Edward Hale Brooks was born on April 25, 1893, in Concord, New Hampshire. His father, Edward Waite Brooks, was a Concord grocer. His mother was the former Mary Frances Hale, a native of Dover, Kent, England. Brooks had three sisters, Harriott, Gertrude and Alice Brooks. Both Gertrude and Alice died in their infancy. He graduated from Concord High School in June 1911 (where he lettered in football), after which he attended Norwich University (The Military College of Vermont) in Northfield, Vermont, graduating in 1916 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering. In 1949, he received the honorary degree of Master of Military Science from Norwich University.[2] In 1952, Brooks was awarded an honorary Doctor of Military Science degree from Pennsylvania Military College.[3]
Brooks began his military career in June 1915 as a captain with the 1st Cavalry Regiment of the Vermont National Guard, a position he held until July 1916. For the following year, he worked as a civil engineer before his National Guard unit was called up for federal service.[4]: 61
On Thanksgiving Day, 1917, Brooks married the former Beatrice Aurora Leavitt. They had two children: Elizabeth Allen Brooks (b. December 27, 1918) and Edward Hale Brooks, Jr. (b. June 6, 1920).[4]: 62
World War I
Lieutenant Edward Hale Brooks, pictured here with his wife, Beatrice Brooks, as he prepares to ship off to Europe, 1918.
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to Captain (Field Artillery) Edward Hale Brooks (ASN: 0-6657), United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with 76th Field Artillery, 3d Division, A.E.F., at Montfaucon, France, 5 October 1918. Captain Brooks exposed himself to heavy and accurate artillery fire directed on an ammunition train while driving a loaded ammunition truck to safety, and driver of which had been killed by the enemy fire. This truck was attached to a burning truck, and the prompt action of Captain Brooks averted a possible explosion which would have caused serious losses.[5]
Upon his return to the United States, Brooks was a member of the Camp Pike football team. After being named All-Army Halfback in 1920 on the first All-Army team, he captained the Army team that defeated Great Lakes Naval Training Station 20–6 at the American Legion Convention in Kansas City in 1921.[6]
In January 1943, at the direct request of General Marshall, Brooks, then a two-starmajor general, and several other senior officers accompanied Lieutenant General Devers on a tour of Northern African Allied forces. Their objective was to assess Allied and Axis strengths and weaknesses and to gather ideas for making armor training more realistic, reflecting actual combat experience.[11] At the conclusion of their North African Theater intelligence gathering, the B-17 they were on ("Stinky") crash-landed in neutral Ireland. They were treated by the locals with hospitality and were transferred across the border to Northern Ireland the next day. Devers and Brooks pressed on to inspect the European Theater of Operations, then technically still under the command of Lt. Gen. Eisenhower. They toured England using the train supplied by Logistics Chief Major General John C. H. Lee, witnessing joint operations with the British, and many Services of Supply installations as well. They flew back to Washington on 28 January.[4]
Major General Brooks assumed command of the 2nd Armored Division on March 17, 1944, at Tidworth Camp, near Salisbury, England. The division had been transferred to England from the Mediterranean late in 1943. After a training and preparation period the division embarked from England in LCI's and LST's on June 8, 1944, and stood toward the shores of France. Preceded by an advance command post detachment which established contact with the V Corps commanding general, Major General Leonard T. Gerow, the division landed on Omaha Beach on June 9, 1944. The 2nd Armored Division was committed immediately. In its first engagement the division secured the Vire Riverbridgehead.[4]: 66
Colonel Sidney Hinds, General Eisenhower, Prime Minister Churchill and Major General Brooks overseeing preparations for D-Day.
Normandy and the bocage country, where hedgerows furnished natural cover for every field came next. The problem was solved by mounting huge bulldozer blades on the tanks so that a path could be cut through the natural earthen breastworks for the infantry to follow. Then came Saint-Lô, the breakthrough at Avranches, where the 2nd Armored Division held the eastern flank, and a series of engagements throughout Northern France and Belgium. Brooks was cited for gallantry in action during the period August 2 to 6 for making repeated visits to forward elements of his command. Exposing himself to hostile observation and fire, he expedited the commitment of the division and personally assisted in the organization of continuing attacks by subordinate units in assault on enemy strong points. That display of gallantry and leadership, without regard to his personal safety, earned for him the Silver Star.[4]: 66
Brooks personally pushed the 2nd Armored Division into being among the first Allied divisions on Belgian soil,[12] and was the first Allied division commander to enter that country by assault.[4]: 67 An incident during the drive into Belgium occurred when a corps staff officer came to Brooks' 2nd Armored command post and told the general that he had a mission for the division that he feared was impossible—to be in Ghent in two days. The staff officer's eyes bugged out when the general said, "Tell the corps commander it's in the bag. We'll be there." After the officer departed, Brooks turned to his chief of staff, ColonelCharles D. Palmer, and said, "Where the hell is Ghent?"[13] (They made the objective behind enemy lines and outside their operational zone, with hours to spare.)
Eisenhower's decision to appoint Brooks was by process of elimination because at that point very few other division commanders had been as consistently stellar. He had repeatedly impressed the right people at the right time. Although McNair had initially been concerned with Brooks's inexperience with large formations, by January 1944 he rated Brooks third out of the twelve armored division commanders available for Overlord. Patton listed Brooks as one of four officers he would consider for the Second Armored Division, and Eisenhower put his name at the top of his preferences. Marshall obliged them by dispatching Brooks overseas, and Brooks ably led the Second Armored through the tough fighting in Normandy and the race across France.[10]
Major General Brooks walking with General Eisenhower, Lieutenant General Bradley and Colonel Palmer.
