Walton (Harris) Walker - World War II, Post-World War II, Korean War, Death

US soldier, born in Belton, Texas, USA. A combat veteran of both World Wars, he commanded United Nations ground forces in Korea in 1950. He directed the defensive battle of the Pusan Perimeter, then led the counter-offensive that drove North Korean forces N to the Manchurian border. He was killed when his jeep collided with a truck near Seoul.

Walton Harris Walker
December 31, 1889 - December 23, 1950
Nickname	"Johnnie"
Place of birth	Belton, Texas
Allegiance	U.S. Army
Years of service	1912
Rank	Lieutenant General
Unit	5th Infantry Division
Commands	Third Armored Division XX Corps U.S. 5th Army U.S. 8th Army
Battles/wars	Veracruz (1914) World War I World War II Invasion of Normandy Battle of the Bulge Korean War Pusan Perimeter
Awards	Silver Star

Walton Harris Walker (December 3, 1889—December 23, 1950) was an American army officer and the first commander of the U.S. Eighth Army during the Korean War.

Walker was born in Belton, Texas on December 3, 1889 and graduated from West Point in 1912.

During World War I, Walker fought in France with the 5th Infantry Division and won the Silver Star for gallantry in action.

In the inter-war period, Walker rotated through a variety of assignments, including service in China, Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and teaching duties in several posts, including West Point.

World War II

When hostilities broke out in Europe in 1939, Walker was executive of the War Plans division of the general staff, but when Marshall (now Chief of Staff) assigned George Patton to organize America's armored forces, Walker successfully lobbied his old boss for a post as one of Patton's subordinate commanders in this effort, gaining promotion to brigadier general in the process.

Walker's XX Corps played a distinguished role in Patton's dash across France in August and early September, earning the sobriquet, "Ghost Corps," for the speed of its advance. Walker's troops saw heavy fighting in France and Germany during the remainder of the war, especially at Metz, the Battle of the Bulge, and in the invasion of Germany. In the spring of 1945 XX Corps liberated Buchenwald concentration camp, then pushed south and east, eventually reaching Linz, Austria, by May, as the war ended, and Walker received his third star, making him a Lieutenant-General. By now Walker was considered one of the Army's finest tank commanders, perhaps second only to Patton himself, who lauded his subordinate as "my fightingest son-of-bitch."

Post-World War II

After the war Walker became commander of Fifth Army, headquartered in Chicago, but in 1948, he received the assignment for which he is largely known: commanding general of the Eighth Army, the American occupation force in Japan. Soon after Walker's arrival, the Eighth Army, which had deteriorated into a soft, minimally trained, under equipped constabulary during the occupation, was ordered by General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Allied Commander in Japan, to restore itself to combat worthy condition.

It was a difficult task, not only because of shortages in manpower, equipment, and training areas in cramped and overcrowded Japan, but also because Walker had a difficult relationship with the imperious MacArthur, his immediate superior, and (especially) MacArthur's chief of staff, Major General Ned Almond.

Korean War

Shortly after the North Korean invasion of South Korea, in June, 1950, the Eighth Army was ordered to intervene and drive the invaders back across the 38th parallel, the border between the two countries. With only four divisions, still lightly equipped, poorly trained, and insufficiently hardened, Walker began landing troops on the southeast side of the Korean peninsula in July. After his lead units, elements of the 24th Infantry Division (including the ill-fated Task Force Smith), were virtually destroyed in a few days of furious fighting between Osan and Taejon, Walker realized his assigned mission was impossible and went over to the defensive. Pushed steadily back towards the southeast by the North Korean advance, Walker's forces suffered heavy losses and for a time were unable to form a defensible front, even after bringing the 1st Cavalry and 25th Infantry Divisions into the fight.

Walker's situation was not helped by unrealistic demands from MacArthur, in Tokyo, not to retreat an inch. Attempting to obey, Walker gave a bombastic "not a step back" speech to his staff and subordinate commanders which did not go over well, and did not stop the North Koreans from pushing the Americans, and the ROK forces (the South Korean army, which had been badly cut up in the opening days of the invasion), back even further. Walker was able to quickly shift his units from point to point, reinforcing weak spots, meeting, slowing down, and eventually stopping North Korean attacks before they could reinforce them. Walker now received some much needed reinforcements, including the Provisional Marine Brigade, which he skillfully used, along with the Army's 27th Infantry Regiment, as "fire brigades," especially reliable troops who specialized in counterattacking and wiping out enemy penetrations.

Gradually as more reinforcements arrived, the balance of combat power tilted in Walker's favor. with MacArthur's amphibious flanking move, the North Koreans seemed trapped between his anvil at Inchon and Walker's hammer coming out of the Pusan Perimeter. With the war apparently won, Walker's Eighth Army quickly moved north and, with the independent X Corps (commanded by Walker's nemesis, Almond) on its right, crossed the 38th parallel to occupy North Korea. Walker, informed by MacArthur's headquarters that the Chinese would not intervene, did not insure that his troops maintained watchful security. Also, due to a lack of coordination between Walker, Almond, and MacArthur's headquarters in Tokyo, a huge gap had opened between Eighth Army and X Corps as they moved close to the Chinese border. First in a series of ambushes, then in sporadic night attacks, finally in an all-out offensive, large Chinese forces infiltrated, in, around, and between American units, skillfully taking advantage of the American failure to take basic security measures, the large intervals between spread out American and South Korean units, and the 80 mile wide empty space between Eighth Army and X Corps. From late October until the beginning of December, the Chinese caused havoc, killing or capturing thousands of American and ROK soldiers, almost destroying the 2nd Infantry Division, and forcing Walker into a desperate retreat.

By early December, using his superior mobility (in trucks and other motor vehicles), Walker had successfully broken contact with the Chinese (who had virtually no motorized transport),withdrawing south to a position around Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. Asking for but receiving no instructions on what to do next from MacArthur's headquarters, Walker decided that Eighth Army was too battered in body and spirit to defend Pyongyang, and ordered the retreat resumed to below the 38th parallel.

Death

Once again, the Eighth Army succeeded in escaping south, but it had still not found a line it could defend when Walker, riding at high speed in his command jeep to inspect positions north of Seoul on December 23, 1950, was killed when he collided with a civilian truck.

Promoted posthumously to full general, Walker's memory was much honored in the years immediately following the Korean War. The Army chose his name (and his other nickname), for its next light tank, the M41 Walker Bulldog.

Walker's reputation as a general, high after World War II, was diminished by his record in Korea. The support and confidence Walker, as commander of the Eighth Army, should have received from his superiors was often lacking. Finally, there is still no biography, "definitive" or otherwise, on Walton Walker, except for short write-ups in books about the Korean War itself.

Having entered these caveats, it is generally thought that Walker, while unquestionably brave and a competent commander of troops, was not an inspiring or gifted leader of men.

Walker never had a high reputation as a tactician or for brainpower. Under his care, or lack of it, the Eighth Army, which had been forced to harden or die in Pusan, gradually lost its edge the farther it advanced north after the breakout, until it was again careless and slack, and easy pickings for Chinese infantry in the terribly harsh conditions along the Chongchon River in North Korea.

Nevertheless, Walker's leadership during the dark days of July and August, 1950, redeems him from his earlier and later failures. Constantly on the move, close to the fighting, visiting divisions and regiments, hectoring their commanders to stand firm, moving units to protect the most threatened areas, Walker's defense of the Pusan Perimeter was a historic achievement, which prevented the loss of the war by the United States before it had hardly begun.