Edward H . Brooks Edward Hale Brooks ( April 25 , 1893 – October 10 , 1978 ) was an officer in the United States Army and a veteran of World War I , World War II and the Korean War . He received the Distinguished Service Cross for heroism as a young officer in World War I and commanded the 2nd Armored Division " Hell on Wheels " during the Normandy Invasion as well as the VI Corps during the subsequent defeat of German forces in World War II . Early life and education . Edward H . Brooks was born on 25 April 1893 in Concord , New Hampshire . His father , Edward Waite Brooks , was a Concord grocer . His mother was the former Mary Frances Hale , a native of Dover , England . Brooks had three sisters , Harriott , Gertrude and Alice Brooks . Both Gertrude and Alice died in their infancy . He graduated from Concord High School in June 1911 ( where he lettered in football ) , after which he attended Norwich University ( The Military College of Vermont ) in Northfield , Vermont , graduating in 1916 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering . He later also received a master of science degree from Norwich University and an honorary doctoral degree in military science from Pennsylvania Military College . General Brooks began his military career in June 1915 as a captain with the 1st Cavalry of the Vermont National Guard , a position he held until July 1916 . For the following year , he worked as a civil engineer before his National Guard unit was called up for federal service . On Thanksgiving Day , 1917 , Brooks married the former Beatrice Aurora Leavitt . They had two children : Elizabeth Allen Brooks ( b . December 27 , 1918 ) and Edward Hale Brooks , Jr . ( b . June 6 , 1920 ) . World War I . General Brooks was commissioned a second lieutenant of Cavalry in the Regular Army in August 1917 , was promoted to first lieutenant the same date and was assigned to the Army Service Schools at Fort Leavenworth , Kansas . In November 1917 , he was transferred to the 76th Field Artillery at Camp Shelby , Mississippi , moving with his regiment to Camp Merritt , New Jersey in March 1918 . At that post he was assigned to the 3rd Field Artillery Brigade in command of a detachment ( later G - 3 ) that sailed for France in April 1918 . Brooks served in the Champagne - Marne Defense , the Aisne - Marne Offensive , the St . Mihiel Offensive and the Meuse - Argonne Offensive . On October 5 , 1918 , during the Meuse - Argonne Offensive , he earned a Distinguished Service Cross " for extraordinary heroism in action " at Montfauçon , France when he " . . . exposed himself to heavy and accurate artillery fire directed on an ammunition train while driving a loaded ammunition truck to safety , the driver of which had been killed by enemy fire . " Following the Armistice , he served with the Army of the Occupation in Germany until returning to the United States in August 1919 with station at Camp Pike , Arkansas . In July 1920 he was transferred from the Cavalry to the Field Artillery . Between the wars . Upon his return to the United States , Brooks was a member of the Camp Pike football team . After being named All - Army Halfback in 1920 on the first All - Army team , he captained the Army team that defeated Great Lakes Naval Training Station 20 - 6 at the American Legion Convention in Kansas City in 1921 . Brooks entered the Field Artillery School at Fort Sill , Oklahoma in September 1921 . Upon graduation in June 1922 he remained as an instructor in gunnery until November 1926 , when he was assigned to the command of Battery D of the 24th Field Artillery Regiment , a pack mule outfit at Fort Stotsenburg , in the Philippines . In October 1928 , he was assigned to the 18th Field Artillery at Fort Riley , Kansas . At Fort Riley his artillery battery , a horse drawn outfit , was the first to complete a 100 mile forced march in less than 24 hours . From 1932 to 1934 Brooks attended Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth , Kansas , then went to Harvard University as an ROTC instructor in 1934 . He attended War College from 1936 to 1937 and was then detailed as an instructor in the attack section of the Command and General Staff College . Preparing for World War II . Brooks was chief of the statistics branch of the War Department General Staff from 1939 to 1941 , where he was closely associated with General George C . Marshall and Secretary of War Henry L . Stimson . By this time he had risen to the rank of lieutenant colonel . In September 1941 , General Jacob L . Devers requested that Brooks be named to the staff of the new armored force being formed at Fort Knox , Kentucky . With this came promotion to brigadier general . Consequently , he never held the rank of colonel ( O - 6 ) . In 1942 he was promoted once again to major general . In this capacity he played a major role in the development of the M - 7 self - propelled artillery piece and the Howitzer Motor Carriage M8 , both potent forces in armored tactics . World War II . From 1942 until 1944 Brooks served as the first commander of the 11th Armored