In early November, VI Corps was confronted with three problems: to bring the corps' right and left flanks up to the salient held by the 3rd Infantry Division along the Meurthe, thus straightening a "jump" line for another offensive; to introduce the newly arrived 100th and 103rd Infantry Divisions into combat, and to make final plans and regroup the entire corps for an attack to cross the Meurthe, to crack the German Winter Line, to penetrate the Vosges passes, and to reach the Rhine. The Seventh Army's assault was marked by success. VI Corps drove through to its objectives. German defenses of the Vosges passes were taken, Strasbourg was captured and the River Rhine reached.
The army changed its direction of attack on November 24. This resulted in major disengagements, reliefs and redeployments. All were accomplished by December 5. VI Corps, teamed with XV Corps, was ready to attack to the north—objective the Lauter River and invasion of Germany. Hurdles ahead were the Maginot Line, the Haguenau Forest and the Siegfried Line. By mid-December the VI Corps was crossing the Lauter River into Germany and assaulting the Siegfried Line.
On the night of December 20 the Seventh Army's offensive was called off and all troops ordered to prepare defensive lines. This resulted from the apparent success of the German counter-offensive in Belgium and Luxembourg, known as the "Battle of the Bulge." Forced on the defensive by this turn of events and in the face of determined and repeated enemy counterattacks Brooks organized a flexible defense which stopped the enemy attacks. During VI Corps' resistance to a January 1, 1945, enemy counterattack through the Low Vosges Mountains (Operation Nordwind), VI Corps executed a difficult withdrawal from close contact with the enemy to a predetermined line along the Moder River.[15] All hostile attacks against that position were repulsed. All was quiet on the corps' front until March. For his performance in command of the VI Corps, from December 5, 1944, to March 1945, Brooks was awarded an oak-leaf cluster to the Army Distinguished Service Medal.[4]: 69 While VI Corps was criticized for exposing its armored forces in towns, Devers noted that "Ted Brooks has fought one of the great defensive battles of all time with very little."[16][17]
The great spring offensive began in March. VI Corps crossed the Rhine and captured Heidelberg. then came Heilbronn. Turning south and crossing the Danube, the corps drove on to the Italian border to meet the U.S. Fifth Army via Brenner Pass.
On September 22, 1945, Brooks' son, Major Edward Hale Brooks Jr. (USMA Jan 1943),[18] died in a B-17 crash in Belgium while returning from a night training flight.
After World War II
Upon return to the United States at the close of the European war, General Brooks assumed command of the Fourth Service Command at Atlanta, Georgia. He was appointed deputy commander of the Seventh Army at Atlanta in June 1946, and the following March became deputy commander of the Third Army there. He assumed command of the Antilles Department at Fort Brooke, San Juan, Puerto Rico, in September 1947 and, two months later, was designated Commanding General United States Army Caribbean, with station at Quarry Heights, Panama Canal Zone. On 24 July 1948, he was awarded the Chilean Grand Cross of the Star of Military Merit, 1st Class, for his long service in their national defense.[4]: 71
Army commanders in the United States and certain overseas commanders meet with Secretary of the Army Frank Pace and General J. Lawton Collins, Army Chief of Staff, in the Pentagon in routine sessions, June 5, 1952. Lieutenant General Edward H. Brooks is sat second from the left, between Lieutenant General Charles L. Bolte (left) and Lieutenant General Willis D. Crittenberger (right).
The following was written of Brooks at the time of his retirement by General Jacob L. Devers: "Ted Brooks is a man of action. He accepts responsibility and then does something constructive about it—and he does it now, not tomorrow. He is a great fighter to have on your side, for he thinks only of the big objective and never of himself. He is quick and sound in his thinking—has tremendous courage—and will tackle any problem with new approaches until he gets the solution. His integrity is of the highest order, and he has great loyalty up and down. He knows when and where to disperse the work load, and when and where to concentrate it. His judgment is unquestionably sound. In addition, Ted has a wonderfully pleasing and dynamic personality. God has truly endowed him with wisdom and with an unfailing ability to understand his fellow man. A great soldier, a keen strategist, and a thoroughly capable administrator, Ted Brooks has all the qualities that would make him an excellent Chief of Staff of the Army."[21]
Brooks spent the rest of his years in Concord and Melvin Village, New Hampshire. He was executive director, Association of Military Colleges and Schools from 1953 to 1964, served on the board of directors of a local bank, was a founding member of the Association of the United States Army, and indulged his love of fly-fishing and his family, among other hobbies.
Lieutenant General Edward Hale Brooks died in Concord, NH on October 10, 1978, leaving his wife of 61 years, Beatrice Leavitt Brooks, their daughter, Elizabeth Brooks Campbell, four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Eulogizing Brooks, General Charles D. Palmer said: "He was an exceptional and courageous leader who inspired confidence, demanded much of his subordinates but gave more of himself, was very strict but fair, never sought personal power and glory. He pushed forward deserving subordinates, but never pushed forward himself, was very modest and very human. Subordinates sometimes referred to him as a "lucky general" not meaning that he himself was lucky but that he was lucky for them — such was their confidence that he and they would succeed."[4]: 75
Brooks was known as "Standing Eddie" for his unusual habit of standing up in his jeep as he reviewed the troops so he could better see them. He had a special railing welded into his jeep to hold onto for this purpose. He once hiked 20 miles himself in full pack in order to set a reasonable time in which to expect his troops to complete it.[4]: 65 [10]
^McNair, Lt. Gen. Lesley J. (1943). Conclusions and Recommendations of Gen. Devers in His Report on His Observations Abroad December 14, 1942 to January 25, 1943. Washington, DC: Army Ground Forces Memo. p. 1.
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