Hello everyone, first time posting on /r/AskHistorians!
My question is: Did generals in the Second World War engage in direct combat with the enemy, as implied by some of their decorations? I know several US generals received gallantry decorations during the war (I think Bradley and Ridgway both earned CIBs), and many generals are photographed in helmets with sidearms at the front, though were they actually involved directly in the fighting (actively engaging the enemy)? Or were generals' combat decorations more matters of military politics? (like MacArthur being awarded the MOH, or more recently Petraeus's Bronze Star)
Many thanks in advance for any replies!
I don't know much about American generals in combat, but thanks to historian Rob Citino, I found a very interesting paper on German generals killed by enemy action during the war. The numbers are pretty gruesome; about 136 division, corps, and army commanders were killed over the course of the war. The German officers' tradition stressed frontline leadership, being where your troops can take inspiration from your presence, and aggressive independence. This required general officers to operate close to the front to get information and issue orders as fast as possible, even if you don't plan on shouldering a rifle and shooting it out with the enemy yourself.
The author found interesting patterns in the data. Many generals killed in WWII had been decorated for bravery or wounds in the first world war, while another significant portion of the general casualties were transfers from less dangerous assignments who were killed before they could adjust to the frightening lethality of the WWII battlefield. A persistent problem was that they didn't really train their generals in survivability; they persisted in wearing the bright red and gold collar patches unique to general officers, making them a juicy target for snipers and guerrillas. This extends to their vehicles as well, which were frequently exposed to air attack, and identified their occupant as a general grade officer with a pennant flag.
The study was in my opinion incomplete, as it only surveyed officers killed, rather than the multitudes more who had been wounded, and it was only commanding generals, rather than those on staffs. The commander of the panzer division spearheading the drive on Vladikavkaz in the Caucasus campaign did so while shaking off the effects of a fresh head wound. Nehring carried out the last ditch defense of Tunis while constantly changing the bandage on a festering arm wound. Hans Hube fought the invasion of Sicily with one arm. On the Italian mainland, General Herr commanded a division attacking the allied beachhead while nursing another recent head wound. Marshal Rommel himself was badly wounded during an Allied air raid on his personal transport vehicle. They fought so hard Germany literally had to be destroyed from the ground up to bring the war to and end.