Allied Commanders of World War Two/MacArthur, Part One

"Douglas MacArthur" Part 1

While I have spent decades studying about World War Two in Europe (including North Africa), I must admit I have not given nearly as much time to the war in Asia and the Pacific, although my father served in the U.S. Army in the Pacific Theatre. Why this happened, I don't really know, although as a kid some of the neighbors' fathers had brought back souvenirs from Germany, like Nazi armbands, daggers, a German pistol and one even had a German helmet.* Then too, there were lots of documentaries about the war, seemingly always tilted more towards the European war than towards the Pacific war. Anyway, General MacArthur is such a towering figure in World War Two and in American military history, I feel I must cover him in this series. There are many books and articles about General MacArthur, but I consulted the following for some information for this five part series: "American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964," by William Manchester, published by Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1978.

Douglas MacArthur was born in Arkansas, the son of a military officer, and the grandson of a Scottish immigrant. He learned much about the military from his father during his childhood and he later attended West Point Military Academy, where he graduated first in his class. His unit was sent to the Philippines, thus beginning MacArthur's long connection with that country. Not long thereafter, MacArthur served as an aide to his own father, who was a high ranking general by then. His father's position gave the young MacArthur the opportunity to visit many parts of Asia and the Pacific, an almost prelude to the role he would later serve in World War Two. Prior to World War One, MacArthur served with American forces in Mexico during that nation's revolution. When war was declared on Germany in April 1917, MacArthur was made chief of staff of the 42nd Division, which was deployed to France. During the war MacArthur was decorated numerous times and was cited for bravery on a number of other occasions. MacArthur was promoted to brigadier general in command of one of the division's brigades in 1918. After the war, he spent time with American forces on occupation duty in Germany, but returned to the United States in 1919. His brigadier general rank was kept** and MacArthur was made superintendent of West Point.

* The odd shape of the helmets was fascinating to us kids, although little did we know the U.S. military would eventually adopt a similar style, which is in use today. As kids, we did not comprehend the evil symbolized by some of the souvenirs brought back from Europe.

** During wartime officers often are promoted "temporarily" to higher ranks, as officers at all levels are in demand. After a war, it is customary for many of those so promoted to revert to their previous rank, but in this case, MacArthur retained his brigadier general rank of wartime.

WORD HISTORY:
Fir-This word for a pine tree goes back to Indo European "perkwu," which meant "oak." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "furhjon," which took the variant meaning "pine, fir." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "furh," which was used in the compound "furhwudu;" that is, "pine wood." Old Norse, a North Germanic language, brought the related word "fyri" to parts of England, with the same meaning. Likely this reinforced the original English word, giving English "firre" by the 1300s, and later "fir" in the modern version. German has "Föhre," Low German Saxon has "Fuhr," Danish has "fyr," Icelandic and Swedish have "fura," Norwegian has "furu." I could not find versions in modern Frisian or Dutch.