Medal of Honor
Colonel William Hale Wilbur
In 1942, Allied prospects for eventual victory were at their lowest ebb. America had suffered disasters at Pearl Harbor and the Philippines, the British had lost the Fortress of Singapore, the Dutch Antilles had fallen, and Australia was threatened. In Europe, Poland and France had fallen; Soviet Russia had been penetrated all the way to Stalingrad and in North Africa, the Afrika Korps threatened Egypt and the Suez Canal. Stalin was so hard pressed he demanded action in the West to relieve pressure on the beleaguered Soviet Army. The Western powers were willing to accede to Stalin’s demand but opinion was divided on the proper place for the “Second Front” invasion to take place, the British favoured the Mediterranean coast to coordinate with the British 8th Army fighting in North Africa. The Americans, especially Fleet Admiral E J King and General George Marshall backed a cross-Channel invasion of France on the Cotentin Peninsula. Eventually, agreement was reached and Vichy-French controlled territory in North West Africa was chosen. The operation, code-named TORCH, called for the landing of three task forces of some 60,000
American and British troops in a wide Zone, from Sari on the Atlantic coast of Morocco cast to Algiers off the Mediterranean coast. The mission of these troops was twofold: first, to cut oil Axis supplies to the Afrika Korps and, second, to bring Vichy-controlled French forces stationed in Africa back into the war on the Allied side. Allied commanders were uncertain as to the nature of the reception that they would receive at the hands of the defending Vichy French. When France was overrun by the Germans in 1940, an armistice was cobbled together, leaving the still unoccupied portions of the country and all its dependencies overseas in the hands of its new French government acceptable to Germany. This new government, with its capital at Vichy, though nominally independent, was in fact under the thumb of the Germans. If the Vichy government were to displease them at any time, the Germans could quickly gobble up the unoccupied portion of France. With the actual arrival of Allied troops in French North Africa, Allied planners were unsure of Vichy’s sympathies under the new circumstances. The Allies hoped that the French forces in North Africa would join the Allied cause, but such an alliance had been tried before, leaving behind a legacy of bitterness. When the Franco-German armistice was announced in June 1940, the Royal Navy had acted quickly to ensure that the French Fleet would not join the Axis forces. The French Fleet was given an ultimatum: join the British, send the Fleet to the West Indies for the duration, or scuttle them. When the French Admiral refused, the British opened fire and sank virtually the entire fleet at Mers-el-Kebir Naval Station near Oran. Once again desiring French co-operation, the Allies decided on a more diplomatic course in dealing with the French forces in North Africa. Days before the actual invasion, plans were made to contact by radio key French officers in Morocco who were thought to be sympathetic to the Allied cause and to convince them to throw in with the Allied cause, or at the least not oppose the landings. As the invasion was about to begin, the Allies decided to send several officers to convey this message personally. All of the officers chosen for the task were American; British participation would be purposely downplayed. Colonel William Hale Wilbur, assigned to the Western Task Force under the command of General Patton, was one of the emissaries sent to treat with French officials in Morocco. A combat veteran of WWI he seemed a logical choice, particularly because he had attended the Ecole Superieur de Guerre as a classmate of General Charles de Gaulle. Col Wilbur, charged by Gen Patton to contact Admiral Francois Michelier, the Vichy commander of French naval forces at Casablanca, set off equipped with a jeep, a radio, a white flag, and a letter from Gen Patton. Col Wilbur came ashore with the first wave of assault troops at Fedala, about 12 miles north of Casablanca, and immediately things began to go wrong. Col. Wilbur’s landing craft came under French machine gun fire, and once ashore Col. Wilbur found that his jeep was no longer operable. Commandeering a new vehicle, Col. Wilbur began his drive toward Casablanca in search of Adm. Michelier. When he reached French Army positions under it flag of truce, he was escorted to the headquarters of the Casablanca Division where he was told by General Raymond Desre, that his intermediate contact, division commander Major-General E. Bethouart (an officer whom the Americans had contacted prior to the invasion), had been placed under arrest for treason. Col. Wilbur told Gen. Desre of Gen. Patton’s letter, but the French Commander worried about the possible complications of collaboration with the Americans, refused to take the letter. In frustration, Col. Wilbur demanded that Gen. Desre take the letter, leaving it on the desk as he walked out of the French head-quarters. As Col Wilbur walked back to his car, A French officer approached him and offered to escort the Colonel to Adm Michelier’s headquarters. Col. Wilbur’s arrival turned out to be anti-climactic, however the French Admiral refused to see him. Recognizing that he could do no more Col. Wilbur returned to the American positions at Fedala. Safely back at Fedala, the Colonel noticed that most of the resistance around the beaches had ended with the exception of one battery of guns on the Cap de Fedala that was firing on the American fleet offshore. Sizing up the situation around the battery, Col. Wilbur, as the senior officer present, organised a scratch force consisting of-four Stuart tanks from the 765th Tank Battalion and an infantry company to assault the French guns. Hopping aboard the lead tank, Col. Wilbur ordered the infantry to fan out while the tanks ploughed through the barbed wire that surrounded the battery. Advancing behind the M3’s but still under heavy machine gun fire, the infantry captured the fire control bunker and then supprised and captured the battery. , Col. Wilbur was awarded the Medal of Honor for conduct that was “voluntary and exemplary in its coolness and daring.”
Col. Wilbur seen here receiving the MOH Medal from President Roosevelt watched by General’s Patton and Marshall.
During the war, Col. Wilbur rose to the rank of Brigadier General and was awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star, two Legions of Merit, and the Combat Infantry Badge. He was also named a Knight Commander of the Order of Saint Maurice. Following his retirement from the Army in 1947, he wrote several hooks, including “The Making of George Washington” and “Freedom Must Not Perish.” He became a member of the Chicago Crime Commission and served as Warden of Cook County jail before his death in 1979 at the age of 91.
07-19-2008, 04:07 PM
