United States Army Brigadier General. His military career was highlighted by the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp by men of his command during World War II. He graduated from the University of Minnesota and joined the United States Army as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1918. He commanded a company of the 33rd Infantry Regiment in Panama during World War I, and afterwards served in several command and staff assignments of increasing rank and responsibility. At the start of World War II he was commander of the 53rd Infantry Regiment in the Aleutian Islands as the United States retook them from Japan. In 1944 he was promoted to Brigadier General as Assistant Division Commander of the 42nd (Rainbow) Infantry Division. He commanded its three infantry regiments as "Task Force Linden" which arrived in Marseilles, France that fall, deployed in an attempt to prevent two German armies in Alsace from breaking out, and successfully defended along a 30-mile front. At the end of January, 1945 the rest of the division arrived in France, and as part of the Seventh Army the 42nd penetrated German defenses in the Hardt Mountains, crossed the "Siegfried Line",b ridged the Rhine River, and captured the cities of Wurzburg, Schweinfurt, Furth and Donauworth. On April 29, General Linden and a 42nd Division detachment liberated the Dachau concentration camp in Bavaria, Germany, generating international headlines by freeing more than 30,000 Jews and political prisoners. After World War II he served in occupied Austria and was Chief of the Army's Military Arts Department until he retired in 1952. His awards included the Silver Star, two Bronze Star Medals and two Legions of Merit.
Source: Find a Grave