Military Review English Edition November December 2016 | Page 127

REVIEW ESSAY REVIEW ESSAY Jacob L. Devers A General’s Life James Scott Wheeler, University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, 2015, 589 pages Dr. John T. Kuehn T he guiding theme for Scott Wheeler’s study on U.S. Army Gen. Jacob “Jake” L. Devers appears on the first page of this long overdue biography: “So, why is Jacob Devers a forgotten general?” Why, indeed? Devers finished World War II as a four-star general, like George Patton. He commanded one of only three Allied army groups in Europe, the Sixth Army Group, composed of one U.S. army and one French army. These facts alone should cause one to ask why he is not more widely remembered, especially since he was not relieved of command, nor did he suffer any defeats at the hands of the German forces he faced while in command. Wheeler’s book, therefore, follows the trend of revising the established scholarship about World War II—in this case, the scholarship on high command. The method is that of a traditional biography—birth to death. Devers’s early years are covered in the traditional manner of tracing family roots and discussing those that influenced him most. For example, one of Devers’s Dr. John T. Kuehn is the early character traits is his Major General William Stofft “puritanical” and counChair of Historical Research tercultural aversion to alat the U.S. Army Command cohol and tobacco, which and General Staff College could be attributed to in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. his mother Ella, and was He retired after twennoted “by his classmates at ty-three years as a naval West Point.” aviator with the rank of Devers entered the commander in 2004. artillery branch after MILITARY REVIEW  November-December 2016 graduation from West Point, serving in the pre-World War I Army in various postings. He was lucky enough to command three different types of artillery units: mountain artillery (using mules), regular horse-drawn artillery, and one of the first motorized artillery battalions. He missed a posting to France during World War I, having been deemed more important to the training effort of the many artillery officers at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, who were needed for the massive expansion of that combat arm during the war. Like Dwight Eisenhower, however, missing the “big show” in Europe did not seem to hurt his subsequent career, despite his concern that it would do just that. The bulk of Wheeler’s book concentrates on the critical period before and during World War II, and Devers’s role as one of Gen. George C. Marshall’s “go to guys.” Devers’s career was also helped by his long association and friendship with fellow artilleryman Gen. Leslie McNair, another one of Marshall’s protégés and troubleshooters. McNair became the American Ground Forces commander and Devers’s boss when he assumed overall command of the new Armored Force of the U.S. Army. In this section the reader learns of the numerous occasions in which Devers conflicted with Eisenhower, especially during Devers’s 1943 trip to Africa, when Eisenhower probably believed Devers had been sent to relieve him. And, the section on Devers’s command of the Sixth Army Group and the challenges of commanding a French unit is especially enlightening for anyone interested in high command in coalition warfare. 125