Men At Arms 120 - Allied.Commanders.of.World.War.II

mmD MILITARY

MEN-AT-ARMS SERIES

120

ALLIED COMMANDERS OF WORLD WAR II o

.\NTHONY KE:\1P

ANGUS ;\1cBRIDE

EDITOR: MARTIN WINDROW

rmm MILITARY

MEN-AT-ARMS SERIES

120

ALLIED COMMANDERS OF WORLD WAR II Text by ANTHONY KEMP Colour plates by ANGUS McBRIDE

Fir'lL puhlished in CreaL Britain in 1982 by Osprey, an imprint of Reed Consumer Books I..ld. ~ lichelin House, 8. Fulham Road, London 5\1'3 6RIl and Auckland, ~Ielbourne, ingapore and Toromo Copyright Ig82 Reed Internationalilooks Ltd. Reprimed '990 twin'), 1991, 1996 AlIlighlS reserycd..\part from any fair dealing for the purpose of pri,·ate study, research, criticism or re,ie", as pemlitled under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act, Ig88, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmiucd in any fonn or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior penni~ion of the copyright owner. Enquiries should be addressed to the Publishers. I 51lN 0 85045 420 4 Filmsct in Great Britain Primedlhrough \\'orld Print Ltd, Hong Kong-

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Author and publishers wish to record their gratitude to the following for lheir help during lhe preparation orthis book: Chris llarbarski,Jack Ilruce, Col. Courdesscs of lhe Fondalion Cen. Leclerc, Don Fosten, Frank Mason, George ROOI and David \Vintcr.

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IrYOli \\ould like to receive more inronmuioll about O~pre) ~li1it.tr) books, The O;:,prcy ~Ic sclll;"er i... a r('~u)ar 11('\\.,)cII(.'r \\hidl cOlllains article.... 11('\\ titlt· inronmllioll
Allied C0J11111flllders ofl/~r/d flir11

Illtrodt/ctioll Sc\"eral fat volumes would obviously be necessary to do full justice to this subject: what follows is simply a brief rc"in\' of the careers of some of the morc intcresting men who achieved high command in 1939 45. The selection is mine, and implies no order of meril. The omission of important figures associated mainl), with sta!frather than field appointments is deliberate. A large proponion ofluck is invoked in military success-the luck to be in the right place at the right time, with the right contacts. Montgomery was ani) appointed to command 8lh Army because the first choice, General GOll, was killed: Bradley,junior to Patton, was given US 1St Army as Eisenhower's choice. Personality also played a distinct role. Pauon's often irrational anions nearly cost him his career several times: and

perhaps if Wavell had been a more forceful character he might have talked Churchill out of the Greek venture of '94', with all its evil conscq ucnces. Successful generals have all had the ability to establish a rappon with both their staffs and their men: all the commanders considered here had this ability to a greater or lesser extent. Dowding, cut down in his prime by intrigue, has a loyal following to this day among those who served under him. Both Cunningham and Patlon were characterised as martinets-but both were adored by their men. The Second World War, unlike the First, fostered the projection of 'characters', A galaxy of US and British military 'brass' ranged behind their political masters at tbe Casablanca Conference of January 1943. Among those visible in the front row are Gen. 'Hap' Arnold, Adnt. Ernest King, and Gen. George C. Mar· shall; Adm. Sir Dudley Pound, AM Sir Charles Portal, Gen. Sir Alan Brooke, and Adnt. Lord Mountbatten. (US ArDlyl Personality Picture Library, London)

Second World War commander considered herp qualifies as a 'geniu' in the sense of a 1£1 F borough or a Napoleon: they were simply gooP at their jobs. Whether they became householp names, or lived out a rctiremcnt of deccnt obiS scurity writing their memoirs, all the men in th'th di book left somc mark on their own limes. That the alliance which they served succeed at all was due, let it be remembered, to the wor \ skill and tact of one man-Dwight Eisenhower\\"' J n North Africa, Sicily, Itall' and NW Europfi hejuggled tirelessly with the sometimes ferociousl~' compcting claims of thc allied nations, his suhre ordinate commanders, and the politiciamth Whether or not he can be described as a 'grea vi field commander is irrelevant to a recognition da his enormous contribution towards victory. C 0\

th C The new tea,nt in the desert, August 1942: Gen. Alexander, re Tile COll1lJlfllltlers C-in-C Middle East, and his field cOlDlDander, Lt. Gen. Montgontery. (1lDperial War MuseulDlPers. Pic. Ub.) h fe ill alphabetiCIII order: thanks to the power of the media. Some generals o understood and used the tendency of each army's Field Marshal Sir Harold Alexander (Iateru press corps to boost the image of 'their' general. Earl Alexander of Tunis): ISgI-1969 Ie Montgomery and Patlon could both have made Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander, thinth a career in show business; but this docs not lessen son of Lord Caledon, came from a family oh their standing as field commanders. Ulstcr Protestants with a tradition ofmililary am All armies of the period had their incompetents, public service. At Harrow and Sand hurst Dth but most were weeded Oul carlyon. It is no emerged as a good all-rounder, but with n in coincidence that the brief campaign in France discernible streak of brilliance. He was commi E in 1940 brought to the fore men such as Alexan- sioned into the Irish Guards, and his ballaliorh der, Brooke and Montgomery. Some commanders was one of the first to go to France in August 1914th failed, anel suficrcel eclipse; some won great He served throughout the First World War Olm \'ictories, and enjoyed lifelong prestige and re- the Western Front-Ypres, the Somme, Cam wards: some did their job compelcnLly and never brai and Passchendaele-rising to acting lie~li atlracted the atlention they perhaps deserved; tenant-colonel. Twice wounded, and awardett) and still others, promoted beyond their com- the DSO and M C, he survived the ordeal as • petence, later served with distinction at a lower fine leaderofmen with great practical experience AI level of command-Gen. Ritchie failed in com- Immediately after the war he was selll first teto mand of 8th Army, but had a fine record as a Poland and then to the Baltic statcs, where h,an corps commander in T\V Europe. ended up commanding Landwehr troops in Lithu ofl Historians tend to o\·cr-use thc term 'genius', ania fighting the Bolshe\'iks. we which was the more difficult of definition in a Returning in May 1920, he achie\"ed in 192.\\"c war where senior commanders incvitably spent the substantive rank of lieutenant-colonel, an~tO< much time simply co-ordinating the work of led his battalion on its posting to Turkey. Hlhi large specialist staffs, and were always vulncrable atlendcd the Staff College in 1926 and the Jm to somctimes disastrous political interference. No perial Defence College in 1930, with various stalC4

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\"/ Frontier of I ndia in '934, he fought in twO campai~ns a~ainst the tribes. In OCLOber '937 came promotion LO major-general and command of the 1St Disision of the Regular army a[ Aldershol. In the forefront of preparation for war, he LOok his disision to France in September '939. .\her [he German break-throughs of Is.fay '940 .-\Iexander brought his units back LO the coast with grcal skill; and it was at Dunkirk lhal he first bccame a nationally known figure. Given command of I Corps and len LO organise the rearguard on 3 J ~!lay, he got the remnants of the British forces ofr the beaches calmly and \I ithoul panic, and len himself on one of [he very la" boalS. After a funher period commanding I ('.orps in dcfens'e of the nonh-east coast he LOok oser Southern Command in December '940 with the rank of lieutenalll-generaI. In February '942 Churchill selll him on a 'forlorn hope' -lhe retric'"al of the situation in Burma. Inevitably, he \Sas invoIs-ed in a [errible defeat: Rangoon fell, and the scallered British forces were bundled Ollt of Burma towards India in some disarray and under appalling conditions. But Alexander at least succeeded in extricating what was left of the army, and avoiding a funher costly and humiliating encirclemcnt and surrender. Earmarked to command the British forces in the ITorch' landings in N. Africa, he was sent in"ead to replace Auchinleck as C-in-C Middle Eas[ in the .\ugust 1942 purge. In this capacity he was content to remain in the background as the or~aniser of s'icLOr), leaving his .\rmy Commander, Islomgomery, LO defeat [he Axis at Second .\Iamein. This shunning of personal publicil). which genuinely embarrassed him, was tspical of his character. .\tthe Casablanca Conference ofJanuary '943 ,\Iexander was appointed deputy to Eisenhower to command land forces for thc caplure of Tunis and the invasion of Sicily. He earned the respect oflhe Americans in a potentially difficult position, weldin~ their green troops into the Allied framework with [actful diplomacy. He subsequently took Lhe name of Tunis, his greatest victory, as his title. For the Sicil) operation Alexander's title was C-in-C '5th .\rmy Group, with Pallon and

Nlontgomery as his Army Commanders. The campaign involved him in biller in[er-allied disputes and argument with naval and air commanders. The main criticism is that the German forces largely escaped LO Italy, and thal Alexander was not firm enough to bridle Islolllgomery. In fact there were far too many commanders, and Eisenhower gave no firm direction, leaving his deputy in an invidious position. For operations on the mainland Alexander rctaincd command of his Group; and it was his firmness which saved Lhe Salerno landings when at olle stage the Navy was preparing evacuation plans. Although Eisenhower would have preferred him as ground forces commander for 'Overlord', it was thought wiser to leave him in charge in Ital) 1 and he thus became fated to command the lunknown' frontAJes.a.nder _ith Gen. L. Truscott at Nettu.no in the A.n.zio bridgehead, March 1944. (IDlp. War Mus.fPers. Pic. Lib.)

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the costly and frustrating Anzio and Cassino his own wish. He spent a happy retirement operations, and the eventual capture of Rome on 15 years. 'Alex' was not a 'great' soldier in the historic 4 June J 944· Alexander entered the city not as a conqueror but as a sightseer, riding in a jeep. sense, and lacked the spark or true genius: bl With his eyes lIxeci on a rapid advance north his great meriL was his sheer professional co~ with all his rorces, and the ultimate capture or petence and his ability to take orders. Unlil Vienna, Alexander was again frustrated by politi- some of his contemporaries he was neither a prin cal considerations when seven of his di\'isions donna nor a 'crowd pleaser'. The personal sc were removed to take part in the 'Anvil' landings confidence and tradition or dutilld service i in the south of France. He was forced to attack sLilled by his aristocratic background wcre gre the Gothic Line although outnumbered by the strengths; as a leader he inspired genuine de. defenders, and failed to break lhrough in winter tion, and his reputation will not be tarnished 1 1944. In Decem ber he was promoted to field subsequent criLicism. marshal and given supreme command in the Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck: 1881 ~leditcrranean theatre; in this capacity he presided over the final victory in Italy, as well as 1981 Auchinleck is one of Lhose commanders abo becoming involved in Greece and Yugosla\·ia. Arter the war, instead or the expected post or whose head a question-mark will alway hang! CI GS, he went to Canada ror six years as Gover- was his dismissal from the ~Iiddle Easl comm~ nor General. Perhaps the least successrul period in summer 1942 jusLified. or was he unju or his career was rrom l\larch '952 to October treated? 1954 when he served as l\liniSler or Derenee in Claude John Eyre Auchinleck was the son Churchill's government, and he was replaced at an officer, and, typically of his background, \\ educated at Wellington College and Sandhul An informal conference of British X Corps senior comIn '903 he went to India as a newly-colll"1 Olanders shortly before the second battle of AJamein, September 1942. (L to r): Maj. Gen. Briggs, GOC 1St Armoured sioned second-lieutenanl in the 2nd Punja~ Division; Lt. Gen. Sir Bernard Freyberg, GOC 2nd New and from that point his career was to be dominaj Zealand Division; Maj. Gen. Gatehouse, GOC lOth ArDloured Division; Lt. Gen. LUDlsden, GOC X Corps; and Maj. Gen. by India apan from brief excursions elsewhe Gardiner, GOC 8th Armoured Division. (Imp. War Mus. Pers. Pic. Lib.) This ultimately worked to his disad,·antage.

