Littlejohn returned to West Point on 24 August 1917 as an instructor,[4] first in the English department for ten days, then in the Chemistry department, and finally, in March 1918, in the Engineering department.[6] On 5 May 1918, he was posted to the 18th Machine Gun Battalion of the 6th Division at Camp Wadsworth, South Carolina, with the rank of major from 7 June 1918. He assumed command of the 332nd Machine Gun Battalion at Camp Grant, Illinois, on 11 June.[4] This battalion was part of the 86th Division. On 27 July 1918, he married Mary Lambert from Glastonbury, Connecticut.[6] They had no children.[2]
The 332nd Machine Gun Battalion moved to France in September 1918, where it joined the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) on the Western Front but did not see action before the armistice. In December 1918, he participated in the Occupation of the Rhineland, as commander of a battalion of the 39th Infantry Regiment of the 4th Division. On 1 March 1919 he assumed command of the 11th Machine Gun Battalion, the machine gun unit of the same brigade. On 1 May he was posted to the office of Chief Quartermaster of the AEF before returning home in July.[4][6]
Between the wars
From 28 July 1919 to 1 February 1920, Littlejohn was stationed in Raleigh, North Carolina, as Assistant District Inspector of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. He then went to Charleston, South Carolina, as Assistant Department Adjutant on the staff of the Southeastern Department.[4] He reverted to his substantive rank of captain on 15 March 1920, but was promoted to major again on 1 July. On 1 August he was assigned to the Quartermaster of the Fourth Corps Area which replaced the Southeastern Department and soon moved to Fort McPherson, Georgia.[6][8]
After graduation, Littlejohn served on the War Department General Staff in Washington, D.C., from 15 August 1930 to 13 June 1934. He then returned to West Point for a second tour of duty, this time as a quartermaster. While there he was promoted to lieutenant colonel on 1 August 1935.[9] This ended on 31 January 1938, and he was sent for a second tour of duty in the Philippines, this time as executive officer of the Quartermaster Depot, and then, from 30 May 1939, as Quartermaster of the Philippine Department. His tour of duty there ended on 20 May 1940, and he returned to the US in June.[10][9]
Second World War
From June 1940 to May 1942, Littlejohn commanded the Clothing and Equipage Branch in the Office of the Quartermaster General.[11] The division was primarily concerned with procurement, but was accustomed to working closely with the Standardization Branch, which was responsible for design and development.[12] He was promoted to colonel on 16 November 1940 and brigadier general on 30 January 1942.[11]
It will be my policy to hide nothing. Every successful businessman does make mistakes, admits them, profits from them, does not repeat them.
General Littlejohn displayed marked aggressiveness, exceptional organizing ability, and a superior quality of leadership in rapidly establishing a quartermaster service throughout the theater which met and solved the many unexpected and seemingly insurmountable problems of supply. By his broad experience, foresight and splendid ability which was largely instrumental under his leadership in solving many complex questions in organization and supply of the African Task Force. His untiring efforts and devotion to duty in this connection contributed markedly to the successful landing of this force in North Africa on November 8, 1942.[15]
His later Oak Leaf Cluster citation noted that he "not only maintained anticipated requirements, but exceeded them".[16] However Littlejohn was severely criticised when winter clothing was not delivered in a timely manner, resulting in thousands of cases of trench foot and frostbite.[17]
Later life
Littlejohn hoped to become the next Quartermaster General, but was passed over in favor of Major General Thomas B. Larkin, a United States Army Corps of Engineers officer that Littlejohn considered a "carpetbagger".[18] Both had served in the ETO in the Services of Supply (later the Communications Zone) under Lt. Gen. John C. H. Lee beginning in May 1942. Larkin had served as Lee's deputy until he was spun off at the request of Eisenhower to command the SOS in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations invasions of North Africa, Sicily, and Italy, and so had a wider command experience. Littlejohn retired with a disability discharge on 31 July 1946.[11]President of the United StatesHarry S. Truman appointed him head of the War Assets Administration (WAA), which had the responsibility for the disposal of some $34 billion worth of surplus government property.[2] The job was considered a thankless one, and corruption was a major concern. He instituted a sweeping reorganization of the WAA.[13] In one sale, the WAA sold 20,960 war planes, accepting bids of $6,582,156 for the lot, which had originally cost $3,900,000,000.[19] He left the WAA in 1948.[2]
In retirement, Littlejohn felt that his work was under-appreciated. He disliked the series of monographs written on Quartermaster operations in the ETO by historians at Fort Lee, Virginia, and attacked Roland Ruppenthal's magisterial two-volume Logistic Support of the Armies (1953 and 1959) in the United States Army in World War II series as a slanderous attack on his reputation.[3]
Ancell, R. Manning; Miller, Christine (1996). The Biographical Dictionary of World War II Generals and Flag Officers: The US Armed Forces. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN0-313-29546-8. OCLC231681728.
Overstreet, Daphne (Summer 1977). "On Strike! The 1917 Walkout at Globe, Arizona". The Journal of Arizona History. 18 (2): 197–218. ISSN0021-9053. JSTOR42678054.
Somerset Publishers (2000). South Carolina Biographical Dictionary. Vol. II (K–Z). St. Clair Shores, Michigan: Somerset Publishers, Inc. ISBN0-403-09347-3. OCLC43958028.
West Point Class of 1912 (1912). 1912 Howitzer. West Point, New York: West Point. Retrieved 29 February 2020.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)