Lee, John Clifford Hodges

▪ United States Army officer

born August 1, 1887, Junction City, Kansas, U.S.

died August 30, 1958, York, Pennsylvania

      U.S. Army logistics officer who oversaw the buildup of American troops and supplies in Great Britain in preparation for the Normandy Invasion (1944) during World War II.

      Lee graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1909 and was commissioned in the Army Corps of Engineers. He served as a staff officer in France during World War I and subsequently held various posts in the Corps of Engineers. He became a brigadier general in 1940 and a major general in 1942. In May 1942 he went to England to take command of the Services of Supply for the European theatre of operations (ETO). In January 1944 he was also made the deputy commander of U.S. forces in the ETO, under General Dwight D. Eisenhower (Eisenhower, Dwight D.), and he was promoted to lieutenant general (temporary) the following month.

      As commander of the Services of Supply, Lee oversaw the buildup of American troops, munitions, and supplies in Britain in preparation for a cross-Channel invasion of German-occupied western Europe. He had to acquire, transport across the Atlantic, and distribute to the troops hundreds of thousands of different items of supply—a task of gargantuan complexity. In addition to his equipment duties, he was in charge of the housing, feeding, and sanitation of the troops. After the invasion began on D-Day (June 6, 1944), Lee remained in charge of supplying the American forces fighting in the European campaign, whose numbers totaled about three million men by early 1945.

      Lee became commander of U.S. Army forces in the Mediterranean theatre of operations in December 1945, and he retired in 1947.

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