By Christopher Miskimon
Raymond O. Barton earned the nickname “Tubby” at West Point due to his athletic ability in football and wrestling. He subsequently spent 37 years in the U.S. Army. His greatest service was as commander of the 4th Infantry Division during World War II. He led that unit through 204 days of combat, starting at Cherbourg and then through Operation Cobra and the Battle of Mortain. He was the first American general to enter Germany, next leading his division in the Hurtgen Forest and during the Battle of the Bulge. While the division earned a reputation as an effective combat force, Barton exhausted himself leading it to success. He returned to the United States afterward and lived the rest of his life in Augusta, Georgia.
A retired army officer and retired professor from the U.S. Army Command and Staff College wrote this biography. This work uses Barton’s newly found war diary to provide details on his command decisions and experience leading a division in the maelstrom of World War II combat. This well-written volume provides a good insight into Barton’s leadership and how it translated into his division’s battlefield success.
Tubby: Raymond O. Barton and the U.S. Army, 1889-1963 (Stephen A. Bourque, University of North Texas Press, Denton TX, 2024, 512pp., maps, photo-graphs, notes, bibliography, index, $34.95, H
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