WILLIAM HALE WILBUR

On 8 November 1942 this colonel played a crucial role in the Allied invasion of North Africa, attempting to secure the surrender of Vichy French forces and then leading an assault to secure the Moroccan beachhead

- WORDS CLIVE WEBB

At the outset of the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, US General George S Patton pondered how to defeat the offensive by German forces through the deep forests of the Ardennes. “If only I had a Wilbur in command of each of these four divisions,” he told his chief of staff. “I would end this war, right here and now.”

The man to whom he referred was William Hale Wilbur. A close confidant of Patton, Wilbur shared a similar flamboyance of character and forthrightness of speech. He had also proven his mettle in one of the most important military operations Patton commanded during the Second World War: the defeat of the Vichy French military in Morocco.

A native of Massachusetts, Wilbur graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in June 1912. His class was considered the finest set of athletes trained at the academy, Wilbur himself serving as captain of the fencing team.

Following his commission as an officer, Wilbur served in Panama for three years before returning to West Point, where he worked as an instructor. He saw combat in France as a major in the American Expeditionary Forces during the final phase of the First World War, remaining in the country to attend the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr. One of his classmates was future French general and statesman Charles de Gaulle.

Wilbur lived a peripatetic existence during the interwar era. Returning from France, he taught at the US Army Infantry School in Fort Benning, Georgia, then travelled back across the Atlantic to study at the École supérieure de guerre. More training followed until in 1935 he assumed a number of command posts in Hawaii and the United States. With war having broken out in Europe, the army promoted him to colonel in 1940.