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Lewis H. Brereton --- A Profile
by Col. Phillip S. Meilinger
One of the more well traveled airmen of the Second World War was Lewis H. Brereton. A graduate of the Naval Academy, he had
served on Billy Mitchell's staff during and after World War I and rose steadily through the ranks in the years thereafter. At the time of
Pearl Harbor he was commander of the Far East Air Forces-such as they were-under MacArthur. When that command collapsed a few
months later, he was sent to India to command the Tenth Air Force, and thence to Egypt to head the Ninth Air Force. In 1943 he took
the Ninth to England in preparation for the Overlord invasion, and in August 1944 he was selected to lead the First Allied Airborne Army
for Operation Market Garden. After the war, Lieutenant General Brereton was a senior military advisor to the Atomic Energy Commission
until his retirement in 1948. He was a key figure in several important events of the war including the destruction of his air force at Clark
Field, the fall of Burma, the British success at El Alamein, the lowlevel strike on Ploesti in August 1943, D day, and "a bridge too
far" at Arnhem. He recounts his experiences in The Brereton Diaries (New York: W. Morrow and Co., 1946).
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