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,d the British Army tended LO look down on the e. Indian service. " During the First World War he served in E~) pt, .\den and ~lesopotamia, being awarded the DSO and mentioned in despatches. He rearhed the temporary rank of brc\'ct lieutcnanlcolonel in Kurdistan in '9'9-a rank not reached a~ain until 19'9, when he took over a battalion of the 1St Punjabis. He attended the Staff College at Quetta, and as a bright student had a year at th,' Imperial Defence College in '9'7, subsequently followed by three years as an instructor at Quwa. In 1933 he commanded the Peshawar Brigade in opera Lions on the NW Frontier, where his ro-brigadicr was the younger Alexander. The successful conclusion of the Mohmand campaign brou~ht him the POSt of Deputy Chief of Starr

in India and, in 1938, command Distrirl.

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Returning to England afLer the oULbreak of liar. he became im'olved in the TOI•way debacle a c.-m-e of Lhe forces in the northern part of the lOunt". Once evacuation had been decided upon

Gen. Sir Claude Auchinleck photographed in 1942 with the nun he replaced as C-in-C Middle East, Gen. Sir Archibald WaveU (right). Within months Auchin1eck would suffer the saOle fate. (hnp. War Mus.fPers. Pic. Lib.)

he attacked arvik in order to deceive the Germans about Allied intentions, and as a result

the subsequent evacuation was successful despite enemy air superiority. Returning home, Auchinleck served under Brooke as COC SouLhern Command until being sent back to India in '94' as Commander-in-Chief-lhe very pinnacle of an Indian Army officer's career. When rebellion broke oul in Iraq in lhe spring he responded promptly to Churchill's call for reinforcements, earning lhe Prime MinisLer's gratitude and erasing the 'black mark' from Norway. In June '941 he was appointed to replace Wavcll as C-in-C Middle East. He inherited a tangled situation, and his lroubles were nOl slow in coming. He had had no experience of armoured warfare, and was oflen unfortunate in his choice of subordin ales, lending to pick men he had known in I ndia. Churchill's 7

Senior cODl.Dlanders tend to acquire orders and decorations by virtue of rank; but few Allied cODlDlanders wore such iOlpressive evidence of personal gallantry as Lt. Gen. Sir Bernard Freyberg, whose ribbons induded a VC and three DSOs. He led the crack 2nd New Zealand Division with great distinction in Greece, Crete, and North Africa, and later cOOlOlanded a corps in Sicily and Italy. Churchill w~ote of bUn: 'Freyberg is so Dlade that he will fight for King and country with an unconquerable beart anywhere he is ordered and with whatever forces he is given . .. He iDlparts his own invincible firmness of Dlind to all around hi.JD.' (NZ High CommissionfPers. Pic. Lib.)

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'new broom' was soon in trouble with his master: the Prime Minister exerted enormous pressure for an early auack, which Auchinleck resisted strongly. He was not prepared to go inLO battle until he had built up his forces, and he won Churchill's grudging assent to a delay until November. For this Operation 'Crusader' Gen. Cunningham was given command of8th Army. Auchinleck soon impressed his personality on his new command, building high morale. When 'Crusader' started to go badly wrong he relieved Cunningham and personally took command at a critical stage of the baltle: Tobruk was relieved, and all thoughts of a retreat to Egypt were shelved. His resolute behaviour earned Churchill's praise: but

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a theatre command entailed more than leading a field army, and 8th Army was handed over to Gen. Ritchie, a capable officer but inexperienced for such a post. Again there was massive pressure from Churchill for an early offensive, and again Auchinleck resisted manfully. However, at Gazala in May '942 an opportunity to defeat Rommel decisively was lost, and again the army began a sorry retreat. Under political pressure Auchinleck made the unwise decision to hold on to Tobruk, although it was impossible to defend for any length of time. The loss of the garrison and stores to Rommel far outweighed the potential nuisance, value of the port, which Churchill wanted to retain for prestige reasons. Once again Auchinleck intervened in person, laking over from Ritchie just before the messy baltle of Mersa Matruh, too late to hold off defeat. The demoralised army straggled back to the Alamein position, the only force barring Rommel's path to Suez and Persian oilfields. 'The Auk' rallied the troops and led them in person in the July baltles along the ridges ('First Alamein') which put paid to Rommel's dreams of capturing Egypt. His victory went unnoticed in England, however, and when Churchill visited Cairo in August Auchinleck was sacked and replaced by the duo of Alexander and I\lontgomery. The lalter took over some of Auchinleck's plans and the army that he had rebuilt at a moment of desperate demoralisation, and with them won Second Alamein. ~lany of the German commanders reckoned 'the Auk' to be the finest of our desert commanders. Churchill had the grace to be uncomfortable about his sacking, comparing it to the feeling of 'shooting somc magnificcnl stag'; Auchinleck was oAered, but refused, the post ofC-in-C Persia and Iraq, and in 1943 returned to his old post of C-in-C India, where his life-long experience of Indian troops was invaluable in the build-up for the final oAensive against the Japanese. He remained until the British departure in '947, bcing promoted field marshal in '946, but refusing the peerage he was offered. He lived in retirement in Morocco until the age of 97, and dicd as this book was going to press. The Western Desert was the gra\'e of many rcputations, and aftcr the victory of Second Alamein it was perhaps in-

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evi,able ,hal the aehie\'emenlS ofJ uly '942 should 11<\\e been forgollen. Churchill needed a viclOry, and those who could not pro\'ide one-except a' [he end ofa biller retrea,-had lO go. Bu' ,he question mark will always remain.

General of the Army Omar N. Bradley:

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18g3 1!}81 Omar Bradle) was ,he longes[ surviving senior 1C rommander who look pan in the final defeat of ;h German). He died while this book was going lO c. pre.. s. His active career outlasted the war. but ,r hi, hlme \tems from his command of 12th Army ,r Group in 1944 4S-with 1,3°0,000 men, the lar~e\l ,ingle formation in US military hislOry. d The .\merican component of ,he Grand Alliance -r h,b bern 'iummed up thus: IEisenhowcr was the o ro-ordinator, Bradle) ,he thinker, and Pallon ,he d dorr', There is some truth in this, as Bradley was 'e able to judge dearly the wider implications of 1- slr;.lt('~Y. thou~h this was sometimes tempered by an inhrfC11l timidity. The 'on of a Chicago schoolmaster and a \('i1lllslrrss, Ornar ~elson Bradley was a c1assmatc [.

of Eisenhower at \\'est Point in 1915- Like 'Ike', he '
BradJey and Rear Ad.Dliral Kirk visit the NonnaDdy beaches in aD Lei on 14 June 1944- (US Navy/Pers. Pic. Lib.)

'2,h Army Group, becoming Mon[y's equal under Eisenhower, with the rank of licutcnantgeneral. His feelings about 1\lonty were mixed, bu[ as a loyal subordina,e Bradley kep' ,hem largely himself. His successful leadership in the landing and exploi[a,ion of ,he beach-head proved his capacity to command large formations. Hc was perhaps a' his best during [he Normandy breakout and the pursuit across France, directing his armies and handling the complexi[ies of supply and communications. It was logistic problems which embroiled Bradley in the 'great argument' that at times threatened [he integrity of [he alliance. Without losing sigh, of [he ultimate Allied goal, Bradley na'urally wanted a fair share of the glory for his armies. The question of supply priorities caused a direct confrontation with J\10ntgomery, of whom Bradley was highly eri[ical in his memoirs. Loyal lO Eisenhower, he found himself caught between the Supreme Commander and the strident demands of Pallon.

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was able to get back to manoeuvring his 35-odd divisions, but was thunderstruck to learn that Simpson's 9th Army was to remain under British command. Moreover, Bradley was to fight his way through the difficult Eiffel area while the hated Montgomery was to make the great sweep to the Ruhr. In fact it was Bradley's troops who were to cross the Rhine first, and to begin the great drive through central German} and down to the Alps. Bradley recei"ed his long-overdue promotion to general in 1945, and after the war was appointed head of the Veterans' Administration, responsible for the welfare of America's wartime soldiers. This was a task for which he was well suited, as he had a solid reputation as a 'GI's general'. In 1948-49 he was US Arm} Chief of StaA', and in '949 53 Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, becoming involved in the Korean War and the MacArthur affair. In '950 he was promoted General of the Army. One of Pallon's biographers described Bradley as having 'a clockwork mind capable of thorough attcntion to dctail'; othcrs have been less COI11plimemary. CheSler Wilmot was critical,judging that he seemed unable to appreciate the importance of concentration and balance: 'He was successful in conducting operations as long as someone else was controlling the ballic as a whole.' Beside the f-1amboyant PattOn, his UIlassul11l1lg common sense and his care for his men are clear. Gen. Henry 'Hap' Arnold comDlanded. the US ArDlY Air Forces in aU theatres. An early supporter of US aid to Britain, he travelled. to the UK shortly after ADlerica's entry into the war and was personally responsible for the development of the US 8th Air Force's daylight strategic boDlbing offensive. (Northrop Corp.fPen. Pic. Lib.)