Division at Ft . Knox , Kentucky , preparing them for the impending invasion of continental Europe . His results with the 11th Armored Division caught the eye of senior commanders , resulting in his selection for overseas assignment to command the 2nd Armored Division ( " Hell on Wheels " ) for the Normandy Invasion . Maj . Gen . Brooks assumed command of the 2nd Armored Division ( " Hell on Wheels " ) on March 17 , 1944 , at Tidworth Barracks , near Salisbury , England . The division had been transferred to England from the Mediterranean late in 1943 . After a training and preparation period the division embarked from England in LCI ' s and LST ' s on June 8 , 1944 , and stood toward the shores of France . Preceded by an advance command post detachment which established contact with the V Corps commanding general , the division landed on Omaha Beach June 9 , 1944 . The 2nd Armored was committed immediately . In its first engagement the division secured the Vire River bridgehead . Normandy and the bocage country , where hedgerows furnished natural cover for every field came next . The problem was solved by mounting huge bulldozer blades on the tanks so that a path could be cut through the natural earthen breastworks for the infantry to follow . Then came Saint - Lô , the breakthrough at Avranches , where the 2nd Armored held the eastern flank , and a series of engagements throughout Northern France and Belgium . Brooks was cited for gallantry in action during the period August 2 to 6 for making repeated visits to forward elements of his command . Exposing himself to hostile observation and fire , he expedited the commitment of the division and personally assisted in the organization of continuing attacks by subordinate units in assault on enemy strong points . That display of gallantry and leadership , without regard to his personal safety , earned for him the Silver Star Medal . General Brooks personally pushed the 2nd Armored Division into being among the first allied divisions on Belgian soil , and was the first Allied division commander to enter that country by assault . An amusing incident during the drive into Belgium occurred when a corps staff officer came to General Brooks ' 2nd Armored command post and told the general that he had a mission for the division that he feared was impossible — to be in Ghent in two days . The staff officer ' s eyes bugged out when the general said , " Tell the corps commander it ' s in the bag . We ' ll be there . " After the officer departed , General Brooks turned to his chief of staff and said , " Where the hell is Ghent ? " From training in England , through the Normandy landings , the hedgerow fighting , the breakthrough and the race northeastward across France , through Belgium to the Albert Canal , General Brooks had guided the division through two campaigns and scores of operations . During this period , seven units of his command were awarded the Presidential Distinguished Unit Citation . And at Marchiennes , France near the Belgian border on September 2 , 1944 , he himself had personally participated in and directed an operation which annihilated a German convoy of 165 vehicles and earned him an oak leaf cluster on his Silver Star Medal . The Distinguished Service Medal was awarded to General Brooks for his leadership of the 2nd Armored Division . On September 12 , 1944 while the Second Armored was poised at the Albert Canal , General Brooks relinquished command of the division to take temporary command of the V Corps . On October 25 General Brooks assumed command of the VI Corps , replacing General Lucian K . Truscott who was ordered to Twelfth Army Group . In early November , VI Corps was confronted with three problems : to bring the corps ' right and left flanks up to the salient held by the 3rd Division along the Meurthe , thus straightening a " jump " line for another offensive ; to introduce the newly arrived 100th and 103rd Infantry Divisions into combat , and to make final plans and regroup the entire corps for an attack to cross the Meurthe , to crack the German Winter Line , to penetrate the Vosges passes , and to reach the Rhine . The Seventh Army ' s assault was marked by success . VI Corps drove through to its objectives . German defenses of the Vosges passes were taken , Strasbourg was captured and the River Rhine reached . The army changed its direction of attack on November 24 . This resulted in major disengagements , reliefs and redeployments . All were accomplished by December 5 . VI Corps , teamed with XV Corps , was ready to attack to the north — objective the Lauter River and invasion of Germany . Hurdles ahead were the Maginot Line , the Haguenau Forest and the Siegfried Line . By mid - December the VI Corps was crossing the Lauter River into Germany and assaulting the Siegfried Line . On the night of December 20 the Seventh Army ' s offensive was called off and all troops ordered to prepare defensive lines . This resulted from the apparent success of the German counter - offensive in Belgium and Luxembourg , known as the " Battle of the