Product Code Database
Major General Sherman Miles (December 5, 1882Beer, Siegfried: "Sherman Miles – vor und nach Kärnten 1919. Anmerkungen zu einer hauptsächlich nachrichtendienstlichen Karriere in der US-Armee", pp. 309–317 in Valentin, H.; Haiden, S.; Maier, B. (eds.): Die Kärntner Volksabstimmung 1920 und die Geschichtsforschung, Verlag Johannes Heyn, Klagenfurt 2002. . – October 7, 1966) was an officer of the United States Army, who was Chief of the Military Intelligence Division in 1941, when the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor happened, bringing the United States into World War II.
During his military career, he held various posts as military attaché in Europe. In 1940, he became the head of the Military Intelligence Division of the U.S. Army in George C. Marshall's General Staff. Two months after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, he was reassigned from that position to that of Commanding General of the First Service Command in Boston.
From 1912 to 1914, he was military attaché on the Balkans. During World War I, he served as military observer in Russia until 1916. He returned to the U.S. and was detailed to the General Staff Corps. In 1918, after the American entry into World War I, he was an observer during the Meuse–Argonne offensive, the largest battle in the U.S. Army's history. As a General Staff member, he was temporarily promoted first to major in 1917, then to lieutenant colonel in 1918, and in 1919 to colonel.Cullum, George Washington: " Biographical register of the officers and graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. since its establishment in 1802. Supplement vol. 6B (1910–1920) ". URL retrieved January 12, 2011.
On January 27, 1919, Miles led the delegation of the Coolidge Mission which, on the way to Carinthia, visited the city of Marburg (today Maribor in Slovenia). Prior to the First World War, Marburg had a population comprising 80% ethnic German and 20% Slovenes.Osterreicheische statistik Herausgegeben von der K.K. Statistischen Zentralkommission. neue folge 1. band. Ergebnisse der volkszahlung vom 31. dezember 1910. Wien. aus der kaiserlich-koniglichen hof und staatsdruckerel 1917. in kommission bei karl gerold's sohn During Miles' visit, thousands of citizens of German ethnic origin gathered on the main city square, waving German Austria flags, many of which also decorated nearby buildings. Slovenian military units commanded by Rudolf Maister killed between 11 and 13 German civilian protesters in a central Maribor square, during event known as Marburg's Bloody Sunday.
Regarding Carinthia, the Coolidge Mission focused on where to draw the future border between the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and Austria. The U.S. position before the Paris conference favored, like the British and French, a separation along ethnographic lines, i.e., a border along the river Drava (German: Drau), which would have split the economic and geographic region of the Klagenfurt basin. The Yugoslavs also favored this solution. Miles became instrumental in reversing this position.
In his field travels, he learned that many of the Slovene speakers in the region actually preferred to belong to Austria and had closer economic ties to the Klagenfurt area than to Slovenia. He proposed, instead, a border along the Karawanks further south. Through his reports, he was able to convince his superiors that the best way to settle the question was through self-determination. The U.S. team eventually convinced the British and French delegations in Paris, and finally it was decided that the area should remain undivided, and that the question of whether it should henceforth belong to Austria or to Yugoslavia was to be decided by a vote among the population of the area. In the plebiscite held on October 10, 1920, the population voted for Miles' border proposal.Fräss-Ehrfeld, Claudia: " The Role of the United States of America and the Carinthian Question, 1918–1920", Slovene Studies 8/1 (1986), pp. 7–13. URL retrieved January 13, 2011.U.S. Department of State, Papers relating to the foreign relations of the United States, The Paris Peace Conference, 1919, vol XII. URL retrieved January 11, 2011.In Klagenfurt, a street was named after Miles in 1970. See Carinthia I: Mitteilungen des Geschichtsvereins für Kärnten, Vol. 194, 2004, p. 741. Also in the city of Völkermarkt in Carinthia, a street is named after Sherman Miles.[5].
When these post-war assignments terminated, he returned to the U.S. and reverted to the rank of major in 1920.Cullum, George Washington: " Biographical register of the officers and graduates of the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. since its establishment in 1802. Supplement vol. 7 (1920–1930) ". URL retrieved January 12, 2011. In the 1920s, he attended various military schools (Army War College 1921–22, Coast Artillery School 1925–26, General Staff School 1926–27) and was posted to various units in the Coast Artillery and in the Field Artillery until the late 1930s.
From 1922 to 1925 he was military attaché at Constantinople in Turkey, and was sent in 1924 to Teheran to investigate the murder of U.S. Vice Consul Robert Whitney Imbrie there.Zirinsky, M.: " Blood, Power, and Hypocrisy: The Murder of Robert Imbrie and American Relations with Pahlavi Iran, 1924", in International Journal of Middle East Studies 18.3 (1986), pp. 275–292. URL retrieved January 12, 2011. Miles was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the Regular Army in 1929 and to colonel in 1935 The March 1934 photo to the right, presents General Sherman Miles accompanying the Japanese statesmen Tokugawa Iesato, as Iyesato and his granddaughter as they honor America's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery, Washington, D.C. Prince Tokugawa (1863–1940) devoted his life to maintaining goodwill between Japan and the U.S. and other nations, and was so politically influential in Japan and internationally, that it was only after his death that Japan joined the Axis Powers in WWII.