Adl1liral of the Fleet Sir Andrew Cunninghal1l (later, Viscount Cunninghal1l of Hyndhope): 1883-1963 It is indicative of Cunningham's character that The Americans were caught unawares by the although he was probably Britain's only really Ardennes offensive: at one stage it threatened to great sailor of the Second World War, he is split Bradley's forces in two. and to a certain extent almost unknown to the public. he lost control of the situation, hesitating tOO Of Lowland SCOLS stock, Cunningham was sent long before ordering counter-measures. I n this to Britanllia as a cadet when just '4, and passed emergency 'Ike' gavc temporary control of all out with credit the next year. Certain lifelong forces north of the 'Bulge' to ~Iomgomery, in- characteristics were already becoming evident: cluding the bulk of the S tst and 9th Armies- the tall, fair-haired young man was pugnacious, a move bitterly resented by many Americans, and always eager for a scrap. Throughout his including Bradley. The final straw was Monty's career he had the reputation for being a martinet; subsequent claim of the credit for saving the but although any failure to meet his demanding situation. With victory in the Ardennes Bradley standards met with ruthless dismissal he was 10

35- odd e;enuinel) loved by his subordinates, withollt any rn thaI ,u~~estion of showmanship or currying of favour. - British He had a puckish sense of humour, and the eJight his ,onian abilit) to turn a blind eye to orders he ile the rollsidcred ridiculous. B} the time he became a sub-lielltenant In t sweep 1903 he had alread) seen land sen'ice in Ihe Boer ps wh \rar as a midshipman. He seryed in a destroyer, gin the .1 rlass of warship with which his name will down always be associated; and by the time the First mollon World War broke out he was a senior lieutenant 'as ap· in rommand of the deslroyer Hi\lS Scorpion. His tration lip.;l ilni\,c ser\'ice was at Gallipoli, where he won 'artime hi, fiN DO: his second came for opera lions as well "ith the Dover Patrol, and he was awarded his third in 1919 whcn serving with Sir Walter a 'GI' hief a Co\\<.\n\ flee I in the Baltic. Promoted captain in S Joint 19>0. Cunningham commanded the 6th DesKorean trO'er Flolilla in 1922, and subsequenlly Ihe 1st he wa in the ~lrdit('rranean-lhe sea which \vas La dominate his career. After allending the IIII perial radle~ Defrnce College in 1929 he commanded HMS orough Rudnt}': promoted rear-admiral in 1932~ he was scam· bark in the ~Ied as commander of deslroyers Ihe udginr l'lllo\\in~ lear. "'ext came spells as Second in impor. Command, ~Icditerrancan Fleet, and as Deputy He wa~ Chief of Na\al Stan'. He was never an enthusiast long a !
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ing alone, they were invaluable morale~boosters. On the night of II Tovember 1940 Swordfish aircraft nown ofT Hi\lS Illustrious successfully Cluackcd the Italian fleet in Taranto harbour, sinking two battleships and damaging another. In March 1941 Cunningham fought a neet action ofT Cape i\lalapan, sinking Ihree cruisers and a number ofdeslroyers and damaging the battleship I'itlorio Veneto, for tOlal Royal avy losses of one alrcrewman. Cunningham's responsibilities included suppon of the army in the desen, and the interception of Axis com·o)'s to that theatre. He was also involved in troop evacuations from Greece and Crete under a sky full of Stukas, which cost him many of his smaller vessels. When he was awarded his KCB he reloned characteristically thaI he would ralher have had three squadrons of Hurricane fighters. In April 1942 he went to Washington as the Adm. William F. 'Bull' Halsey, commander of the South Pacific area. frODl October Ig.p, and one of the leading architects of American victory in that theatre. His great tactical ability in tbe handling of carrier task forces of the 3rd Fleet made an important contribution to the Solomons caDlpaigo, and his advice also proved very valuable in tbe reconquest of the Philippines. (US Navy/Pus. Pic. Lib.)

planned and co-ordinated the naval side of the Sicily invasion from advanced headquarters in Malta, and on 10 September '943 his career was crowned when he presided over the surrender of the Italian Oeet. Appointed First Sea Lord in October 1943, Cunningham became, with Brooke and Portal, responsible for the higher direction of the war. Made viscount in 1946, he resigned due to ill health in the same year, but enjoyed a long and happy retirement. One feels that he would have been content with Eisenhower's judgement: 'He was the Nelsonian type of admiral. He believed that ships went to sea to find and destroy the enemy.' General Sir Miles DelTIpsey: 1896-1969 Like his fcllow army commander Crerar, Dempsey never enjoyed the limelight while serving under Montgomery in 21st Army Group. A highly competent proressional soldier rather than a genius, he never became a public figure. Gazelled a second-lieutenant in the Royal Berkshire Regiment in 1915, he was wounded, mentioned in despatches, and won the MC in France. After a period in Iraq he pursued a steady if unspectacular inter-war career, and in '940 commanded 13th Infantry Brigade in France. He had Lt. Gen. Frederick
he retired the following year, devoting the rest or In hi'l life mainl) lO acti\'ities connected with the a Turf. o

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Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding (later, Baron Dowding of Bentley Priory): 18821970 It is rare that a commander has either the oppor-

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lunill or the lalent 10 forge Ihe weapon which ~ he will ullimalel) wield in ballie. Hugh Dowding \f I> remembered as the victor of Ihe Battle of ~ Brilain. and as a man shamefully discarded by e hiS superiors: but it is as important to recall that h ;1> the fiN commander-in-chief of RAF Fighter Command he was instrumental in its vcry crealion in the pre-war years. Hugh r.aswall Tremenhecre Dowding came lrom an academic family, and \Vasa contemporary of \\'a\Tll at \Vinchester. His decision to join the \rn1l Cia" was apparently laken in order to a a\OId Greek studies; he passed inlo the RMA re \looillich in 1899, and spenl his earl} years of k tr\i('r in unc\'cntful O\'crseas postings with the Ro\al Garrison Artillery. Nevertheless, he gained .111 farly reputation as a rebel against authority and a debunker of military bureaucracy. While al Siaff College in 1913 he learned to ny at his olin expense; but although he gained his RFC 'IIIOgs' in 1914 the 32-year-old captain went bark to the Garrison Artillery, apparently as a H' ult 01" parental pressure. Within a few days of the outbreak of war he was recalled to the junior St'TYI('r,

Lt. Gen. Brian Horrocks briefs officers of 51St Highland Div. in a ruined Rhineland town, early 1945. His iniOlitable style Olade hi.Ol a popular COlD Olander, but the lDannerislDs of a cheerful English squire did not conceal the fact that he was perhaps Britain's ablest corps cOOllDander in the second half of the war. His leadership of XIU Corps at Alain el Halfa and Second Ala.rnein earned him MontgolDery's complete trust. He comlDanded XXX Corps with allD professional skill in the very costly Norlnandy battles, in the dash across Belgiuln, in the heartbreaking attempt to relieve Arnhem, and over tbe Rhine into GerOlany. (Ilnp, War Mus.)

DUHng Ihe Firsl World War he new as observer, and the following year he became Air Council pilot. squadron commander. commander of a Member for Supply and Research, It was in this fi~htl'r wing-, and served in various administrative period that Dowding was responsible for placing pel'lls, ending the war as a brigadier. (He later the development contracts for the Hurricane and "rol(' 'I had sen'ed for t 3 years as a su baltern, Spitfire prototypes, and began his long, lonely and in le"s than four years I had becorne a ballie against the Air Ministry hierarchy. brigadier-general. ') During the latter part of the In 1935 the immense workload was split, and ",Ir ht· drew upon himself the enmity of Lord Dowding became responsible solely for Research TH·ll(hard. 'founding father' of the new RAF, and and Development. The following year he took H'''1'' h' no means cenain that he would recci\'e over as AGC of the newly formed Fighter Coma ptrmanellt commission in the peacetime service ~ mand, with headquarters at Bentley Priory ncar in th(' {'\'cnt he was retained, serving in various .Stanmore. In '937 he was promoted Air Chief lall po t" until 1926 when he went to the Air ~larshal (equivalent to full general), the rank he ~Iini,t" a, Director of Training. In 1929 he was was to hold for the rest of his life. As AGC he giH'Jl rommand of the home defence fighter waged a single-handed ballie with authority to group a, .\Ir Officer Commanding I nland Area; get the resources he needed to build the organisa-

13

tion responsible for the air defence of Great

lhe lengths of working for Dowding's dismissal.

Britain. Under his care lhe whole interlocking structure of radar stations, communications, plot-

After a great deal of background lobbying the victor of the Battle of Britain was sacked on 25

ting rooms, contra) centres and fighter squadrons

NO\'ember 1940.

was welded IOgelher inlO a viable force. Paradoxically, he was nearly robbed of the

posted to a training command. Park was later

chance to command his organisation in war; although promised the appointment, he was

passed over as Chief of Air Staff in 1938, and was asked merely to stay on for another few

monlhs 10 complele his work at Fighter Command. In July 1938 he was informed thaI his sen'ices would nOt be required arter June 1939, and a successor was appointcd: this decision was later reversed, and he was offered employment

unlil March 1940. His struggle to complele lhe air defence nctwork was thus carried out under constant threat of dismissal; and cven after the outbreak of war the Air Ministry still resistcd his

demands for lhe necessary resources. The day before his supposed retirement he was curtly

informed that he was to slay on ulllil 14J uly 1940. During lhe Bailie of France he clashed wilh Churchill, who wished 10 send funher fighter squadrons to France. Dowding pointed out, in terms of courteous but merciless clarity, that this

would inevilably destroy Britain's ability 10 defend herself, for no credible gain. He won lhe argumenl, and thus probably saved Britain from German invasion-but at the COSt of Churchill's

enmity. In July Dowding's service was again extended at the last momcnt until October, and

he thus fought the Bailie ofBritain Wilh no security of command. The brunI oflhe fighting was borne by No.1 1 Group, covering lhe Soulh Coast, and No. 12 covering lhe Midlands and East Anglia, commanded respeclively by Sir Keith Park and Sir TraAord Leigh-Mallory. There is no space here to discuss the Baltic of Britain except as it

affecled Dowding. BrieAy, a taclical argumenl blew up aboul lhe relative wisdom of sending squadrons inlo bailie indi\'idually as soon as possiblc, and of forming them into larger wings before committing (hem. Park, whose airfields were much closer to France and were the targets of most German activity, naturally followed the former practice, and was completely loyal to Dowding. It is felt by many thaI Leigh-Mallory's championing of the 'wing' theory extcnded to 14

10

be followed shonly by Park,

given a fighling command on MalIa, bUl Dowding spenl the reSl of his service in dead-end postings. He was never promoled 10 Marshal of lhe RAF, and his well-deserved peerage came only in 1943. His allempts 10 publish a book were blocked by the aUlhorities. Allhough undoubtedly a thorn in the side of authority. Dowding never opposed for the sake of opposition; he was a master of the commonEisenhower visits tbe ]rd Annored Division on manoeuvres in Britain in February 1944. (US Army/Pen. Pic. Lib.)

