Lucian K. Truscott

Lucian King Truscott Jr. (1895-1965) enlisted in the U.S. Army prior to WWI. He was selected for officer training and was commissioned in the cavalry in 1917.

Early in WWII he joined Admiral Louis Mountbatten's Combined Operations Headquarters where he developed Ranger units for special operations later deployed at Dieppe and in Morocco. In North Africa, Truscott was deputy to Eisenhower at the time of the battle at Kasserine Pass.

He took charge of the Third Division in North Africa in March 1944. He led the division in Sicily and Italy, taking command of VI Corps from General John Lucas on the Anzio beachhead in February 1944. Truscott led the 5th Army troops that ceremoniously entered Rome on June 4, 1944.

Considered to be an expert on amphibious warfare, Truscott directed planning and training for the invasion of France by the Seventh Army and led VI Corps up the Rhone River Valley and through the Vosges Mountains. In October 1944 he was assigned to the 15th Army.

Truscott replaced General Mark Clark as commander of the Fifth Army in December 1944. He succeeded George Patton as Third Army commander and military governor of Bavaria in September 1945 after Patton's removal from the post.

After retiring from the Army, Truscott wrote his memoir, Command Missions in 1954. Truscott died on September 12, 1965, in Alexandria, Virginia.

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