From September 1, 1938, on, he was commanding school troops at the United States Army Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.Cullum, George Washington: " Biographical register of the officers and graduates of the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. since its establishment in 1802. Supplement vol. 8 (1930–1940) ". URL retrieved January 12, 2011.
On September 1, 1939, he was promoted to brigadier general and served as military attaché in London for half a year before returning to the U.S., where he became a senior member of Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall's general staff in 1941. Miles was assigned as "Assistant Chief of Staff G-2", i.e., the head of the Military Intelligence Division (MID).Cullum, George Washington: " Biographical register of the officers and graduates of the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. since its establishment in 1802. Supplement vol. 9 (1940–1950) ". URL retrieved January 12, 2011.
The MID greatly expanded during his time as G-2, but, as Miles put it, "always in a piecemeal manner".Finnegan, John Patrick: Military Intelligence, Center for Military History, U.S. Army 1998, CMH pub 60-13, here " Chapter 4: Military Intelligence in Crisis". URLs retrieved January 14, 2011. Qualified cryptography personnel were scarce, and Japanese-speaking personnel were also hard to come by. Miles' suggestions to set up an espionage service were ignored until June 1941, Life, Dec 2, 1940 issue, p. 94: " These are U.S. Army's six foremost Generals", wrote even that "spies are considered un-American". URL retrieved January 14, 2011. when U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed William J. Donovan as Coordinator of Information. Donovan's unit would eventually become the OSS, but it was independent from the MID and needed time to mature, which made for a difficult collaboration (if not to say a rivalry) between the MID and the OSS from the beginning and continuing throughout the war.
Ten days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Miles was sent on an inspection tour through South America to survey installations there and to make recommendations for military assistance to the Latin American countries;Conn, Stetson; Fairchild, Byron: The Framework of Hemisphere Defense , Center of Military History, U.S. Army 1960, CMH pub 4-1; " Chapter VIII: General Military Relations With Latin America", p. 200ff. URL retrieved January 17, 2011. Brigadier General Raymond E. Lee became Acting Assistant Chief of Staff G-2 .Mercado, Stephen C.: "
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> FBIS Against the Axis, 1941–1945 (U)", Studies in Intelligence Fall/Winter 2001, issue 11, pp. 33–43. CIA, 2001. Mentions on page 40 and in footnote 25 that Raymond E. Lee was Acting ACoS G-2 on December 26, 1941. URL retrieved January 17, 2011.
On January 28, 1942, Miles was promoted to major general and then reassigned as commanding general of the First Corps Area Service Command (later re-designated as the First Service Command) in Boston. The Service Commands, sub-entities of the Army Service Forces, were supporting services for the fighting forces.Millet, John D.: The Organization and Role of the Army Service Forces, Center of Military History, U.S. Army, 1954, CMH pub. 3-1. Here " Chapter XXIII: The Management of the Army Services Forces", p. 370. URLs retrieved January 12, 2011.
Miles served in this position for the duration of the war and retired from the Army on February 28, 1946. Upon his retirement, Miles received the Distinguished Service Medal, the Army's highest non-combat decoration, in recognition of his wartime service.After Marshall's reorganization of the General Staff, Maj. Gen. George V. Strong was G-2 from May 5, 1942 to February 6, 1944; then Maj. Gen. Clayton Bissell held that post until January 1946. C.f. Hewes, James E. Jr.: From Root to McNamara: Army Organization and Administration, Center of Military History, U.S. Army 1975, CMH pub 40-1; Appendix B: Principal Officials of the War Department and Department of the Army, 1900–1963 , p. 389, and " Chapter III: Changes in the Marshall organization", p. 107. URLs retrieved January 13, 2011.
After the death of his wife Yulee in 1953, he married Edith Lawrence Coolidge, widow of Harold Jefferson Coolidge, Sr., in 1954.
He died at the hospital in Beverly, Massachusetts after long illness and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery Burial Detail: Miles, Sherman (Section 3, Grave 1873) – at ANC Explorer in the Miles Mausoleum on October 12, 1966.
| Army Distinguished Service Medal | |
| Army of Cuban Pacification Medal | |
| Mexican Border Service Medal | |
| World War I Victory Medal with three battle clasps | |
| Army of Occupation of Germany Medal | |
| American Defense Service Medal with Foreign Service Clasp | |
| American Campaign Medal | |
| World War II Victory Medal | |
| Chevalier of the Legion of Honor |
|
|