;sal, the , 25 ark. ater lin~

ngs AF 143

b

ak on· yr

('ns(' apPlOach to problems, and this country owes him an incalculable debl. A very human wmmandrr, he gained the loyalty and respect of all who worked for him.

Geoeral of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower (later, 34th President ofthe United States):

11190 1969 '1 he L"S .\rmy's most famous soldier was a classic

or

the openness of the American system to tht· poor but talented. This unassuming man, \\ ho\c boyish grin became one of the best-known larc\lIlthr world, was also living proof that 'some art' born ~r('al. and others have greatness thrust upon Iht'm', Born in Texas, the third ofsevcn sons in a poor lamil~. hI.' was raised in Abilene, Kansas. He fntrn'd \"('st Point in '9", graduating in 1915. I h,' FiN World War brought him responsibility, but onll in a training capacity; he did not get hi hOpt'd-for posting to France. As a temporary heutrnant-rolonel in '9,8 he was brieny involved with Ihe embryo Tank Corps. Apart from the ("mmand and General Staff School, from which he graduated top of his class, he spent much of the InllT-War period in the tropics. From 1933 he ""It'd as Chiefof Staff under 1\lacArthur, and from 19J5 to t939 he was his military assistant m Ihe Philippines. with the rank of major, regainlD~hi",artime rank in 1936. In 1939 he returned to Ih,' l·S.\ and brieny commanded an infantry ball.l1ion his only active troop command, as h~ dt,tranors are eager to point out. At this time

(.1\('

'Ike' chat's to paratroopers of the US 10Ist Airborne Division shortly before the troops emplane for the Nonnandy invasion drops. His 'common touch' never deserred Eisenhower; he enjoyed the company ofbis troops, identified with them, and always gor • good response from them, due lo the obvious and simple decency orhis character. (US ArIDyfPers. Pic. Lib.)

Patton, several years his senior, offered him a regiment in his new armoured division, By December 1940, however, he was back on the stafl', rising lO Chief of Slaff of the US 3rd Army and the star of a brigadier-general. At 50 his career had been sleady bUI quile unspectacular. Shonl) after Pearl Harbor Eisenhower was summoned 10 Washington by Gen. Marshall 10 serve in the War Plans Division; feeling keenly that he was about to be passed over for active command yet again, he resisted, but to no avail. He found himself in a posilion of great responsibility, however, working closely wilh Marshall in planning strategy and American/Allied relations. At this slage Allied planners envisaged an invasion of the Continent in '942: and when it was decided early in that year that a new commander be appoinled for US tr!l0ps in Britain. Eisenhower was named as US Forces Commander designate on I' June, with Mark Clark under him in command of US I I Corps. Eisenhower seuled in London to plan crossChannel operations; but with the change of plan which led 10 Ihe 'Torch' landings in N. Africa he was appointed in August as Allied C-in-C for lhal operalion. (At Ihis stage it was slill generall) assumed that nrJarshall would be supreme (0111-

15

Mark Clark photographed in DeceDlber 1943 with Gen. Alphonse Juin. Juin cultivated the iJnage of a hard·headed Gallic peasant, but in fact passed out top of his class at St Cyr. Captured as a divisional c:ornDlander in 1940, he was repatriated at Petain's request and offered the Vic:hy Minis· try of War. He refused it, preferring the command of French troops in North Africa. After token resistance to the 'Torch' landings he took his army over to the Allies, and led the French expeditionary force in Italy in 19.t3-44, where these hardy colonial troops made a great reputation. (Imp. War

services, and leaying Alexander to command the grollnd forces. His great moment came at the end of J 943 when he was named as supreme commander for the in\'asion of Normandy. His role in this is comparalively well known, particularly his agonising dcci,ion to postponc the actual D-Day. From then until VE-Day he carried on in his quiet, competent way to direct the vast Allied armies, never free from the connieting opinions of subordinates, allies and politicians, but always commanding loyalty. The main problem was his insistence on a broad-front advance after the Seine had been crossed, which brought him into eonOiet with both Montgomery and with the Bradley'Pallon lobby, each pushing for a narrow corridor of advance for their own commands, with logistic priority. In fact 'Ike's' decision was the only one possible in the political circum",."nrp" lTi"pn thp nrp,ariolls sHool\' situation.

.or \'f'l

)1" tir t

iti :u

-n Vh \I

01'

b'cnhower had him appoinled deputy commandcr of lSI Army, on Ihe understanding thaI hc would take it o\'er when Bradley stepped up 10 12th Army Group. Bradley hesitated to us< Hodges, who had never before had a field roll111land, when exploitation was possible; he p,,{crred Pallon, who naturally grabbed the headline<. Hod~e< copcd, competently but unremarkably. HI' operated at a disadvantage in that he was Ht ,,"h too long a fronl, while Pallon and \Innt~om('r) made all the running on either side ul hm,. For this rcason he failed 10 bounce through Iht· Sicgfried Line and capture Aachen in midSeptember 1944. In November tst Army sufkred hl',t\'y casualties in the attacks towards the RoeI' .1Iul,julich. Owing to the length of his front he Icli thc .\rdennes seclor weakly held, and was lalt'n b\ surprise in December, although much of ,he blame must lie with Bradley. Under '\lomy\' command for a period, he then look hI army over the Rhine, and it was onc of his unlls \I hich grabbed the Remagen Bridge. J n the Iinal phase his army helped mop up the Ruhr POlket and cleared central Germany. After the "dr Hod~es a~ain disappeared from the limehghl, relirin~ as a general in t949.

President

Roose-vd.

photographed on boa.rd the USS

Baltimore in July 1944, Banked by his two great cODlmanders in the Pacific: Gen. Douglas MacArthur, and AdnJ. Chester Nimitz. Appointed C-.in-C Pacific Fleet shortly after Pearl Harbor, and enjoying as area commander responsibility for Marine as well as Navy deployments, Nimitz often acted as a calming mediator between MacArthur and Adm. King. His quiet, strong leadership of the eventually vast US naval forces achieved the virtual destruction of the Japanese Beet by June 1945. (US Navy Pen. Pic. Lib.)

General of the Anny Douglas MacArthur:

1880- 1964 Egotistical - arrogant - aloof - pretentious: these arc some of the characteristics ascribed to MacArthur by his many detractors. They could equally well be applied to several of his contemporaries, however, notably Montgomery, and should not disguise the facl that MacArthur's contribution to yictory in the Pacific was a very real one. Douglas MacArthur graduated lOp of his class at \Vcst Point in 1903, and was posted as a second-lieutenant of Engineers to the Philippines, thus starting a life-long association \\lith thal country. In 1905 he was ADC 10 his falher, then the highest ranking officer in the US Army. (Arthur MacArthur was a highly decorated hero of the American Civil \Var, an extraordinary

17

reminder of the heClic pace of hislOry during

Douglas 1>lacAnhur's lifetime. In 1906 07 he served as an aide to President Theodore Rooses'e1t: thus, as a young officer, he was already familiar with the atmosphere of rank and power. By 1908 he was a captain, and in t9'4 he LOok part in the Vera Cruz expedition. He went to France in '9'7, ending up as acting brigadiergeneral commanding the 84th Brigade, decorated with the DSM and DSC. This was followed by a period as Superimendem of West Point. By '930 he had reached the LOp of the Iree, spending the following five years as Army Chief of Staff with the rank of brevet general. Seconded LO the Philippines as DirecLOr of the Organisation of National Defence in 1935, he played a central part in creating a Philippine Army, in which he was made field marshal. In '937 he officially retired from the US Army. Before the USA was bombed inLO the Second World War 1>\acArthur was therefore a 6 ,-year-old retired officer, at the end of a brilliant career. He was recalled to acti\·c duty in 1941 and appointed LO command all US ground forces in the Far East, in his former rank of four-star general. Overwhelmed by the Japanese onslaught on the Philippines, the US and Filipino forces withdrew inLO the mountainous Bataan Peninsula, where 1acAnhur at first led their resistance. Late in February he was appointed Supreme Allied Commander, South-West Pacific, and ordered LO make his way LO Australia. He handed over to Gen. Wainright, leas'ing the Philippines with the famous pledge: 'I will return'. The 'island-hopping' campaign brought MacArthur to promincnce as a public figure-with the aid of a shrewd press relations organisation. The tall, handsome figure stepping off a landing craft on to the beach of some captured island, puffing on the famous corn-cob pipe, became the accepted public image of America's restored pride in the Pacific. A shrewd observer later remarked that if Patton had served under MacArthur he would have ended up as the unknown soldier! Stripping away the journalistic cliches, however, we are left with the picture of a considerable strategist, who planned his reconquest of the Pacific with great skill, minimising losses and using air and naval power expertly; he was at 18

that time the most effective co-ordinator of combined operations the Allies had, and this at a time when his theatre was so starved of resources that he couldjustly wise-crack that he was fighting 'the stony-broke war'. It was by no means an easy campaign; the Japanese forced MacArthur's landing troops LO dig them out of every bunker and fox-hole the hard way, no matter what weight of bombs and shells had been poured on to their islands in preparation for the landing. In OCLOber '944 1>lacAnhur fulfilled his pledge by leading his forces back to Leyte in the Philippines; and that December he was promoted to the newly-created rank of five-star 'general of the army'. When the atomic bombs forced Japan to surrender, he invited the newly released Generals \'Vainrighl and Percival, captured at Balaan and Singapore respectively, to wilness the capitulation ceremony on the deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 Septem ber '945. Once peace had been signed :'s1acArthur spent fi\·e years as a proconsul, ruling Japan almost single-handed as Supreme Commander Allied Forces, and playing a major and constructive role in the transformation of Japanese society. Despite some early war crimes convictions which are open LO question now thal the bitterness has healed, he was nOt a vindictive conqueror. Towards the end of this period he found himself wearing twO hats, being appointed to command N forces in Korea when the . onh Koreans invaded the South in June 1950. After early reverses, ~1acArthur landed troops at Inchon in September; this audacious landing far behind enemy lines was an unqualified success, and their advance was only checked when Chinese troops crossed the border and forced UK troops back beyond the 38th Parallel once again. Early in '95' MacAnhur was ready LO begin a counteroffensive, but became invoked in a head-on clash with his political masters. President Truman, advised by the cautious Bradley. was against any escalation of the war. MacArthur insisted on a LOtal blockade of Chinese waters, an invasion of the Chinese mainland by Nationalist troops from Formosa, and the bombing of Chinese bases in Manchuria. He expressed his views forcefully and publicly, in a classic case of a general refusing

m

10 Jlfl'pt thai operations mwa be subject to \ r,tll,xllitical direClion. In April '95' mallers rt'.H Iwd \llth a head lhal Truman was forced to n di mi '\ him . .\Iac.\nhur relLlrned home not to dl ~rart· hut (0 a hero's welcome and a cloud of tlCker-lapt-..\ political career was considered, but In lhl' ('\TIlI he was never seriously canvassed as a pre idemial candidate. He made many public pp
Montgomery discusses arrangements for tbe surrender of Axis forces in Tunisia with the Italian Marshal Messe (left) and Maj. Gen. von Liebenstein. (Imp. War Mus.fPers. Pic.

