When the U.S. Sixth Army received the tedious task of island hopping from Australia to the Philippines, they would embark on a two year endeavor that would play a major role in defeating Japan in the South Pacific.
Picked to command the Sixth was General Walter Krueger; a man whose greatness, according to the memoirs of Douglas Macarthur, “history has not given … due credit for.”
A graduate of both the Army and Navy’s War College, he is considered one of the military’s most prominent tacticians to wear the uniform and was a noted scholar and historian who published numerous works.
Under his leadership, the Sixth secured several key islands, including New Britain, Admiralty Islands, Leyte, Mindoro, and Luzon. As military officials began prepping for a possible land invasion of Japan, it was Krueger who was ultimately chosen to lead it.
Shortly after the war, he retired to Texas where he became active in an array of notable charities and periodically lectured at military schools. In 1952, his daughter made headlines after fatally stabbing her husband at their military quarters in occupied-Japan.
Although a decorated veteran of five major conflicts, who once graced the cover of Time Magazine, Krueger is easily one of the least-known figures of World War II. Having never kept any writings, he was adamant in his refusal to publish a memoir or any personal accounts. He died from pneumonia in 1967 at the age of 86 and was buried in Section 30 at Arlington National Cemetery.
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