Between 1919 and 1925, Truscott was stationed at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. He was promoted to captain in 1925, major in 1926, and lieutenant colonel in 1935. He was first a student and then an instructor at the Cavalry School (1925–1931) and the Command and General Staff School (1934–1940).
In February 1941, Truscott joined IX Corps as assistant G-3 and profoundly impressed his chief, Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower. As both men rose in the army, Eisenhower repeatedly selected Truscott for important assignments. Promoted to brigadier general in May 1942, he was assigned to Britain's Combined Operations headquarters, where he developed ranger units that participated in the Dieppe raid that summer. After becoming a major general in November 1942, he commanded the force that seized Port Lyautey in French Morocco. During the fighting for Tunisia, Truscott served as Eisenhower's deputy in charge of training, and in March 1943, he took command of the 3rd Infantry Division.
In fighting in Sicily and again in peninsular Italy, Truscott's division established an exemplary reputation. He himself became known for his rigorous training, steely leadership, and ability to inspire confidence. A month after the Anzio landing on 22 January 1944, he replaced Major General John P. Lucas as commander of the U.S. VI Corps after Lucas became the scapegoat for the operation's initial failure. On 23 May, Truscott's greatly augmented VI Corps broke out of its beachhead. Had Fifth Army commander Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark not redirected Truscott's advance to Rome, VI Corps might have trapped large numbers of retreating Germans.
On 15 August 1944, Truscott's corps landed on the French Riviera as the vanguard of Lieutenant General Alexander M. Patch's Seventh Army in Operation dragoon. VI Corps drove rapidly up the Rh™ne Valley and again only narrowly missed making a major entrapment of German troops. Promoted to lieutenant general in September 1944 and thus too senior to keep his corps, Truscott handed over command in the Vosges Mountains in late October. In mid-December, back in Italy, he succeeded Clark as commander of Fifth Army, and in April 1945, he directed its 19-day final offensive through the Po Valley to the Alps.
Truscott was the only U.S. general of the war to command in battle at four successively higher echelons. Had his superiors in the Mediterranean not blocked his transfer to England—which Eisenhower had requested early in 1944—he, instead of Major General J. Lawton Collins, would have led VII Corps over Utah Beach into Normandy.
Truscott retired from the army on medical grounds in 1947. In retirement, he wrote his memoirs and served in various advisory capacities. He was promoted to full general on the retired list in 1954, and he died in Washington, D.C., on 12 September 1965.
Richard G. Stone
Further Reading
Morris, Eric. Circles of Hell: The War in Italy, 1943–1945. New York: Crown Publishers, 1993.; Truscott, L. K., Jr. Command Missions: A Personal Story. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1954.; Truscott, L. K., Jr. The Twilight of the U.S. Cavalry: Life in the Old Army, 1917–1942. Ed. Lucian K. Truscott III. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1989.; Weigley, Russell F. Eisenhower's Lieutenants: The Campaigns of France and Germany, 1944–1945. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1981.
