's Funnies) in the Normandy invasion.^[47] After the war Chester Wilmot^[48] quoted correspondence with the developer of the tanks, Major General Percy Hobart, to the effect that the failure to use such tanks was a major contributing factor to the losses at Omaha Beach, and that Bradley had deferred the decision whether to use the tanks to his staff who had not taken up the offer, other than in respect of the DD (swimming) tanks. However a later memo from the 21st Army Group is on record^[49] as relaying two separate requests from the First Army, one dealing with the DD tanks and "Porpoises" (towed waterproof trailers), the other with a variety of other Funnies. The second list gives not only items of specific interest with requested numbers, but items known to be available that were not of interest. The requested items were modified Shermans, and tank attachments compatible with Shermans. Noted as not of interest were Funnies that required Churchill or Valentine tanks, or for which alternatives were available from the US. Of the six requested types of Funnies, the Sherman flamethrower version of the Churchill Crocodile is known to have been difficult to produce, and the Centipede never seems to have been used in combat. Richard Anderson considers that the press of time prevented the production of the other four items in numbers beyond the Commonwealth's requirements. Given the heavier surf and the topography of Omaha Beach, it is unlikely that the funnies would have been as useful there as they were on the Commonwealth beaches.^[50] The British had agreed to provide British-crewed Funnies to operate with the American forces but were unable to train the crews and deliver the vehicles in time.^[51]

Post-war

Veterans Administration

President Truman appointed Bradley to head the

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

Bradley became the Army Chief of Staff in 1948. After assuming command, Bradley found a U.S. military establishment badly in need of reorganization, equipment, and training. As Bradley himself put it, "the Army of 1948 could not fight its way out of a paper bag."^{[53][54][55][56]}

On August 11, 1949, President Harry S. Truman appointed Bradley the first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. After his initial 1948 plan to expand the Army and modernize its equipment was rejected by the Truman Administration, Bradley reacted to the increasingly severe postwar defense department budget cutbacks imposed by Secretary of Defense Louis A. Johnson by publicly supporting Johnson's decisions, going so far as to tell Congress that he would be doing a "disservice to the nation" if he asked for a larger military force.^{[55][56][57][58]} Bradley also suggested that official Navy protests of Secretary Johnson's canceling the supercarrier United States were due to improper personal or political, even mutinous motives, calling Navy admirals "fancy dans who won't hit the line with all they have on every play unless they can call the signals", and who were in "open rebellion against the civilian control."^[59][60]

In his second memoir, Bradley would later state that not arguing more forcefully in 1948 and 1949 for a sufficient defense budget "was a mistake... perhaps the greatest mistake I made in my postwar years in Washington."^[61][62]

On September 22, 1950,

In 1950 Bradley was elected as an honorary member of the New York Society of the Cincinnati in recognition of his outstanding service to his country.

Korean War

As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Bradley was the senior military officer at the outset of the

Bradley was the chief military policy maker during the Korean War, and supported Truman's original plan of 'rolling back' Communist aggression by conquering all of North Korea. When Chinese Communists entered North Korea in late 1950 and again drove back American forces, Bradley agreed that rollback had to be dropped in favor of a strategy of containment of North Korea. The containment strategy was subsequently adopted by the Truman administration for North Korea, and applied to communist expansion worldwide. Never an admirer of General Douglas MacArthur, Bradley was instrumental in convincing Truman to dismiss MacArthur as the overall commander in the Korean theatre^[70] after MacArthur resisted administration attempts to scale back strategic objectives in the Korean War.

In his testimony to the U.S. Congress, Bradley strongly rebuked MacArthur for his support of victory at all costs in the Korean War. Soon after Truman relieved MacArthur of command in April 1951, Bradley said in Congressional testimony, "Red China is not the powerful nation seeking to dominate the world. Frankly, in the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, this strategy would involve us in

Retirement

Bradley left active military service in August 1953, but remained on active duty by virtue of his rank of General of the Army. He chaired the Commission on Veterans' Pensions, commonly known as the "Bradley Commission", in 1955–1956. In January 1956, Bradley became one of the founding members of the President's Board of Consultants on Foreign Intelligence Activities, later the President's Intelligence Advisory Board.^[71]

In retirement, Bradley held a number of positions in commercial life, including

His memoirs, A Soldier's Story (ghostwritten by aide-de-camp Chester B. Hansen who kept a daily diary for him during the war[73]), was published in 1951. Bradley started work on his autobiography A General's Life: An Autobiography (1983) before his death; it was coauthored with Clay Blair, who completed it posthumously. In this work, Bradley criticized British Field Marshal Montgomery's 1945 claims to have won the Battle of the Bulge.

