About this ebook
“General Collins was one of driving forces in our military leadership during World War II and the postwar period. His autobiography, Lightning Joe, is a fascinating and dramatic account of those critical years, as well as a warm, personal story.” — W. Averell Harriman
“The route to leadership in combat is long, tedious, competitive and difficult. General Collins’ splendid record indicates that he understood and mastered the challenge. Attaining the highest commands and acquitting himself in magnificent style, Joe Collins added brilliant pages to the already bright history of the United States Army.” — General Mark W. Clark
“Lightning Joe is a remarkably interesting book. It is packed with statistics, dates, and places, and certainly will be an essential reference book for anyone interested in World War II in Europe and the years immediately following that war.” — General James M. Gavin
“Anyone who has wondered how the small Army officer corps of the 1920s and 1930s was able to produce so many effective and often brilliant commanders in World War II will find an answer in this autobiography of General J. Lawton Collins. General Collins recounts his varied experiences in war and peace with exacting accuracy of fact and in an interesting and lucid manner, which makes his book most valuable reading both for the historian and the lay reader wishing to learn more about what it takes to make a successful modern general.” — General Maxwell D. Taylor
“In this autobiography, General J. Lawton Collins exhibits the qualities of mind which won him the reputation as one of the brainiest of American combat commanders: clarity, judiciousness, incisiveness, and realism... a book which should prove valuable to both historian and the general reader... [an] admirable book.” — Ronald Spector, Military Affairs
“[H]ere is a soldier-memoirist grappling earnestly to convey the possible benefits of his own tactical experience to future tacticians, as well as to contribute to the historian’s more forthright quest for as true as possible a reconstruction of the past. Collins is a candidly self-critical memoirist... As a memoirist, Collins has met a standard comparable to that of his exercise of command — which is saying a great deal.” — Russell F. Weigley, The Review of Politics
“The picture that emerges from [the book]... is that of a man of extraordinary good judgment who as a combat commander was neither rash nor overly cautious, an officer who was at once modest and serenely confident of his skills, one who had no time for military posturing... in sum, here is a sharply written and fast-moving account of the life of a man who was intimately involved in some of the most important happenings and with some of the most important people of the present century. It is a book that will appeal to scholars and to general readers alike.” — John Edward Wiltz, The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
“J. Lawton Collins was one of the most important and influential American military leaders of the twentieth century... His descriptions of the fighting in France, the Battle of the Bulge, and the ultimate conquest of Germany offer important insights for anyone interested in the Second World War... Lightning Joe is the candid, thoughtful appraisal of world-shaking events by a man considered to be one of the most innovative, aggressive, and effective generals the United States has ever produced.” — Midwest Book Review
About the author
Born in New Orleans in a large Irish Catholic family, Joseph Lawton Collins (1896-1987) spent 1912-13 at Louisiana State University, entered the US Military Academy at West Point and graduated 35th in his class of 139 in 1917, shortly before his 21st birthday. He served as platoon and company commander with the 22nd Infantry Regiment. Promoted to captain in 1918, he commanded the 3rd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment and then the 3rd Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment in France in 1919. He was assistant chief of staff, as a G-3 officer with the American Forces in Germany from 1920 to 1921.
Collins was a chemistry instructor at West Point from 1921 to 1925. He completed the company officer course at the US Army Infantry School at Fort Benning in 1926, and the advanced course at the US Army Field Artillery School at Fort Sill in 1927. He was an instructor in weapons and tactics at Fort Benning from 1927 to 1931 and, promoted to major in 1932, was executive officer of the 23rd Brigade in Manila, and assistant chief of staff, as a G-2 officer, with the Philippine Division from 1933 to 1934.
Collins graduated from the US Army Industrial College in 1937, and from the US Army War College in 1938 where he stayed as an instructor from 1938 to 1940. Promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1940, to colonel in 1941 as chief of staff of VII Corps, and to general rank in 1942, Collins was chief of staff of the Hawaiian Department from 1941 to 1942 and commanded the 25th Infantry Division on Oahu and in operations against the Japanese on Guadalcanal between 1942 and 1943 and on New Georgia in 1943. Transferred to the European Theater of Operations, Collins commanded the VII Corps in the Allied invasion of Normandy, in the battles of the Hürtgen Forest and of the Bulge and until the end of World War II in Europe in May 1945.
After the war, Collins was chief of staff of Army Ground Forces until December 1945, director of information of the US Army from 1946 to 1947, Vice Chief of Staff of the US Army from 1947 to 1949 and Army Chief of Staff from 1949 to 1953 throughout the Korean War. He was the US representative to NATO from 1953 to 1954 and special US representative in Vietnam with ambassadorial rank from 1954 to 1955. He retired from active service in 1956, after almost 40 years of military service. In 1957 he became vice chairman of the board of Pfizer International subsidiaries. His books are his autobiography, Lightning Joe, and War in Peacetime: The History And Lessons of Korea.
