Alexander M. Patch

Alexander McCarrell "Sandy" Patch, Jr. (1889-1945) graduated from West Point in 1913. He saw action in Mexico and France in WWI as part of the 18th Infantry Division reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. After Pearl Harbor, Patch was promoted to major general and stationed at New Caledonia where he organized, named and led the "Americal" Division.

Patch relieved Alexander Vandergrift's First Marine Division on Guadalcanal as head of XIV Corps in December 1942, later securing America's first land victory in the Pacific on February 9, 1943. In May 1943, Patch was put in charge of IV Corps at Fort Lewis, Washington.

In March 1944 he became commanding general of the Seventh Army in Sicily. He was selected to take the command from Gen. George S. Patton who was disciplined for maverick behavior and slapping a battle weary soldier in a medical tent. Patch led the Seventh Army into France and Germany as a lieutenant general. Eisenhower held Patch in high esteem although some historians reveal that the Sixth Army Group, of which the Seventh Army was part, was unfairly subordinated to a supporting role to General Patton's Third Army on their northern flank and the rest of the Allied forces in the north.

Patch lost a son to the conflict, Captain Alexander Patch Jr., killed while serving with the 79th Division near Luneville, France in November 1944.

In July 1945 Patch was given command of the Fourth Army at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Patch succumbed to pneumonia on November 21, 1945.

^ Back to Top

Copyright © 2005 Tansy Publishing. All rights reserved.