Frank L. Howley

Frank Leo "Howlin'" Howley (February 3, 1903 - July 30, 1993) was a United States Army brigadier general and subsequently an administrator at New York University.

Howley served as commandant of the American sector of Berlin after World War II, when the city was broken and in dire need of being restored.

He became known as Howlin' Howley because of his interminable and intractable interactions with the Soviets.

He was born in Hampton, New Jersey, and was educated at the Parsons School of Fine and Applied Arts in New York City.

Howley also attended classes in business and art at the Sorbonne in Paris, and graduated with a B.S. degree in economics from New York University (NYU).

At NYU he played football for the Violets at the positions of left end and placekicker.

Although the team was then mediocre at best (1922-1924), Howley gained notoriety for his kicking expertise, and a nickname to match, Golden Toe.

During his senior year, in a 41-3 loss to Rutgers, Howley's field goal accounted for their only score.

He was also a baseball and track and field athlete.

In the 1930s Howley formed his own advertising agency based in Philadelphia called Frank L. Howley & Associates, and gained business nationwide despite the ongoing economic depression.

Howley entered the Officers Reserve Corps in 1932 and was called to active duty in 1940.

His first assignment was commanding officer of an Air Corps ground school, and he was promoted to captain.

In 1941 Howley chose to pursue the cavalry and was made operations officer of the Cavalry School at Fort Riley, Kansas.

Sometime later he was made executive officer of the Third Cavalry Mechanized at Camp Gordon, Georgia, and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

In the summer of 1943, whilst in Georgia, Howley suffered a motorcycle accident and broke his back and pelvis.

He was hospitalized more than five months and was eventually forced to transfer from the cavalry.

He was told he could go home or move to Military Government, or more precisely, to Civil Affairs.

He chose the latter.

Howley was assigned to schools in the U.S. and then in England.

He was made director of the Military Government Officers' Division based in Shrivenham.

Only upon his insistence in taking part in Normandy was he not left behind.

For the invasion Howley was designated commander of the Civil Affairs Detachment, with the "mystifying" code name of A1A1.

In Normandy he landed on Omaha Beach on D plus 4 with a mixed American-British unit, along with French liaison officers.

While the 9th Infantry Division worked to push the Germans out of Cherbourg, but with most of the street fighting over, Howley's A1A1 detachment exercised its mission authority.

He augmented and reconstituted the local government, and got the city back on its feet.

"The Cherbourg Civil Affairs operation was subsequently described by Allied observers as efficient beyond all expectations."

After an initial mix up of orders, Howley's follow-on assignment became Paris.

There he commanded a combined delegation of 150 officers and 200 enlisted men, and entered Paris along with the first troops.

This job was much bigger than Cherbourg, and was to provide relief to the beleaguered French capital and its citizens.

While in Paris, Howley was selected by Eisenhower's military government chief, Lieutenant General A.E. Grassett, to lead a military government detachment to Berlin.

The British troops assigned to his unit received initial orders to return to England for their own preliminary preparations.

In December 1944, Howley set up his headquarters in Barbizon, France, preparing for Berlin.

Around SHAEF Barbizon was called "Howley's mystery town."

There, he states, they girded themselves "for virtually all eventualities, except, of course, the curious behavior of our Russian allies." Governing Berlin would not be an easy proposition in any case, as it was to be on a unanimous four-power basis.

They would have to agree on every point, from food distribution to education.

Colonel Howley reached Berlin on July 1, 1945, after substantial haranguing by the Soviets.

He had about 500 officers and men, and 120 vehicles as he began his expedition through the Soviet Zone.

As soon as he arrived at the demarcation line he was told he was limited to 37-50-175, as per the Berlin Agreement.

This stipulated, so they said, that he could pass with no more than 37 officers, 50 vehicles, and 175 men.

There is no documented evidence of any such agreement.