General Mark Clark: Still not welcome in Texas

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/featured/us-general-mark-wclark.html


Still Not Welcome in Texas to This Day, The Controversial Career of US General Mark W. Clark




Granted, many in modern Texas may have never heard of General Mark W. Clark, also known as General Marcus Aurelius Clarkus by his subordinates. But for a period after World War 2, the State of Texas wanted nothing to do with the youngest man to be promoted to Lieutenant General in World War 2.

Many would deride him as inexperienced and out of his league, but that wouldn’t stop the man from rising through the ranks to eventually become a full General by the end of World War 2 and the Far East Commander in the ensuing Korean War. Whether he was tactically sound or just politically proficient has become fodder for historians to debate.

However, what is beyond dispute is that if the man were to step foot in the state of Texas in the years after World War 2, he better be ready for a Texas-sized fight.


The reason:

... in one particular battle, Clark’s decisions would lead to the virtual annihilation of the 36th Infantry Division also known as the “Texas” Division since it was comprised primarily of men from the Texas National Guard. General Clark sent the 36th “Texas” Division across the Gari River in what would become known as the Battle of Rapido River in January of 1944.

The crossing was off to a rocky start as, despite the fact that the river was unusually swollen and moving at a very rapid pace, General Clark ordered the attack. When the 36th made it across, the Germans were waiting for them, and the result was devastating for the Texas men of the 36th.

After two days of fighting, the survivors retreated across the river in defeat with over 1,300 men killed or wounded and another 700 plus captured by the Germans. It was one of the worst disasters for the US military in World War 2. The Germans, on the other hand, are thought to have only lost about 65 men killed.

 

Lucas bears the blame for the losses at Anzio. After an unopposed landing, he failed to try to advance until the Germans had established a perimeter around the beachhead.

Clark wasted the men of the 36th in several attempts at an impossible river crossing as a diversion for Anzio. He also bears a lot of the responsibility for Lucas's failure to exploit hi advantage by not impressing on him that time was of the essence, Both men should have been fired.

Instead Clark took the cowards way out and blamed General Walker, commander of the 36th, for their failure to achieve their objective.

That's the real problem Texans had with him.