Clark, Mark

Clark, Mark (Wayne)

(born May 1, 1896, Madison Barracks, N.Y., U.S.—died April 17, 1984, Charleston, S.C.) U.S. army officer. After graduating from West Point, he served in Europe in World War I. In 1942 he was appointed chief of staff of army ground forces. He commanded the U.S. landing at Salerno, Italy, in September 1943 and received the surrender of the government of Pietro Badoglio. He then directed the hard-fought campaign to wrest the Italian peninsula from Axis control, taking Rome in June 1944 and receiving the surrender of the last German forces in northern Italy in May 1945. In the Korean War he commanded all UN troops (1952–53). After his retirement he served as president of The Citadel military college (1954–66).

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Clark, Mark (Wayne) (1896–1984) soldier; born in Madison Barracks, N.Y. The son of a career army officer, Clark graduated from West Point in 1917 and fought in France the following year. He served in a succession of staff and operational posts through the 1930s. On November 8, 1942, he convinced Vichy Admiral Darlan to order French forces in North Africa to cease resistance to the Allied landings in Morocco and Algeria. Clark commanded the 5th Army in the Salerno landings in September 1943; after a winter of hard fighting, his troops entered Rome on June 4, 1944. As commander of the 15th Army Group, he received the surrender of 230,000 Axis troops in the Alps in April 1945. Clark commanded United Nations forces in Korea (1952–53) and signed the armistice that ended the fighting there. Retiring from the army in 1953, he was president of The Citadel, the military college in South Carolina, from 1954–65.