Colonel John G. Ladd World War II Collection

Collection — Multiple Containers

Identifier: MSS-WWII-Ladd

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of photographs, ephemera, and militaria relating to Colonel John G. Ladd's service in the Engineers section of the Fifth Army during the invasion of Italy during World War II. Additionally, it contains an large collection of photographs taken by the U.S. Army Signal Corps during that campaign.

Series 1 consists of two groups of photographs. The first is a collection of 322 photographs taken by the U.S. Army Signal Corps depicting the Fifth Army's campaign in Italy, 1943-1945. The second group consists of 77 photographs taken by Col. Ladd in Italy during the same period.

Series 2, 3, and 4 consist of military publications, including "Stars and Stripes," ephemera relating to Col. Ladd's service in Italy, and a small group of correspondence--mainly holiday cards--respectively.

Series 5 contains uniform components, including belts, buttons, caps, patches, and pins.

Dates

1943 - 1946

Creator

Ladd, John Gardner, 1899-1989 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research; access by appointment.

Conditions Governing Use

Signal Corps photographs are in the public domain. Copyright for other material remains with the author/publishers. It is the sole responsibility of the researcher to identify and satisfy any claims of copyright before making use of reproductions beyond the conditions of fair use, as described by the United States Copyright Law. Contact Trexler Library archives staff for additional information.

Biographical Note

Colonel John Gardner Ladd (1899-1989) was born in Rolla, Missouri, on November 10, 1899 and graduated from George Washington University (B. S., civil engineering, 1922). While in college he lettered in baseball, basketball and tennis, was business manager of the college newspaper, and was a member of the Student Army Training Corps (1918).

He was subsequently a reserve officer in the U.S. Army and was employed in the service department of Woodward & Lothrop, a major department store in Washington, D. C., from 1922 to 1926. He then served as cartographic engineer, U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, Washington, D. C., from 1926 to February, 1941, when he was ordered to active duty for one year as a captain in the U.S. Army at Fort Meade, Maryland. While there he was sent to Infantry School, Fort Benning, Georgia, where, on December 7, 1941, while watching a polo game, he heard a radio announcement of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which automatically cancelled the prospect of release at the end of the year. Upon completion of the course he was promoted to major and assigned to the Department of the Army in the Munitions Building, Washington, D. C. In June 1942, he was ordered to the Engineer Section, Hq., Second Corps, and three days later was on a Europe-bound convoy. Upon landing in Glasgow, they were met by a band of music, for they were the first U.S. soldiers to set foot in Scotland since World War I.

A few months later, Ladd participated in the invasion of North Africa, and the capture of Oran (Algiers). When the 5th Army was activated in North Africa in the summer of 1943, he was transferred to its Engineer Section headquarters, where he served throughout the invasion of Sicily and Italy as Chief, Engineer Intelligence Division, with responsibility for surveying and mapping and control of all Engineer topographic troops and map distribution detachments. In late March, 1945, during a winter lull in fighting, he was selected with 30 other officers for 10 days home leave; this trip coincided with his 20th wedding anniversary and promotion as full colonel.

At the conclusion of hostilities he returned home by troopship, but his plans for returning to civilian life were diverted by the offer of a permanent commission (without loss of rank) in the Regular Army; this he accepted. Ladd served for nearly five years in the office of the Chief of Engineers (Washington, D. C.) as chief, Engineer Intelligence and Mapping Division; in 1949 he was appointed post commander, Army Map Service (Washington, D. C.), with a staff of 30 military and over 4,000 civilians; in this position he was responsible not only for numerous improvements in the techniques of map-manufacture and distribution (e.g., applications of photogrammetry, methods of color-separation, and mass-production of plastic relief maps), but for even more important developments in the standardization of map-making among agencies of U.S. and foreign (especially NATO) governments (e.g. in the adoption of common control and grid systems). During these years, he published a number of articles relating to military map-making.

In 1953, Ladd was transferred to U.S. Army headquarters, Far East (Zama, Japan), where he was again chief of the Engineer Intelligence and Mapping Division, making frequent short trips to Korea. There, in the summer of 1954, he suffered a back injury for which he was hospitalized for 3 months, returning to the U.S. in October for further treatment at Walter Reed Hospital (Washington, D. C.) where he was retired on December 31, 1954 for physical disability, having 30 years accredited military service. His various assignments had involved him in extensive foreign travel and numerous friendships with opposite numbers in NATO and other countries in Europe, South America, and Asia.

Ladd received a number of decorations and awards: as a result of his European service he received the Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, and American Defense Medal, as well as the Italian Cross of ·Military Valor; for his Far East service he received the Armed Forces Reserve Medal, the oak leaf cluster for the Legion of Merit, and the medal of the Royal (Thai) Order of the White Elephant. Following this first retirement he took a position as executive director of the Association of Professional Photogrammetrists, with headquarters in Washington, D. C. In 1957, becoming the American representative of Tellurometer, Ltd., of Cape Town (South Africa), manufacturers of a newly-invented device for measuring distances by means of microwaves, he created a Washington, D. C. corporation of the same name, of which he was president, treasurer, board chairman and (ultimately) majority stockholder. In 1966 he sold out to a British firm and retired for the second time.

Ladd served as president of the Wesley Heights Community Club and was a member of a number of other social and business clubs. He was a devoted golfer and an ardent folk-dancers. In 1932 he built an attractive house adjoining Glover Archbold Park (a natural wooded park in Wesley Heights).

On April 13, 1925, Ladd married Annette Estelle Thomas Steel (1899-1994), a fellow George Washington University graduate. They had two daughters, Annette Louise Ladd Guion (1926-2007) and Martha Ladd Allee (b. 1932).

Adapted from “The Descent of George Edgar Ladd 1865 - 1940,” compiled by Dorothy D. (Ladd) Clapp & Verner W. Clapp, 1970.