Bulge . " Forced on the defensive by this turn of events and in the face of determined and repeated enemy counterattacks General Brooks organized a flexible defense which stopped the enemy attacks . During VI Corps ' resistance to a January 1 , 1945 enemy counterattack through the Low Vosges Mountains VI Corps executed a difficult withdrawal from close contact with the enemy to a predetermined line along the Moder River . All hostile attacks against that position were repulsed . All was quiet on the corps ' front until March . For his performance in command of the VI Corps , from December 5 , 1944 to March 1945 , General Brooks was awarded an oak - leaf cluster to the Distinguished Service Medal . While VI Corps was criticized for exposing its armored forces in towns , Devers noted that " Ted Brooks has fought one of the great defensive battles of all time with very little . " The great spring offensive began in March . VI Corps crossed the Rhine and captured Heidelberg . then came Heilbronn . Turning south and crossing the Danube , the corps drove on to the Italian border to meet the Fifth Army via Brenner Pass . On May 5 , 1945 ( two days before V - E day ) General Brooks accepted the surrender of the German 19th Army and 24th Army from General der Panzertruppe Erich Brandenberger in Innsbruck , Austria , thus terminating hostilities in his sector more than 24 hours before the general surrender in Germany . Personal tragedy . On September 22 , 1945 , General Brooks ' son , Maj . Edward Hale Brooks , Jr . ( USMA Jan 1943 ) , died in an airplane accident in Belgium while returning from a night training flight . He was an instructor pilot on the flight in question and was standing at the flight deck at the time of impact . After World War II . Upon return to the United States at the close of the European war , General Brooks assumed command of the Fourth Service Command at Atlanta , Georgia . He was appointed deputy commander of the Seventh Army at Atlanta in June 1946 , and the following March became deputy commander of the Third Army there . He assumed command of the Antilles Department at Fort Brooke , San Juan , Puerto Rico , in September 1947 and , two months later , was designated Commanding General U . S . Army in the Caribbean , with station at Quarry Heights , Panama Canal Zone . In 1949 Brooks was promoted to lieutenant general and named Assistant Chief of Staff for Personnel ( G - 1 ) of the Army . He then served as commanding general of the U . S . Second Army at Fort Meade , Maryland from 1951 until he retired from active service on April 30 , 1953 . The following was written of General Brooks at the time of his retirement by General Jacob L . Devers : " Ted Brooks is a man of action . He accepts responsibility and then does something constructive about it — and he does it now , not tomorrow . He is a great fighter to have on your side , for he thinks only of the big objective and never of himself . He is quick and sound in his thinking — has tremendous courage — and will tackle any problem with new approaches until he gets the solution . His integrity is of the highest order , and he has great loyalty up and down . He knows when and where to disperse the work load , and when and where to concentrate it . His judgment is unquestionably sound . In addition , Ted has a wonderfully pleasing and dynamic personality . God has truly endowed him with wisdom and with an unfailing ability to understand his fellow man . A great soldier , a keen strategist , and a thoroughly capable administrator , Ted Brooks has all the qualities that would make him an excellent Chief of Staff of the Army . " Civilian life . Brooks spent the rest of his years in Concord and Melvin Village , New Hampshire . He served on the board of directors of a local bank , was a founding member of the Association of the United States Army , and indulged his love of fly - fishing and his family , among other hobbies . Death . General Brooks died in Concord , NH on October 10 , 1978 , leaving his wife of 61 years , Beatrice Leavitt Brooks , their daughter , Elizabeth Brooks Campbell , four grandchildren and six great - grandchildren . Eulogizing Brooks , Gen . Charles D . Palmer said : " He was an exceptional and courageous leader who inspired confidence , demanded much of his subordinates but gave more of himself , was very strict but fair , never sought personal power and glory . He pushed forward deserving subordinates , but never pushed forward himself , was very modest and very human . Subordinates sometimes referred to him as a " lucky general " not meaning that he himself was lucky but that he was lucky for them — such was their confidence that he and they would succeed . " Notes . General Brooks was known as " Standing Eddie " for his unusual habit of standing up in his jeep as he reviewed the troops so he could better see them . He had a special railing welded into his jeep to hold onto for this purpose . He once hiked 20 miles himself in full pack in order to set a reasonable time in which to expect his troops to complete it .