GENERAL CLARK

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 134, 8 May 1945, Page 5

GENERAL CLARK

YOUNG AMERICAN WARRIOR. As commander of tlio loth Army Group in Italy, composed mainly 'of his former Army, the Eifth, and the Eight'll, General Mark Wayne Clark shares much of the glory for the German surrender there with Field-Mar-shal Alexander. Like Alexander, this American General is the youngest American four-star officer, anil it lias been as commander of the Fifth Army that he has chiefly made his name. The son of Colonel C. C. Clark, a West Point graduate, General Clark at <jo looks every inch a soldier, and he is six feet two inches tall. Following in his father’s footsteps, he graduated at West Point, and fought in France in the last war as an infantry captain, being wounded in the Vosges. Ambitious and eager for advancement, General Clark worked steadily with the Army after the last war. He commenced this war with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and his first job in T 940 was the organisation of the American draft army. In the European theatre, General Clark worked out the details for the inviision of North Africa. Typical of his thoroughness was the fact that he voyaged in a British submarine and landed on the coast of North Africa a month before the landings hv the troops. In a dinghy house on the Algerian coast, he met French patriots and personally discussed many details which were later to save so many lives in the actual invasion. As commander of the Fifth Army, General Clark met a real test at Salerno, where the Allied bridgehead hung in the balance for several daysWith utter disregard for his personal safety, ho went into the front line and encouraged his men, a feat which won him the American Distinguished Service Cross. He also has been made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. After liberating Rome, General Clark led the Fifth Army north through Italy, and in December last year he relinquished his command to take command of the 15th Army .Group. Married in 1924, General Clark is the father of a son, William, who, like his father and grandfather, is a plebe at West Point, and a daughter, Patricia Ann.