Word: rupertus
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Smith and the late Major General William Rupertus, who commanded the 1st during the New Britain campaign, had taken an instant dislike to each other. Such frictions are common in all military hierarchies; the measure of the junior-ranking man in each case is how he takes it. When Smith got his first general's star and was made ADC (assistant division commander), the promotion did not come from Rupertus but from "topside." The first day Smith assumed his duties as ADC, Rupertus decided to make a hospitable gesture and reached for a bottle. "Have a drink," he growled...
...Rupertus exploded in a barrage of blistering Marine denunciation. After listening for a minute or two-still at attention -Smith whipped out a notebook and began taking down his superior's remarks in his odd shorthand. "And that," another officer recalled, "was just about the way Smith was. He would never have said anything back to Rupertus, because he [Smith] was a marine by the books. The general was talking, so Smith just stood there like he was in staff meeting, taking notes...
Into the Textbooks. Despite their differences, Smith and Rupertus planned the Peleliu invasion (the 1st Division's bloodiest battle of the war). When Rupertus broke his ankle while watching landing practice, some doubt was expressed by topside on his physical ability to command at Peleliu. Smith loyally argued for the superior who had berated him, and Rupertus commanded the operation on crutches...
Then the 1st was withdrawn for rest and reorganization. It went back into battle in New Britain. But its bloodiest job was still to come. In the early fall of 1944, under the late Major General William H. Rupertus, its men waded ashore from landing craft on Peleliu in the Palau Islands. On Bloody Nose Ridge in caves which were the "incarnate evil of this war," the Japs made their last stand. In stifling heat at least one regiment of the ist took as high as 60% casualties. The 81st Infantry Division ("Wildcat") moved in to relieve them. In three...
Died. Major General William H. Rupertus, 55, big-jowled commandant of Marine Corps schools at Quantico, Va., able commander in the Solomons and Palau islands campaigns; of a heart attack; in Washington...