On December 1, 1965, Bradley's wife, Mary, died of leukemia. He met Esther Dora "Kitty" Buhler (1922-2004) and married her on September 12, 1966; they were married until his death.^[74]

As a horse racing fan, Bradley spent much of his leisure time at racetracks in California. He was often invited to present the trophies to the winners. He was a lifetime sports fan, especially of college football. He was the 1948

In 1967–1968 Bradley served as a member of President

Following the death of Dwight D. Eisenhower in March 1969, Bradley was the only surviving 5-star officer in the US Armed Forces.

In 1970, Bradley served as a consultant for the film Patton. Screenwriters Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North wrote most of the film based on Bradley's memoir, A Soldier's Story, and the biography, Patton: Ordeal and Triumph, by Ladislas Farago. The screenwriters did not have access to General Patton's diaries nor did Patton's family grant interviews. They relied upon observations by Bradley and other military contemporaries when attempting to reconstruct Patton's thoughts and motives.^[76]

In a review of the film Patton,

In 1971 Bradley was the subject of an episode of the TV show This Is Your Life.

Bradley attended the 30th anniversary of D-Day at Normandy, France on June 6, 1974, participating in various parades.

On January 10, 1977, Bradley was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Gerald Ford.

In 1978, Bradley received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member General Jimmy Doolittle.^[80][81]

Bradley was the keynote speaker at Pointe du Hoc, Normandy, France on June 6, 1979, for the 35th anniversary of D-Day. While seated in a wheelchair, he performed an open ranks inspection of the U.S. representative army unit, the 84th Army Band from VII Corps HQ, Stuttgart, West Germany.

Bradley lived during his last years in Texas at a special residence on the grounds of the William Beaumont Army Medical Center, part of the complex which supports Fort Bliss.

One of Bradley's last public appearances was as the guest of honor at the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan on January 20, 1981.^[82]

Death

Omar Bradley died on April 8, 1981, in New York City of a

Bradley's posthumous autobiography, A General's Life, was published in 1983. Bradley began the book but found writing difficult, and hired writer Clay Blair to help shape the work. After Bradley's death, Blair continued the writing, using Bradley's first-person voice. The resulting book is also based on Blair's interviews of people in Bradley's circles, and on Bradley's personal papers.^[84]

Bradley is known for saying, "Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than about peace, more about killing than we know about living."^[85]

The U.S. Army's Bradley Fighting Vehicle was named after General Bradley.

Bradley's hometown, Moberly, Missouri, classifies him as a "favorite son" and is planning a library and museum in his honor.

This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (February 2019)

Bradley Leadership Symposia have been held in Moberly, honoring him as a teacher of young officers.^{[citation needed]} On February 12, 2010, the U.S. House of Representatives, the Missouri Senate, the Missouri House, the County of Randolph and the City of Moberly recognized Bradley's birthday as General Omar Nelson Bradley Day.^{[citation needed]}

On May 5, 2000, the United States Postal Service issued a series of Distinguished Soldiers stamps in which Bradley was honored.^[86]

There is also an elementary school named after him in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.^{[citation needed]}

