Major General Roderick Random Allen[1] (January 29, 1894 – February 1, 1970) was a senior United States Army officer, who commanded the 20th and 12th Armored Divisions during World War II.

Under his command of the 12th AD, the division defended Strasbourg from recapture; it provided the armored contingent in the closure of the Colmar Pocket and the liberation of Colmar; it spearheaded General George Patton's drive to the Rhine; captured intact the remaining bridge over the Danube River and broke the German defense line; and played a major part in blocking the Brenner Pass, thereby trapping over a million German soldiers in Italy as the war ended.

En route to the Brenner Pass it overran eleven concentration camps at Landsberg, Germany.

Allen was sent to France with the 3rd Cavalry Regiment with the American Expeditionary Force under command of General John J. Pershing.

In January 1942, Allen became Chief of Staff for the 6th Armored Division under command of Major General William H. H. Morris Jr.

From October 1943 to September 1944 he was the inaugural commander the 20th Armored Division at Camp Campbell, Kentucky after its initial activation.

The division was attached to the 7th Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Alexander Patch, which had landed in the south of France in August 1944 as part of Operation Dragoon.

[5] In January 1945, the 12th AD engaged in pitched battle seeking to regain ground along the southern Rhine lost during Germany's Operation Nordwind, which was an attempt by German forces to recapture Strasbourg.

[6][7] Unable to advance through Herrlisheim, CCB withdrew to a complex known as la Breymuehl, (Fr: "the Waterworks"), at the intersection of an intact bridge over the Zorn River.

However an artillery barrage from the German defenders knocked out the CCB Command Center and the attack was canceled.

During the 11 days of fighting around Herrlisheim, the 12th AD suffered 1,250 casualties out of a total division strength of 10,000 men, and lost 70 combat vehicles.

At that time, the division under Gen. Allen was again detached from the 7th Army and assigned to the 3rd Army under Gen. George Patton, the 12th were told to remove all of their Divisional markings and insignias, to conceal the strength of the forces Patton had under his direct command as they spearheaded the crossing of the Rhine during Operation Undertone, thus earning the moniker "The Mystery Division".

[10] Under Gen. Allen's command, the 12th AD accompanied the XXI Corps into Austria, capturing Nuremberg and then Munich, ending the war around the area of Ulm.

[1] Major General Roderick R. Allen retired from the Army on May 31, 1954, and lived in Washington, D.C., where he died at the age of 76 on February 1, 1970.