Jacob L. Devers

Jacob Loucks Devers (; 8 September 1887 – 15 October 1979) was a United States Army general who commanded the 6th Army Group in the European Theater of World War II. He was involved in the development and adoption of numerous weapons, including the M4 Sherman and M26 Pershing tanks, the DUKW amphibious truck, the Bell H-13 Sioux helicopter, and the M16 rifle. A graduate of the United States Military Academy, Devers was commissioned in the field artillery in 1909. During World War I, he was an instructor at the School of Fire at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and the November 11 armistice ended the fighting before he received orders to go to France. He traveled to France soon afterwards, where he attended the French artillery school at Treves. Between the world wars, he was a staunch advocate of mechanization when the idea of phasing out horses met strong resistance from conservative gunners. When World War II broke out in Europe, Devers was stationed in Panama. He was promoted to major general in October 1940 and took command of the newly formed 9th Infantry Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, a base whose construction he oversaw. Appointed Chief of the Armored Force in August 1941, he supervised its expansion from four armored divisions to sixteen. He was an articulate proponent of the emerging tactical doctrine of combined arms and rejected the American doctrine that held that tanks were for exploitation, not for fighting other tanks. He pressed American industry to produce more powerful engines and, often against the views of his superiors, pushed the development of the M4 Sherman, a medium tank with a 75 mm gun. Not satisfied with the Sherman, he called for still more heavily armed and -armored tanks. He wanted 250 of the new M26 Pershing tanks...