Lib.)

Field Marshal Sir Bernard MontgOlnery (later, Viscount Montgom.ery ofAlam.ein):

1887-1978 'Monly' was probably the best-known and certainly the most controversial general Britain has ever produced. A master of public rehnions, he revelled in being a 'charaClcr 1 , and enjoyed sublime self-confidence. He was often downright rude, and nearly always o\"erbcaring; but there is no denying his greatness as a soldier in the Cromwellian mould-lhe Bible in one hand, a sword in the other. Bernard Law ~1ontgomery was the fourth child of a clergyman who became Bishop of Tasmania. His childhood was spent in .\ustralia under iron maternal discipline 1 and he 1{rew up tough, wiry, rebellious and determined to excel. Returning to England he won a brilliant sports

19

reputation at SL Paul's Sehool, but did nOt partieularly shine at SandhursL Posted to India in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, his relative poveny, non-smoking, non-drinking, and serious interest in soldiering made him something of an

lieutenant-colonel, re\'erting in peacetime to substantive major.

outsider. He served as a pIa LOon commander in France from the very stan orthe First World War,

instructor at the Quella Staff College, where he

fighting at Le Cateau in the retreat from Mons

his philosophy of war. In summer '937 he commanded an infantr) brigade at Portsmouth, quickly turning it into a crack unit. In 1938 he had a division in Palestine, where he operated

and winning a DSO at First Ypres. A severe

wound kept him in staff appointments for the rest of the war, which he finished as a temporary

He went to the Staff College in J 920, where he regarded the curriculum as 'all nonscnsc'. He did not regain his wartime rank until 1934 as an was in his clement, being able at last to expound

with impartial ruthlessness against Arab and Jewish terrorists; having no interest in politics, he Eisenhower-wearing an uncbaracteristicaUy OaDlboyant uniforDl, apparently with some embarraSSDleot_poses

with Montgomery and with his Deputy SCAEF, Air Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder, in Nonnandy shortly after D-Day. A considerable strategist who m.ade a Dlajor contribution to the war effort, Tedder bad 6rst served alongside 'Ike' in lite Mediterranean in 1942, when he was Allied Air CODl.D1ander.

(Imp. War Mus. /Pen. Pic. Lib.)

.~

., "

20

.....

'

..

o(

"".'

,".,. .

~'.A

:

.

regarded his job simply as carrying Out orders. He was evacuated home with an illness which might have ended his career, but he bounced back to demand-and receive-the 3rd Division shortly after the outbreak of war. He took it to

t

I r ,

I'

" ,

I~

France and into Belgium, and his conduct during Ihe long retreat to Dunkirk was highly praised b~ his corps commander, Brooke. Largely as a ,esult of this report he was given V Corps, guardin~ the threatened sOllth-east coasl. He soon put astop to the digging offixed defences, em phasising mobile tactics instead. By '942 Lt. Gen. Montgomery led South-Eastern Command, and was a well· known figure in the Army, either loved or loalhed whole-heartedl),. He regarded his soldiers as hi, children and spcnt more time with his troops than his staR-, In the summer of '942 the desert army had been drivcn back 10 Alamein, and Churchill wantcd a new 8th Army commander to stamp out the mood of dcfeatism. When his first choice, Gen. 'Strafer' Call, was shot down and killed on 8Au~USl, ~Iolllgomer)' was ordered out 10 Egypt. Atthe agc of 54 hc at last had a chance to practise al he had preached for so long. Within a alter ofdays he transformed the situation, There no Illorc talk of retreat. This strangc little an camc, spoke to the troops, and began to eorders that were to culminate in the victories Alalll el Haifa and Second Alamein. Recognisthe wcaknesses as well as the strengths of the rt \"C'(C'rans, he emphasised conventional disline" and a sense of identity in permanent Ih and formations. He deliberately made hima hi,ghl) \'isible and talked-about commander, lin~ all his units. There is no space here for a ailed discussion of Second Alamein; within r months of his arrival the IIJrika Karps was isiwly bealen and on the run, and his name a household word. His 8th Army was then ,ohed in dearing the rest of N. Africa in njunction with Allied forces from Algeria, and bsequentl) in the invasion of Sicily and Itall" Hm he was under Allied command, and did t make the plans himself; perhaps it was as well I he only stayed in that theatre as long as ngs were going well. Sicily saw the beginnings his ri\"alq with Pal ton. hard) after Christmas '943 he was informed I he would command the ground phase of ('fiord" the cross-Channel invasion. He was tht' automatic choice, and many felt that his i\'epcrsonalit)'would damage Anglo-Americo--operation; he was recognised, however, as

the supreme morale-builder. At first he tore up the plans and substituted his own, not without opposition. At this stage he was apparently mellowing, being tactful and forbearing in his dealings with Eisenhower and Bradley despite the unfamiliar role of being one of the team instead of the captain. His workload in the months before D-Day was hectic, and he made a point of meeting the troops and enthusing them with his will 10 WIJl,

The details of 'M.only's' career in Normandy and on inw Germany need little comment here; they arc extensively discussed elsewhere. He fought the land battle in Normandy, and when 'Ike' lOok personal control of ground forces on , September Montgomery was made field-marshal as a consolation. From then until the end of the war he led his Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group to final victory on the Baltic coast. He was never far removed from controversy, much of which he brought upon himself by his chronic tactlessness. It became increasingly difficult for him to remain one of 'Ike's team', and in the aftermath of the Ardennes he came terribly close to overreaching himself, to the detriment of the Allied cause. After the war came many rewards; he was Britain's best-known soldier, and in spite of some opposition he was brought back to London as CIGS in '946. In '948 he moved to France as Chairman of the Western Union Chiefs of Staff Committee, and served from 1951 to 1958 as deputy under four SHAPE commanders. He remained a semi-public figure all his life. Churchill once said of him: 'In defeat, unthinkable; in victory, insufferable.' General George S. Patton: 1885-1945 Even marc controversial and outrageous than his great rival MOlltgomery, Patlon is remembered after many more illustrious contemporaries have been forgotten. He has been hero-worshipped, condemned as a braggart and martinet, and made the subject of a very popular film. His still-vast fan club maintains that he could have won the war in '944 ifgiven his head; yet his impetuosity nearly led to his being disgraced on several occasions. Under the surface bluster and foulmouthed bravado Patton was a highly intelligent,

21

Surrounded by a positive battery of Tommy guns, George S. Patton (bottom left) goes ashore in Morocco during the 'Torch' landings, 9 November 1942:. (US Army/Pen. Pic. Lib.)

sensitive and complex man; and it could ne\'er

be said orhim that he did not back up the bra"ado with results. George Smith Patlan was born into a wealth)

:

Calirornian ramily, and his career after graduating from West Point in J 909 was mcteoric. He married a wealthy heircss, and moved in the higher circles or the Army even as a secondlieutenant: he was ADC to the Chier or Staff, and a rriend or Secretary or War timson: he competed in the pentathlon at the '9' 2 Olympics: and in 1916 he rought Pancho Villa in Mexico as an aide to Gen. Pershing, revelling in adventures worthy or Hollywood. He went to France on Pershing's staff in April '9' 7· Eager ror action, he got himsclr transrerred to the Tank Corps-which then existed only on paper-and almost single-handed he set up and trained America's first tank units, gaining in the process a reputation for exaggeratcd smartness. Promoted temporary lieutenant-colonel in March 22

'9,8, he rought with his tanks at St. Mihielthough most or them broke down, and he spent much orthe bailie aroot. His single-handed sallies against the enemy brought the first threat or dismissal, but as a rull colonel he took part in the l\lcuse-Argonne offensive, where he was wounded. Frustrated by official apathy in his post-war allempts to rerorm the tank units, he rejoined the mourncd cavalry in 1920 in the rank of major, which he remained until '934. Competition in horse shows and a spell at the War College was rollowed in '938 by promotion to colonel and command or the 5th Cavalry, an appointment seen as a prelude to honourable retirement. When war broke out in Europe he even tried ror a commission in the Canadian Army, but bcfore long Marshall gave him his chance: a brigade in the newly rormed 2nd Armored Division. He took over the division and led it to spectacular results in major manoeuvres, and acquired at this time his nickname or'Old Blood and Guts'he rererred to himse1r as 'the best goddamn bUllkicker in the US Army'. His men lapped up his fiery and blasphemous pep-talks, and by Pearl

Harbor he had the smarlest division in the Army.

.\fter a spell in command of a vast desert training area he was told, in July '942, that he was to be involved in the 'Torch'landings. Initially engaged in planning in Washington, he led the Western Ta>k Force which landed around Casablanca. \fter his 'conquest' of Morocco he became enml'~hed

in French colonial politics, an arena for which he was not suited. .\fler the Kasserine Pass disaster he was senl)

on 4 March '943, to replace Fredendall in command of II Corps, with the considerably junior Bradley as his deputy. Within days he had trans!c)rmed his shaken command and led it inLO battle. provoking in the process his first clashes \lith British officers on Alexander's staff. In April Br.dlc) took over the corps and Patlon was involved in planning the

icily invasion, in

\lhllh he lOok pan inJ uly in command of US 7th \rnn. His \'ietory was won at the expense of labli~hing a rivalry with ~lontgomery, which

(

was perhaps inevitable between two such volatile personalities, but which showed neither in their

best light. At this point Patlon damaged his career badly in the famous incident at a field hospital, where he slapped and accused of cowardice a man apparently suffering from combat shock. The press furore cost him an army in Italy, and ultimately command of S forces in ormandy. After a spell in the dog-house he was recalled in January 1944 to take over the US 3rd Army) at that lime still in America; as his units

arrived piece-meal in the UK they were put through the Patton brand of training, but it was not until 6 July that he arrived in Normandyto serve under Bradley. By the time 3rd Army officially became operational on

I

.\ugu'H Pallon

Patton in 1944 at the height of his success, glorying in hjs command of what he had turned into a crack tank arOlY. His worst CritiCIi could never deny that Patton delivered the goods. Even his flamboyant six·shooters were at least partly for use rather than show: he was an accomplished COOlbat pistol shot, as he had proved the hard way when a young cavalryman in Mexico. (Imp. War Mus.)

to move north against this serious threat is greatly to his credit. It was not until February '945 that he was able to resume 3rd Army's advance towards the distant Rhine, still suspicious of a SHAEF plot to rob him of the spoils of victory, and still embroiled with his British allies. On the evening of» ~Iarch he crossed the Rhine, forestalling Montgomery by one day; then began his headlong charge across Germany and into Austria and Czechoslovakia. When the shooting stopped Patton was made Military Governor of Bavaria, a disaster for all concerned. Repeatedly in trouble for employing ex-Nazis, he was finally sacked from command of 3rd ArmY,in a painful interview with 'Ike' on 28 September. On 9 December 1945 the 60-year-old Patton-nominally commanding the 'paper' 15th Army-was fatally injured in a motoring accident near Mannheim. He died on 2' December, and was buried among his men in the Hamm cemetery. A great taClical commander who made a very real contribution to the war effort, he died at the peak of his fame-perhaps mercifully: he would have found it hard to adjust to peace.

