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Omar Nelson Bradley (February 12, 1893 –
April 8, 1981) was one of the main United States
Army|U.S. Army field commanders in North Africa
and Europe during the World War II and a General
of the Army of the United States Army.

==Early life and career==

Bradley was born to a poor family near Clark,
Missouri, the son of a teacher|schoolteacher. He
was educated at local schools and intended to
enter the University of Missouri. Instead, he was
advised to try for West Point. He placed first in
his district placement exams and entered the
academy in 1911. He graduated from West Point in
1915 as part of a class that contained many future
generals, which military historians have called,
"The class the stars fell upon."

He joined the 14th Infantry Regiment but, like
many of his peers, did not see action in Europe,
but held a variety of stateside assignments. He
served on the Mexico|Mexican border in 1915.  When
war was declared, he was promoted to captain, but
was posted to Montana. Bradley joined the 19th
Infantry Division in August 1918, which was
intended for European deployment,  but the
influenza pandemic and the armistice prevented him
from leaving the US.

Between the wars he taught and studied. From
1920-1924|24 he taught mathematics at West Point.
He was promoted to a major in 1924 and took the
advanced infantry course at Fort Benning, Georgia.
After a brief service in Hawaii he then studied at
the Command and General Staff School at Fort
Leavenworth in 1928-1929|29. From 1929 he taught
at West Point again, taking a break to study at
the Army War College in 1934. He was promoted to
lieutenant colonel in 1936 and worked at the War
Department from 1938. In February 1941 he was
promoted to brigadier general and sent to command
Fort Benning. In February 1942 he took command of
the 82nd Infantry Division before being switched
to the 28th Infantry Division in June.

==World War II==

Bradley did not receive a frontline command until
early 1943 after Operation Torch. He had been
given VIII Corps but instead was sent to North
Africa to serve under Dwight D. Eisenhower. He
became head of II Corps in April and directed them
in the final battles of April and May. He then led
his corps onto Sicily in July. In the approach to
Battle of Normandy|Normandy Bradley was chosen to
command the substantial 1st Army. During Operation
Overlord he commanded three corps directed at the
areas codenamed Utah Beach|Utah and Omaha
Beach|Omaha. Later in July he planned Operation
Cobra which was the beginning of the breakout from
the Normandy beachhead. By August, Bradley's
command, the renamed 12th Army Group, had swollen
to over 900,000 men.

Bradley used his force to undertake an ambitious
plan to encircle the German forces in Normandy,
trapping them at the Chambois pocket. It was only
partially successful but German forces still
suffered huge losses during their retreat. The
American forces reached the 'Siegfried Line' or
'Westwall' in late September.  The sheer scale 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 consequently,
logistics had become a severe issue as well.

At this time, the Allied high command under
Eisenhower faced a decision on strategy.  Bradley
favored a strategy consisting of a advance into
the Saarland, or possibly a two thrust assault on
both the Saarland and the Ruhr Area. Newly
promoted to Field Marshal, Bernard Montgomery
argued that he should lead a thrust on the
northern flank into the Ruhr.  Montgomery's
tempestuous personality ultimately carried the
day, leading to Operation Market-Garden.  The
debate, while not fissuring the Allied command,
nevertheless led to a serious rift between the two
Army group commanders of the European Theater of
Operations.  Bradley bitterly protested to
Eisenhower the priority of supplies given to
Montgomery, but Eisenhower, mindful of British
public opinion, held Bradley's protests in check.

After the failure of Montgomery's forces to take
Arnhem and its bridge across the Rhine river,
forces under Bradley's command took the initial
brunt of what would become the Battle of the
Bulge. In a move without precedent in modern
warfare, the US 3rd Army under George Patton
disengaged from their combat in the Saarland,
moved 90 miles to the battlefront, and forced the
Nazi Germany|Germans back.  Bradley used the
advantage gained in March 1945 — after
Eisenhower once again favored Montgomery with
supplies for another unsuccessful offensive in
February 1945 — to break the German defenses
and cross the Rhine into the industrial heartland
of the Ruhr area|Ruhr.  Aggressive pursuit of the
disintegrating German troops by Bradley's forces
resulted in the capture of a bridge across the
Rhine|River Rhine at Remagen.  Bradley and his
subordinates quickly exploited the crossing,
leading to an enormous pincer movement encircling
the German forces in the Ruhr from the north and
south.   Over 300,000 prisoners were taken.  
American forces then met up with the Soviet forces
near the River Elbe in mid-April. By V-E Day, the
12th Army Group was a force of four armies (1st,
3rd, 9th, and 15th) that numbered over 1.3 million
men.

