Apr. 10, 1962 - Lieut. Gen. Manton S. Eddy (pictured without helmet in 1944 between General Omar Bradley and General George S. Patton), retired, famed commander of the Ninth Infantry Division during World War II and commander of the U.S. Army in Europe after the war, died in Fort Benning, Ga., today at Martin Army Hospital. His age was 69. He had suffered a heart attack on Saturday. General Eddy won the respect of officers and enlisted men alike both in war and peace. In France during 1944, the late Ernie Pyle wrote that he was “sort of old-shoe and easy to talk with, and we think he is a mighty good general.” The Ninth was known as the “mystery division” because of General Eddy’s ability to bring his men from nowhere in times of crisis, assault the enemy with four or five stunning blows, and then vanish. In August 1944, General Eddy was given command of the Twelfth Corps of Gen. George S. Patton’s Third Army. He led his divisions in the spectacular sweep across France to the Siegfried Line on the German border.
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