Slim, tbe victor ofBurmaj only ten years before his briUiant success in 1945:0 Major Slim had seriously considered resigning his commission due to the hardship of supporting a family on his meagre pay. In the event be decided against this drastic step, and supplemented his income by writing pulp magazine fiction under an aS5u.med name. (Imp. War Mus.)

was already directing the break-out from Avranches. From then on Pallon's advance was hectic; he led from the front, driving his corps and divisional commanders, and leaving detail work to his staff. Displaying his superb talents as a fighting tank general, he swept over the Seine and the Meuse; but on I eptember his army stalled on the Moselle, having Outrun its supplies and communications. Pallon found himself involved in trench warfare before Metz, something for which he had neither the taste nor the talent. When Metz fell in late IQ\'ember he was caught up in the Ardennes counter-offensive, and the Oexibility with which he changed his army's axis

24

Field Marshal Sir William Slim (later, Viscount Slim): ISgI-1970 That Bill Slim ever joined the Army at all was pure chance, His middle-class family were unable to contemplate the expense of andhurst or the private income required by an Edwardian officer. However, while working in Birmingham he was able tojoin the university OTC, and in 19'4 was a lance-corporal. He obtained one of the first commissions in the Kitchener Army and was gazetted to the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He was seriously wounded at Gallipoli, and later won an ~lC in Mesopotamia, where he was wounded again. He managed to obtain one of the small number of Regular commissions offered to temporary officers, and opted for the Indian Army, where he had heard he would be able to live on his pay. After the war he joined the ,16th Gurkha RiOes, and in 1925 was selected for the Quetta Staff College. Passing out top of his class, he was later seconded to Camberley as an instructor. He returned to England in 1934 as a major, and in t937 entered the Imperial Defence College. The outbreak of war thus found him with an

I. ,\CJl Sir Hugh Dowding. AOC RAF Fighter Command; 1940 1 ,\d•. tunnin,ham. RN FOC Mediterranean; 1940-41 l. ~I'l. SIr Harold Alexander. C·in·C 15th Army Gp.; 1944

A

I. Gen. Sir Claude Auchinlec:k, C·in·C Middle 1':•• 1: 1942 2. Gen. Sir Arehib.ld Wavell, C-in·C Middle East; 1941 3. Gen. 'Leclere', 1942

B

I. Lt. Cen. Mark Clark, COC US 5th Army: 1944 2. Cen. Anderll, cac Polish 2nd Corpll: 194.3. JOllip Rroz 'Tho'. 1943

3

c

I. Lt. Gen. Drian HorrQICklJ. GOC XXX CorP8; 1944 2. Lt. Gen. Crerar, GOC ht Canadian Army: 1944 3. Gen. Sir Bernard MontlComery. C-in-C 2ht Army Gp.: 1944

o

I. Lt. Gen. George Patton, Gac US 3rd Army: 1944 2. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, SCAE ..' : 1944 1 Lt. Gen. Omar Bradley, GOC US hi Army: 1944

E

1

I. Maj. Gen. Gale,

COC 6th Airborne Div.; 1944

2. Maj. Gen. Ridgway, GOC US 18th Airborne Corps; 1944 3. Maj. Gen. Gavin. us 82nd Airborne Div.; 1944

cae

F

1. Maj. Gen. Qrde WinlCate. 1944 2. Lt. Gen. Sir William Slim. GQC,14lhArmy: 1941i 3. Gen. ofthe Army Douglas MacArthur. SAC SW Paciric; 1945

G

I. Marehal S.K. Timo.henko. 1941 2. Marehal K.K. Roko.lIK)V8ky. 1944 3. Mar.hal G.K. Zhukov, 1945

1

3

a

a Ii

to

re

H

aoo\-r-a\'crage thcorctical grounding in his profe :"lion. In 1939 he was given 10lh I ndian Infantry Brigade, training it for operations outside India. He led it in the Sudan in 1940 41 and was .ounded a third time. He later commanded loth Indian Division in Iraq, and was awarded the OSO. In March 1942 he was recalled to India and given command of I Burma Corps during the di~as{rous retreal. \-Vith twO ill-cquipped and .,dell scattered divisions he conducted a fighting ithdrawal, but was eventually outnanked once )() often. He kept morale up, and extricated the mains of his force; in other theatres this defeat ughl have been falal to his career, bUI he had learned a lot from his mistakes and misfortunes. His chance came when he was given command of the newly formed XV Corps, and he at once t about a rigorous training programme to fit I troops to meet Ihe Japanese on equal lerms. HI' instilled offensive spirit, working to overcome P'lchological advantage the Japanese had quired in jungle warfare. The period 1942 43 " not particularly distinguished on the lowriorit) Burma front, but taught those concerned I lot about junglc fighting, tropical medicine, and the vital aspects of supply and eommunieaOilS in appalling tcrrain and wca ther conditions. InOnober 1943 Slim was appoinled commander he- new 14th Army creatcd to lake ovcr lhc tern frontier ofl ndia: in time its members luld take a perverse pride in their nickname , Forgotten Fourteenlh'. The following month IdOl. Lord r-Iountbatten took over as Supreme 111l'd Commander S E Asia. Slim's plans 10 take the offensive in 1944 were o ~ome eXlenl forestallcd by lhe enemy. He ""I,ed 10 let Ihem attack and waSle Iheir n~th-which resulted in the punishing bUl ""ious defensi"e baules of Kohima and 101FromJuly 1944 Ihe initiative passed to 14th "I). and Slim's aim was to turn the Japanese al inlo a roul. 1 othing succeeds like success; lJiu~ heavy casualties, dreadful weather and pO"ible lerrain, 14th Army had been welded ltO il cohesive fighling force. L"h in '945 Slim crossed the Chindwin, and lnred LO lhc Irrawaddy as a pre-requisitc for rapture of Rangoon. Mid-February saw

Gen. 'Vinegar Joe' Stilwell. the US commander in the ChinaBurDI a-India theatre, suffered frODl being burde.ned with conHicting responsibilities. He was expected to serve simultaneously as chid of staff to Chiang Kai-shek's Chinese forces; as the politico-military go-between for Chiang and the US governDlentj as Deputy Supreme Allied CODlDlander under Mount batten; and as field commander of the Chinese formations eventually cODlDlitted to combat in Burma. He did succeed in hringing Chinese forces up to a standard which allowed them to contribute to Allied victory in Burma, despite the paralysing corruption and inefficiency of Chiang' cODlm.and echelons. However, when lightly equipped British and American contbat units were placed under his COOlmand for the fighting around Myitkyina in May 1!H'lt Stilwell's staB' displayed such callous ignorance of their sufferings under i.rnpossible deDlands that the morale of these elite combat troops was broken. Stilwell's savage dislike and distrust of his British colleagues did no service to the Allied cause. Eventually be was recalled as a result of Chiang's shabby political Olanoeuvres, and his disOlissal was the subject of a shameful 'cover.up'. The intolerable strains imposed on this dedicated but volatile general undoubtedly contributed to bis early death in 1946. (lrnp. War Mus.)

bridgeheads established across the J rrawaddy. Correctly interpreting Japanese hopes of drawing him into a long-drawn-out battle in central Burma, Slim oUlnanked Ihe enemy wilh such skill that by early April Mandalay had fallen in savage fighling, leaving two Japanese armies cut off for systemalic reduction. Wilh only 45 days to go before lhe onset of lhe nexl monsoon he now faced a 350-mile advance to grab the final prize of Rangoon. This was achieved on 2 ~1ay by a seaborne assault co-ordinated with a soulhwards

25

talented enough to beat them on their own terms. In many ways the operations in Burma in 1944-45 were a repeal performance of the Japanese advance down the Malayan peninsula in '941-42, with the Japanese being demoralised and outfought this time. Slim stamped his personality on his army and on the campaign. He was not a 'charaCler' -there is no great store of witty anecdotes; but he was greatly respected and commanded great loyalty. A quiet, composed, and thoroughly professional soldier, he had the strengths of the 'ranker general' when dealing with soldiers under wretched circumstances. He succeeded in mastering the logistic difficulties which bedevil an army fighting in country devoid of normal roads and communications, making skilled use of air supply and improvisation to keep his men moving and supplied evcn in the rainy season. Slim was a man ofabsolutc integrity, who fully mastered the busincss of war.

