Lewis H. Brereton
Lewis Hyde Brereton (June 21, 1890 – July 20, 1967) was a military aviation pioneer and lieutenant general in the United States Air Force. A 1911 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, he began his military career as a United States Army officer in the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps prior to World War I, then spent the remainder of his service as a career aviator.
Lewis H. Brereton
Lewis Hyde Brereton
June 21, 1890
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
July 20, 1967 (aged 77)
United States of America
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1911–1948
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Brereton was one of the few senior U.S. commanders in World War II who served in combat theaters continuously from the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor to the German surrender, and he saw action in more theaters than any other senior officer. He began World War II as a major general commanding the Far East Air Force in the Philippines and concluded it as a lieutenant general in command of the First Allied Airborne Army in Germany. Brereton commanded forces in four controversial events of the war: the destruction on the ground of much of the United States Army Air Forces in the Philippines, Operation Tidal Wave; Operation Cobra; and Operation Market Garden.[1][nb 1]
Brereton was one of the first military pilots of the United States Army, assigned to the Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps in September 1912. He was also one of five officers (the others being General of the Air Force Henry H. Arnold, Major Generals Frank P. Lahm and Benjamin D. Foulois, and Brigadier General Thomas DeW. Milling) who were members of the United States Air Force and all of its progenitors, but the only one to do so on continuous active duty (Arnold, Lahm, Foulois, and Milling were all on the retired list when the USAF came into being).
Early life and career[edit]
Family and personality[edit]
Brereton was born in Pittsburgh, in 1890, the second son of William Denny Brereton and Helen (Hyde) Brereton. The family moved to Annapolis, Maryland while Brereton's older brother, William Jr., was a midshipman at the Naval Academy. His father was a successful mining engineer and a 4th-generation Irish-American. His mother was English and Episcopalian by birth.[2] At the age of eight, Brereton suffered a recurring infection of the middle ear, purulent otitis media, which proved impossible to treat in the pre-antibiotics era.[1]
His personality characteristics were said to be "cool and thoughtful", able to "think rapidly on his feet", with a "quick, analytical mind". However, he was also said to have an "appropriate temper" and "able to swear in three or four languages", a "party-loving streak", and when referring to himself, to use the third person.[2] He had a reputation, especially among critics, for being hedonistic. Gen. Omar N. Bradley, who intensely disliked Brereton, was quoted by a biographer of Dwight D. Eisenhower as saying that Brereton was "marginally competent ... (and) more interested in living in the biggest French chateau".[3][nb 2] However, from July 1942 to the end of the war, Brereton had a close association with and was well-regarded by Royal Air Force Air Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham,[4] who found in him not just a fellow bon vivant but an effective air commander on whom he could rely for efficient and competent cooperation.[5][nb 3]