Summary of service

Assignment history

• August 1, 1911: Cadet,
  West Point
• June 12, 1915: 14th Infantry Regiment
• September 10, 1919: ROTC professor, South Dakota State College
• September 13, 1920: Instructor, United States Military Academy
• September 15, 1924: Infantry School Student,
  Fort Benning
  , Georgia
• October 1, 1925: Battalion Commander, 27th Infantry Regiment
• June 10, 1927: Office of National Guard and Reserve Affairs,
  Hawaiian Department
• August 31, 1928: Student,
  Command and General Staff School
• August 1, 1929: Instructor,
  Fort Benning
  , Georgia
• August 18, 1933: Student, United States Army War College
• June 30, 1934: Plans and Training Officer, United States Military Academy
• June 1, 1938: War Department General Staff, G-1 Chief of Operations Branch and Assistant Secretary of the General Staff
• March 5, 1941: Commandant, U.S. Army Infantry School, Fort Benning, Georgia
• February 19, 1942: Commanding General, 82nd Infantry Division
• June 27, 1942: Commanding General, 28th Infantry Division
• February 24, 1943: Personal representative in the field for Commanding General, North Africa Theater of Operations (NATO)
• March 6, 1943: Deputy Commander, II Corps
• April 16, 1943: Commanding General, II Corps, North Africa and Sicily
• September 9, 1943: Commanding General, Field Forces European Theater
• March 6, 1944: Commanding General,
  First Army
• August 1, 1944: Commanding General,
  12th Army Group
• July 12, 1945: 12th Army Group disestablished, returned to United States
• August 15, 1945:
  Veterans Administration
• February 7, 1948:
  United States Army Chief of Staff
• August 15, 1949: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
• August 19, 1953: Remained on active duty without an assignment^[87]

Orders, decorations and medals

United States

	Defense Distinguished Service Medal
	Army Distinguished Service Medal with three oak leaf clusters
	Navy Distinguished Service Medal
	Silver Star
	Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster
	Bronze Star Medal
	Presidential Medal of Freedom
	Mexican Border Service Medal
	World War I Victory Medal
	Army of Occupation of Germany Medal
	American Defense Service Medal
	American Campaign Medal
	European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with Arrowhead device , one silver and two bronze campaign stars
	World War II Victory Medal
	Army of Occupation Medal with "Germany" clasp
	National Defense Service Medal with oak leaf cluster
	Korean Service Medal
	United Nations Service Medal

• Combat Infantryman Badge (honorary)
• Army Staff Identification Badge
• Four Overseas Service Bars

Foreign orders

• Grand Cross, Legion of Honour (France)
• Grand Cross, Order of the Crown (Belgium)
• Grand Cross, Order of the Oak Crown (Luxembourg)
• Grand Cross, Order of George I (Greece)
• Grand Cross, Order of the Phoenix (Greece)
• Grand Cross, Military Order of Savoy (Italy)
• Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (United Kingdom)
• Grand Officer, Order of the Liberator (Argentina)
• Grand Officer, Order of Military Merit (Brazil)
• Grand Officer, Order of Orange-Nassau (Netherlands)
• Commander, Order of the White Lion (Czechoslovakia)
• Commander of the Order of Ouissam Alaouite (Morocco)
• Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (Poland)
• Order of Suvorov (1st class) (Soviet Union)
• Order of Kutuzov (1st class) (Soviet Union)

Foreign decorations and medals

• French Croix de guerre with silver-gilt palm
• War Cross WWII (Belgium) with palm
• Czechoslovak War Cross 1939–1945
• Luxembourg War Cross
• Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal

Dates of rank

Source:^[88]

No insignia	Cadet, United States Military Academy: August 1, 1911
No pin insignia in 1915	Second Lieutenant, United States Army: June 12, 1915
	First Lieutenant, United States Army: July 1, 1916
	Captain, United States Army: May 15, 1917
	Temporary National Army : June 17, 1918, to January 22, 1920
	Major, National Army: July 1, 1920
	Captain, Regular Army (reverted to permanent rank*): November 4, 1922
	Major, Regular Army: June 25, 1924
	Lieutenant Colonel, Regular Army: July 26, 1936
	Brigadier General, Army of the United States: February 24, 1941
	Major General, Army of the United States: February 15, 1942
	Lieutenant General, Army of the United States: June 2, 1943
	Colonel, Regular Army: October 1, 1943**
	Brigadier General, Regular Army: September 1, 1943**
	Major General, Regular Army: September 8, 1944
	General, Army of the United States: March 12, 1945
	General, Regular Army: January 31, 1949
	General of the Army, Regular Army: September 22, 1950

* – Discharged as Major and appointed Captain November 4, 1922; acts June 30, 1922, and September 14, 1922^[89]

** – Bradley's effective date for permanent brigadier general in the Regular Army is earlier than his effective date of promotion for permanent colonel. While serving as a temporary lieutenant general in early 1943, Bradley was notified that he would be promoted to permanent colonel with an effective date of October 1, 1943. At the time, promotions to permanent brigadier and major general had been withheld for more than two years, except for