==Post-war==
Bradley headed the Veterans Administration for two
years after the war. He was made army chief of
staff in 1948 and first official Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1949. On September 22,
1950 he was promoted to the rank of General of the
Army, the fifth man in the 20th century - and last
- to achieve that rank. Also in 1950 he was made
the first Chairman of the NATO Committee. He
remained on the committee until August 1953 when
he left active duty to take a number of positions
in commercial life.

As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Bradley
strongly rebuked General Douglas MacArthur, the
commander of the U.N. forces in Korea, for his
desire to expand the Korean War into China. 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 the wrong war, at the
wrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrong
enemy." 

He published his memoirs in 1951 as A Soldier's
Story and took the opportunity to attack Field
Marshal Montgomery's 1945 claims to have won the
Battle of the Bulge. Bradley spent his last years
at a special residence on the grounds of the
William Beaumont Army Medical Center, part of the
complex which supports Fort Bliss, Texas. Upon his
death, he was buried at Arlington National
Cemetery.

The U.S. Army's M2 Bradley infantry fighting
vehicle and M3 Bradley cavalry fighting vehicle
are named after General Bradley.

==Summary of service==

===Dates of rank===

* Second Lieutenant, United States Army: June 12,
1915
* First Lieutenant, United States Army: October
13, 1916
* Captain, United States Army: August 22, 1917
* Major, National Army: July 17, 1918
* Captain, Regular Army (reverted to peacetime
rank): November 4, 1922
* Major, Regular Army: June 27, 1924
* Lieutenant Colonel, Regular Army: July 22, 1936
* Brigadier General (Temporary), Regular Army:
February 24, 1941
* Major General, Army of the United States:
February 18, 1942
* Lieutenant General, Army of the United States:
June 9, 1943
* Promoted to permanent rank of Colonel in the
Regular Army: November 13, 1943
* General, Army of the United States: March 29,
1945
* Appointed a General in the Regular Army: January
31, 1949
* General of the Army: September 22, 1950
===Primary decorations===
* Distinguished Service Medal (Army)|Army
Distinguished Service Medal (w/three oak leaf
clusters)
* Navy Distinguished Service Medal
* Silver Star
* Legion of Merit (w/oak leaf cluster)
* Bronze Star Medal
* World War II Victory Medal
* European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
* Army of Occupation Medal
* National Defense Service Medal
* World War I Victory Medal
* American Defense Service Medal
* Mexican Border Service Medal

===Assignment history===
* 1915: 14th Infantry Regiment
* 1919: ROTC professor, South Dakota State College
* 1920: Instructor, United States Military Academy
(West Point)
* 1924: Infantry School Student, Fort Benning,
Georgia
* 1925: Commanding Officer, 19th and 27th Infantry
Regiments
* 1927: Office of National Guard and Reserve
Affairs, Hawaiian Department
* 1928: Student, Command and General Staff School
* 1929: Instructor, Fort Benning Infantry School
* 1934: Plans and Training Office, USMA West Point
* 1938: War Department General Staff, G-1 Chief of
Operations Branch and Assistant Secretary of the
General Staff 
* 1941: Commandant, Infantry School Fort Benning
* 1942: Commanding General, 82nd Infantry Division
and 28th Infantry Division
* 1943: Commanding General, II Corps, North Africa
and Sicily
* 1943: Commanding General, Field Forces European
Theater
* 1944: Commanding General, First Army (Later 1st
and 12th U.S. Army Groups)
* 1945: Administrator of Veterans Affairs,
Veterans Administration
* 1948: United States Army Chief of Staff
* 1949: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
* 1953: Retired from active service

==External links==
*http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/brochures/bradley/brad
ley.htm Bradley's biography at the U.S. Army
website.


start box
succession box | before = Gen. Dwight Eisenhower |
title = Chief of Staff of the United States Army |
years = 1948—1949 | after = Gen. J. Lawton
Collins
succession box | before = Adm. William D. Leahy |
title = Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff |
years = 1949—1953 | after = Adm. Arthur W.
Radford
end box