Field Marshal Viscount Wavell: 1883-1950 Historians are deeply divided over Wavell: for somc, he was an incompetent who was justly 'kickcd upstairs', and for others he was a great general who was unjustly rcmoved after being given impossible tasks. The truth, as always, lies " somewhere between these extremes. The son ofa general, Archibald Percival Wavell was educated at Winchester, and passed out of Wavell (right) confers with his gifted field cornmandeT, Lt. Gen. O'Connor, during their victorious carnpaign against Sandhurst in '901. As a young officer in the Black the Italians in N. Africa, January 1941. O'Connor's capture Watch he fought in the Boer War and on the by the Afrika Korps later that year robbed Britain of his taleots until the invasion of Europe, where he cotDntanded J ndian frontier. After being wounded in France vm Corps in 1944. (Imp. War Mus.fPers. Pic. Lib.) in 1916 he was senl as a liaison officer to the Caucasus in 1916 17 with a brevet lieutenantdash overland by five divisions. Slim did not colonelcy. Then came three years with the Egypt remain to preside over the final destruction of Expeditionary Force as a staff officer with XX the Japanese forces trapped in Burma, as inJune Corps. His inter-war promotion was fairly rapid: he replaced Gen. Leese as commander of Allied coloncl in 192 I, major-general in 1933 and land forces for the reconquest of Malaya. lieutenant-general in 1938, with command of a After the war Slim reaped the honours and brigade and later a division, and subsequently a rewards of victory, and in '953 60 he was a highly posting as GOC Troops in Palestine and Transpopular and successful Governor General of Aus- jordan. The outbreak of war found him in charge tralia. of Southern Command, and as one of the Army's ] n many ways the Burma campaign was the most senior soldiers he was sent to Egypt as triumph of one man-William Joseph Slim. He C-in-C Middle East almost at once. fought a c1ifferem kind of war from his comemThere he found himself responsible for the pOI'aries in the desen and Europe; engaged with defence of nine countries, with the equivalent of an enemy who did not fight by the book, he was three and a half divisions between them. The

-

26

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II of d

1e ('('

he t-

pt

ex id. nd a

a

,sge

/s as he of he

IOllapse of France and I taly's entry into thc war '941 -he had avoided total disaster by his stra(t'd him with the prospect of operations on tegic_sense: the defeats were Churchill's responsii('reral fronts while sadly deficient in resources. bilit)'. ow he was appointed C-in-C India, at Ib, main threats were to Egypt from Italian the time a non-active command; but in December rmies to the west in Libya and to the south in the japanese attacks in the Far East began, and Ethiopia. In a series of brilliant ballies starting hc faced an even worse debacle. ,December '940 and ending on 7 February At the Washington Conference Roosevelt 'HI, Gen. O'Connor's small forces annihilated pressed for a unified Far East command, and .1, Italians in Libya. Meanwhile Gen. Cun- suggested Wavell. On 29 December '94' he was n~ham's command, equally outnumbered, made Supreme Commander of American, British, arched from Kenya to smash the lLalians in Dutch and Australian forces, but it was I sjanuary \omaliland and Ethiopia, clearing the whole of before his HQ was established at Bandoeng,java, 1i,Ii,n East Africa by june. These campaigns and things were already going from bad to worse. j,mo",trate WaveII's strategic skill: weighing up Even Churchill realised that Wavell had once hi' \"arious threats and resources, he used his more been set an impossible task. He had to !Ore" wisely to defeat the enemy in detail. Had juggle a number offronts with totally inadequate been left alone to fight the desert campaign resources. His java HQ was tOO far away for ",might well have expelled the Italians from N. him to intervene successfully in Malaya: by the Ifnca completely in summer 1940: the Germans time he persuaded Percival to fortify the north ~ould then have been unable to intervene, and shore of Singapore Island the japanese were ormous British resources could have been used already in johore. His messages of that period, more profitably elsewhere. However, political hovering between optimism and pessimism, sugn,idcrations intervened. I nstead of a victorious gest that control of eventS was eluding him; this putation, disaster awaited him; and he was led is not to claim that he could have defeated the it b) the brilliant but mercurial Churchill's japanese, but ifhe had taken operational control ,occupation with the Balkans. Against Wavell's in Malaya he might well have turned a humiliatd\ice the Prime Minister decided to intervene ing collapse into a gallant defence. With the collapse of his command Wavcll Grcece, thus pUlling an end to offensive operareturned to India where, the following year, he m in the desert. In mid-February 1941, as preparations were was made \·iceroy, field marshal, and viscount. ing made to strip Wavell's desert army for a For the rest of the war he was more involved with urt'ek expedition, Rommel arrived in Africa. By internal unrest in lndia than with strategy in the .9 .\pril the Allies had been bundled out of Far East. He remained viceroy until 1947, when ',reece. and the tempo of disaster speeded up. he retired and was created Earl Wavell. He died On 5 ~Ia) the Raschid Ali rebellion broke out in three years later, a much-loved and greatly "aq. drawing Indian troops; and on 20 May the respected gentleman; unusually in a soldier, he was an artistic and deeply cultured man. He was ~l'fmal1 airborne allack on Crete opened. Shortly rfwards \Va:\'c\l was ordered to invade Vichy also a great corn mander, but one v"hom the Fates French Syr\a, at tbe. '5t\mc \.\\\'\c as Cn\.\{'c.n\\\ was had not \H:atcd \.."'d\..,._ ~xening pressure on hlm \.0 anack Ron1n,d in the desert. The result was the defeat of Operation Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgi K. Zhukov:I8g6- 1 974 'Balt\eaxc'-\he fiT'S\. of man')' the Brillsh WCfC to Zhukov, the victor of "BerY,n, ·u;. tne on\)' one. of suffer at Rommel's hands-on \5 June '941. A many senior Russian commanders of the Second week \a\cr \Va,\'cH was rel1eved of command and \\'or\d War wn0'5c nam.C \s generally remembered replaced by Auchinleck. I'n Ilts tWtfyC'",'S',il"",\\t.Mirl.dLe.East Wavell had in the West. This ignorance is regrettable, espebuill up from scratch a strong military organisa- cially wlien one rec:n\k' ,,\1!' ,'i!1\l\\~\(f ,'\l&\le Qf tion, and had taken 2S0,000 prisoners. Frequently operations in the ''\fest and the East; but it is an fighting three campaigns at once-five, in May ignorance apparently preferred by the Soviets.

27

Zhukov must surely rank as one of the war's greatest commanders of large formations, and it

Zhukov photographed in 1940, with the ra..nk of General of the Army and the post of Chief of StaB' of tbe Soviet Army. (Novosti)

28 -

-

--~--

------

is a pity that his personality is not beller known. His memoirs have the inevitable overlay or bombast and propaganda, but still give quite a clear picture oran essentially modest man, justly proud orhis rows or medals, and orhis part in the destruction of his country's invaders. Arter a wretched peasant childhood Zhukov was drafted into the Tsarist cavalry in '915, apparently surviving the brutal training methods or the day sufficiently unbowed to be sclected ror NCO training himself In 1916 he was wounded while serving on the south-eastern front with the loth Tovgorod Dragoons. He was not vcry active politically, and volunteered ror the Red Arm) only in August 1918. He saw much action, rising to be a junior officer in the 4th Moscow Cavalr) by the end or the Civil War. A squadron commander in 19" '3, and brieny a deputy regimental commander, he was promoted to COI11mand the 39th Buzulak Cavalry Regiment in late 19'3, at the age or,6. He still lacked theoretical knowledge or his proression, which he had learned in the saddle, and he was sent to the Advanced Cavalry Commanders' Course at Leningrad togcthcr with the ruture Marshal Rokossovsky. He led a brigade in '9'9; allended the Higher Commander's Course latcr that year; moved to Moscow as Assistant Inspector or Cavalry in '930; and was posted to take over and shake up the run-down 4th Cavalry Division in '933. At this interesting period or the Red Army's history, when the foundations of mechanisation wcre bcing laid down and a general expansion and modernisation of all arms was taking place, Zhukov worked to rehabilitate his division. He succeeded, gaining the Order of Lenin and, in 1937, command of a corps, which involved him in the problems or intcgrating horsed cavalry and armour. Russian generals or the period had much more experience than their British and American counterparts of handling largc formations in peacetime. Arter a spell as deputy-commander ora militar) district Zhuko\' was sent in summer 1939 to command Russian rorces fighting theJapanese in ~Iongolia. His dereat or the Japanese 6th Arm) in the Khaikin-Gol campaign brought him the

Ink of General or the Army, and the post or (,in,C Kiev Military District. In '94' he was r

Marshal Zhukov signs the German instrument of surrender in May 1945. (Novosti)

adr Chief or Stan" of the Red Army; no 'yes-

: an" he inevitably sunercd from friction with

s n

\lalin, and shortly before the German invasion '.l\\JS relieved at his own request. He was given I kind of roving commission as Stalin's rcpresenla\l' at threatened parts of the front, and early in ptember 1941 he was senl into Leningrad to l-ordinate the derence, The rollowing month he

e

nt

d

umed direct command of the armies facing

to the \\'estern Front, and shonly afterwards

n

rmany's advance.

o

lhi~ placed him in the position to win his

a

aIr I derensive victory, the baltle or Moscow, or Ihe decisive engagements of the war. \Vhen Grrman, stalled early in December '94'

,I n

Iko\\ armies went over to the offensive, rob-

"r

s he \\'ehrmacht or the initiati,'e ror the first In August '942 Zhukov was appointed

of

1\

to 111 1\

he

""ed

GeL h.ssili I. Cbuikov, the victor of Stalingrad, photoia.. command bunker of his Soviet 62nd Anoy near "'llI.ilioftbe Volga during the battle. The bandaged hand ...ipoflbenervous ec:tem.a which plagued Chuikov as the 1IrIi. of the desperate defence began to teU 00 his health. oiti)

29

Chuikov (left) ~xarniD" the riOe of t.h~ "liuper.liniper' V. G. Zait'liev (right), who was credited with killing 242 Germans during the battle of Stalingrad. (Novoliti)

Depuly Supreme Commander of Soviet Armed Forces-in other words, second only LO Stalin in the military direction of the war. He was sent LO Stalingrad to co-ordinale the bailie for the cily; and when the counler-allack which he had largely helped to plan was launched he was assigned overall control of the "Vestern and Kalinin Fronts. He continued LO act as Stalin's lfireman' throughout '943, and was the background director of the successes at Kursk, Orel, Kharkov, the Dnieper crossings and the relief of Kiev. The clearing of the Ukraine and Bulgaria occupied most of '944. In November '944 Zhukov was appointed commander of the 1St Byelorussian Front with lhe mission of preparing for the final advance lO Berlin, and it was his impetus that led those armies to victory in the ruins of the German capital. Appoinled C-in-C of the Soviel Oceupalion Zone, it was Zhukov who signed the final German surrender document as his country's representative. In the post-war years came great rewards; a period in political disgrace; and finally an apparently happy and honoured retirement, and a place in the affections of his countrymen which seems not unlike that enjoyed by the aged Duke of Wellington in his day.

30

ThePlales niform research by Manin Windrow and William ·Fowler. Although individual orders and medals cannOt be listed here for reasons of space, every ell"orl has been made to ensure lhat the ribbons illustrated are generally correct for the period depicted.

A I : Air ChieI Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, AOe R'!.val Air Force Fighter Command; England, summer 1940 'Slull"y' Dowding is shown in absolu,e1y regulation RAF officer's service dress, his SD cap distinguished in this rank by twO rows of gold oakleaves. Sleeve ranking is worn in the form of light blue lace rings on black lace backing. The RAF pilot's brevet is worn on the left breast above the order and medal ribbons.

.12: Admiral Andrtw Cunningham, Royal Navy FOe .I\!ledilerranean; Alexandria, 1940-41 Cunningham wears immaculate summer lwhites', The white-topped cap has the gold leaves of this rank on the peak; as in the RAF, the cap badge itself was common to all officer ranks. On the white uniform the normal RN officer's sleeve ranking was replaced by stiff shoulder boards.

For this rank they are of gold lace backed in navy

he formed when serving with White Russian

l]ue, with a crown above a sabre and baton and

officers after the First World War. It is otherwise regulation for this rank; on the red band of a staff colonel or general officer is the general's cap badge in gold on black: a crossed sabre and

hree roselles.