The effective postdated (and then backdated) date of rank for Bradley's promotion to permanent brigadier general—September 1, 1943—thus came before the effective postdated date of rank for his promotion to colonel—October 1, 1943.[90]^{[91][92][93][94]}

References

Further reading

• ISBN 978-0230608566
  .
• Blair, Clay (2003). The Forgotten War: America in Korea, 1950–1953. Naval Institute Press.
  ISBN 978-1-59114-075-7
  .
• Blumenson, Martin (1990). General Bradley's Decision at Argentan (August 13, 1944). University of Michigan Library Press.
• Blumenson, Martin (1993). The Battle of the Generals: The Untold Story of the Falaise Pocket, The Campaign That Should Have Won World War II. William Morrow & Co.
  ISBN 0688118372
  .
• Bradley, Omar N. and Blair, Clay (1983). A General's Life: An Autobiography. p. 752. New York: Simon & Schuster.
  ISBN 978-0-671-41023-0
  .
• Bradley, Omar N. (1951). A Soldier's Story. New York: Holt Publishing Co.
  ISBN 0-375-75421-0
  .
• Cowley, Robert; Parker, Geoffrey (1996). The Reader's Companion to Military History. Houghton Mifflin Company.
  ISBN 978-0395669693
  .
• D'Este, Carlo (1995). Patton: A Genius for War. Harper Perennial.
  ISBN 978-0060927622
  .
• Jordan, Jonathan W. (2011). Brothers Rivals Victors: Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley, and the Partnership that Drove the Allied Conquest in Europe. NAL.
  ISBN 978-0451232120
  .
• Lavoie, Jeffrey D. Lavoie. The Private Life of General Omar N. Bradley. Jefferson McFarland, 2015.
  ISBN 978-0-7864-9839-0
  .
• MacLean, Colonel French L. The Fifth Field: The Story of the 96 American Soldiers Sentenced to Death and Executed in Europe and North Africa in World War II, Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2013,
  ISBN 9780764345777
  .
• Ossad, Steven L. Omar Nelson Bradley: America's GI General (U of Missouri Press, 2017)
• Taaffe, Stephen R. (2013). Marshall and His Generals: U.S. Army Commanders in World War II. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas.
  OCLC 840162019
  .
• ISBN 0-253-20608-1
  .
• Whiting, Charles (2000). The Battle of Hurtgen Forest. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press.
  ISBN 1-58097-055-9
  .
• Omar Nelson Bradley, The Centennial. United States Army Center of Military History. Archived from the original on January 14, 2021. Retrieved August 2, 2010.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Omar N. Bradley.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Omar Bradley.

• Chester B. Hansen Collection – Hansen was the aide of GEN (and GOA) Bradley during and after World War II. US Army Heritage and Education Center, Carlisle, Pennsylvania
• Omar Nelson Bradley, Lt. General FUSAG 12TH AG – Omar Bradley's D-Day June 6, 1944, Maps restored, preserved and displayed at Historical Registry
• The American Presidency Project
• The short film Big Picture: The Omar N. Bradley Story is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive.
• Newspaper clippings about Omar Bradley in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
• United States Army Officers 1939–1945
• Generals of World War II

Military offices
Preceded by Courtney Hodges	Commandant of the United States Army Infantry School 1941–1942	Succeeded by Leven Allen
Preceded by Newly activated organization	Commanding General 82nd Infantry Division March–June 1942	Succeeded by Matthew Ridgway
Preceded by Garesche Ord	Commanding General 28th Infantry Division 1942–1943	Succeeded by Lloyd Brown
Preceded by George Patton	Commanding General II Corps April–September 1943	Succeeded by John Lucas
Preceded by George Grunert	Commanding General First Army 1943–1944	Succeeded by Courtney Hodges
Preceded by Dwight Eisenhower	Chief of Staff of the United States Army 1948–1949	Succeeded by Joseph Collins
Preceded by Newly activated organization	Chairman of the NATO Military Committee 1949–1951	Succeeded by Etienne Baele
Preceded by William Leahy	Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 1949–1953	Succeeded by Arthur Radford
Political offices
Preceded by Frank Hines	Administrator of Veterans Affairs 1945–1948	Succeeded by Carl Gray
Awards
Preceded by Billy Graham	Recipient of the Sylvanus Thayer Award 1973	Succeeded by Robert Murphy