Leonard Townsend Gerow was promoted to a General in 1954 by a special act of congress. As he served through WWI and WWII, he knew that God put him on the earth to save lives and that is exactly what he did. He was majorly involved in the planning and executing D- Day on Omaha Beach at Normandy, France. By his acts of heroism he brought husbands back to their wives, sons back to their parents, and fathers back to their children. My paragraphs will be organized in chronological order by his birth to his latest achievements. WHAT DID HE DO? Leonard Gerow attended VMI (Virginia Military Institute). At his school he was lab partners with General Eisenhower and was personal friends with him but they later went their separate ways …show more content…
Then later down the road he was promoted First Lieutenant (http://ww2db.com/person_bio.php?person_id=177) and again to Captain in China in 1932 (http://ww2db.com/person_bio.php?person_id=177). Transferred to France after China, he quickly climbed the ranks as he was given a Distinguished Service Medal and a French Legion of Honor in WWI (http://ww2db.com/person_bio.php?person_id=177). As he served in all these different places he probably couldn’t found down time or time to himself. HOW THEY PLANNED D-DAY. All of my facts in this paragraph will be in order from designated symbols to use to German developed weapons. Leonard helped decide how the landing was to play out with the symbol D+3 which means 3 days after D-Day or D-2 which means 2 days until D-Day (Goldstein, Dillon, Wenger). On D-4, word came in through Leonard that the Germans had developed a medium sized …show more content…
Most men had to face 200 yards of flat land or had to climb up 150 foot cliffs only to face even more heavy gunfire and mortars (http://www.dday.org/history/d-day-the-invasion/overview). At 0650 the tanks started rolling in as planned (Ambrose). General Roosevelt quotes as he is on Utah beach during the firefight, “we’ll start the war from right here” (Ambrose). Soon after the landing it was found that the Germans had panzer tanks built into the ground (Ambrose). These tanks were sure to be doomed because of the lack of mobility. The 352nd Div. was commissioned to watch the beach for Germans trying to take back the territory that had been taken from them after the landing at Omaha (http://www.worldwar2history.info/D-Day). WHY IS LEONARD SO IMPORTANT? On February 1942 Leonard was promoted to Major General before the US had entered the war (http://www.dday.org/history/d-day-the-invasion/overview). He had been commissioned to lead the 29th and the 1st infantry into the first wave at code Omaha Beach (http://ww2db.com/person_bio.php?person_id=177). After D-Day the battle was not over for Leonard and the V corps (the V Corps