The Second Battle of Smolensk began with the Soviets launching an offensive in the area.
Generals Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. and Terry de la Mesa Allen were relieved of their commands within the 1st Infantry Division. At the time the rumors held that it was due to command disapproval of their leadership and this is cited as a fact in various histories, but it appears to have actually been a preplanned move by Eisenhower. Both would go on to later combat commands, which was not the norm for commanders who were sacked.
Roosevelt, Allen and Patton, the latter of which was critical of the other two. Omar Bradley was particularly critical of their command style, feeling the 1st Infantry Division was ill disciplined. By Robert Capa - https://pro.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=SearchDetail&VBID=2K1HZOQXYS8DMJ&PN=367&IID=2S5RYDIPOWIO, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50461050
Both Roosevelt and Allen were highly respected by their troops.
Allen was an unusual US general in a variety of ways. For one thing, he was a devout Catholic in an era when US generals were pretty uniformly Protestants and, for that matter, Catholics had not really broken into the white collar world in the US.
Secondly, he was dismissed from West Point for poor performance. He went on from there to Catholic University of America and entered the Army and took a competitive exam in order to receive a commission. He was a cavalryman by branch.
Allen was from a military family and had grown up on frontier posts, an experience which caused him to disregard class distinctions, something that was a feature of his leadership.
Roosevelt was of course the son of the famous President and had stayed in the reserves between the wars, actively advancing his military education.
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