13: General Sir Harald Alexander, C-in-C 15th Amry Group; /ta£y, winter 1944 \rwr a man to seek personal adulation, the arming 'Alex' was nonetheless something or a nd), in the tradition of his class. The service

'" cap acquired in his hands a dashingly .,hed' appearance, traditionally a taste which

baLOn in a wreath surmounted by a crown and a lion. Alexander's uniforms seem LO have been

usually of the dark khaki fa\'oured by Guards officers. Here he wears battledress blouse, riding breeches and riding boots, with an RAF Ir\'in

Wm.. Sir Bertram Ramsey watching ships move out into Channel for the Nonnaody invasion, during which be wrnd as C-in·C Allied Naval Forces. Born in 188), Ramsey

Oying jacket with added right pocket. Other photos show him wearing pale Bedford cord breeches, and an American Oying jacket with off·white Oeece. He habitually wore the holster

pasHd the Staff College in 1913. and spent much of the First 'Ctmmanding i. .ld War withDover the famous Dover Patrol. As Flag Officer in 1940 he was largely responsible for

of the' am Browne' set reversed on the left hip from the belt's sword attachments.

~

1k'lIccessful rescue of SOnle 338,000 men frOnl the Dunkirk .dles. In 1942 be was C-in-C Eastern Task Force for the 'foreh' landings, and the following year commanded the .nl (orces which landed 8th Army in Sicily. He was killed .u air crash in January 1945. (1IDp. War Mus.fPers. Pic. la.

81: Gellernl Sir Claude . I uchin/uk , C-ill-C Middle East; Lib.ya, /942 'The Auk' wears a shinsleeve-and-shorts desert

uniform in khaki drill cloth with long socks and suede 'chukka boots'. Metal ranking-a crown and a 'pip' above crossed sabre and baton-is

pinned to removable shoulder strap slides, and general's gorget patches are fixed to the collar points. Ribbons are worn on a pin-on bar. I

t

II'

)11

n-

kht \F he

')c

82: General Sir Archibald Wavell, C-in-C Middle East; Egypt, 1941

The Oat shape of WaveII's cap seems to have been characteristic of him. The immaculate tropical service dress, worn ovcr a light khaki shirt and tie,

has gilt bUllons and buckle. Note the full size gorget patches, with gilt foliage in place of the simple gold 'gimp' on Auchinleck's patches. Gilt ranking is pinned directly to the shoulder straps of the tunic.

83: General Philififie 'Leclerc' de Halltclaque; Libya, 194 2 'Leclerc' was the nom-de-guerre adopted by this

French cavalry officer when he escaped to England after being wounded and captured in the Bailie of France. As organiser of Free French forces in French EquatOrial Africa he first came to prominence when he assembled a column of 2,500

volunteers and led them from Chad

1,500

miles across the Sahara to link up with British

8th Army before the Mareth Line. His command 31

tionary Force in Indo-China over political dis-

agreements; he was killed in an air crash in 1947. Photographed at the time of his Saharan epic, he wears a battered kepi with his gold rank stars attached to a sand-khaki cover. Over a tunic,

shirt, tie and breeches of sand-khaki French material he wears an old cavalry greatcoat, its cuffs adorned with ranking on black patches, and

on its collar the gold foul anchors of France's Colonial troops on black diamonds. The walkingstick appears in most photographs. CI: LieutfrIallt-Gelleral ,\fork W. Clark, GOC US 5th .1 m~l'" Ita(l', 1944

i\lark Wayne Clark was responsible for much of the 'Torch' planning. Given 5th Army for the Salerno landings, he was savcd by his friendship

with Eisenhower from replacement by Patton whcn they began to go wrong. He was in trouble

again when the Anzio landings stalled in January '944. but stopped the rot in time. He entered Rome in June '944 and liberated Florence in August: he afterwards claimed that only the Gen. Leclerc photographed at Antony on 2.f August 1944, the day before his tanks entered liberated Paris. He wears a khaki drab French general's service dress kepi with three gold stars in a triangle high on the front, a gold and black foliate-pattern chinstrap, and black peak; motorcycle goggles; and the light OD twill US tank overalls, with his stars of rank on a black patch buttoned to the right breast. Another favourite uniform during the Liberation was a US tanle windcbeater, British battledress trousers, and British web anklets, worn with a KD shin and tie, this kepi, and brown boots.

removal of sc\'en of his divisions for the ~An\'il' landings in southern France prevented him beat-

ing the Germans out of Italy in '944. He took over from Alexander as C-in-C 15th Army Group when thc latter was promoted: and latcr served

as C-in-C of UN forces in Korea at the end of that war.

He wears a dark 00 overseas cap with gold general's piping and the three sih-er stars of his

fought in Tunisia, asking nothing of the British but food, petrol and clothing. With the support of Churchill he was selected to lead a Free French

rank. These are repeated on the collar of the OD wool shirt, which bears the 5th Army's left shoulder patch. OD slacks are tucked into paratroop boots. His standard-issue webbing pistol

formation in the liberation of France; his 2nd

bell supportS the -45 in its russet leather holster,

Armoured Division landed at Utah Beach on 30 July '944, and fought under XV Corps in Patton's 3rd Army with immediate distinction. Leclerc

clip pouches, first aid pouch, and what seems to be a compass pouch hanging from right front.

and Patton gOt on well; both were dashing, audacious, strong-willed cavalrymen, inclined to

C2: General '!f Divisioll IVladplaw Allders, GOC Polish 2/1d Corps; Ita(y, JUlie 1944

insubordination. After helping close the Falaise Pocket the 2 e OB was shifted to 1St Arm)', and on '5 August Leclerc's tanks entered Paris to a

Fuller notes on lhe career of this distinguished Free Polish ficld commander will be found in Men-at-Arms 117, The Polish Army /939 45. He carries a black British RAC beret with hanging tapes; on the fronl are the Polish eagle cap badge

tumultuous reception. They later fought eflec-

tively in the Vosges, liberating Strasbourg, and eventually reaching Berchtesgaden. Leclerc resigned his early command of the French Expedi32

abovc the twO silver stars and ~zig-zag' of his rank, and beside it the small 'Jerusalem cross'

'om by Poles with service in the r-liddle East. The Canadian BO blouse is lavishly badged and decorated. On the collar are carminc-piped dark blue patches with the silver eagles of a Polish ~neral. Ranking is repeated on each shoulder trap, and at the top of each sleeve is the silver-onrimson 'Poland' litle. Below this on the left slec'"c the \Varsaw mermaid patch of 2nd Corps; on

be right, the British 8th Army patch. On the ft breast is the metal regimental badge of Polish "h Lancers; on the right, the Polish StafTCollege d~e. The top row of ribbons is in the form of Lt.Gtll. Mark Clark, cOOlDlanding US 5th Army, goes ashore in a PT-boat. He wears shoulder strap ranking and ISdl Army patch on his pale fawn trench coat. (Imp. War

II Anzio

~"·I

\Vladyslaw Anders (left), the Polish cavalry officer who led 70,000 Poles frOID the ntisery of Soviet prison camps to the

Middle East in 1942 4J, and into battle in Italy in September 1943. It was his 12th Podolski Lancers who finally raised their flag over the Monte Cassino monastery in May 1944.

At right is a signals NCO of the 6th 'Lwow' Rifle Bde., 5th 'Kresowa' Inf. Div. (wp. War. Mus.)

the blue Polish wound medal ribbon with eight SLars.

Otherdelails to note are the US officer's 'pinks'; the British web belt modified to take suspenders for the Polish holster on the left hip; the characteristic cigarelle holder and pocket watch chain; and moccasin-shaped brogues.

C3: Josip Broz 'Tilo', s/)fill,~ /943 The great commander ofYugosla,' partisans, and later head of Slate, never hid his liking for the fine things of life, including fancy uniforms; but he certainly did not indulge himself when fighting in Lhe mounlains for his own and his counny's

life. Photos show a number of different outfits, bUl Lhis seems lO be accuralC for the period jusL before his 'c1osesl call' -Lhe German encirclemenL

of l\lt. DurmiLOr, which nearly trapped the whole of his forces. During the break-out he was wounded and his dog Lux was killed by a German air allack. He wears a khaki sidecap of characlcrisLic nalional shapc, wilh an enamelled ham-

mer, sickle and star badge. A plain dark grey uniform lUnic and ICaLher-reinforccd breechcs,

without insignia of any kind-note odd collar shape-is worn over a bUlloned civilian shirl,

33

most English of generals became a popular public figure through broadcasting work. He wears a British BD blouse wilh the collar open and faced ·khaki, and bearing gorgel palches. The XXX Corps palch, a black boar on a white disc on a black sq uare, is worll on both sleeves; characteristically he wears over the blouse a soldier's leather trench-jerkin. Standard BD trousers arc confined by web anklets; no Ie brown officers' boots.

D2: Lieutenant-Ceneral Henry Crerar, COC 1st Canadian Awry; NW Europe, 1944 An almost unknown figure, Crerar won the DSO all the \tVestern Front with an artillery unit in

the First World War. Slafrappointments occupied most of his career, and he came to the UK as senior officer of Canadian Military HQ on lhe oUlbreak of war. He was Chiefofthe General Staff in Canada in 1940, but returned to Europe first as a divisional and later as a corps commander as Canadian forces increased. After brief service in I taly he formed I Sl Army for the Normandy invasion, and led it in some of the heaviest fighling of the campaign. He wears a general's SD cap, idelllical lO the Brilish Army pattern; and on the shoulder slraps of his trench coat l metal ranking above a metal 'Canada' title. Three great British leaders take a light lunch on the banks of the Rhine, 26 March 1945: Prime Minister Winston Churchill; FM Sir Alan Brooke, Chief of the Itnperial General Staff; and FM Sir Bernard Montgomery, GOe 21st Army Group. (Imp. War Mus.fPers. Pic. Lib.)

wilh black lop-bools and a brown bell sct with added Wallher P.38 holster. Note the peculiarly Slavonic cigarette holder!

D I: Lieutenant-Ceneral Brian Horrocks, COC XX X Corps,. NW Europe, 1944 An armoured warfare specialist who commanded Brilish XI I I Corps al Second Alamein and XXX Corps of British 2nd Army in NW Europe after D-Day, Horrocks was one of 'Monty's' most trusted liCLllenants. He was largely responsible for the very rapid advance across Belgium; but was unable to fight his way through to relieve lhe paralroopers at Arnhem in September, being confined to a narrow corridor defended by unexpectedly heavy enemy forces. After the war lhis

34

D3: Ceneral Sir Bernard MontgomelY, COC 21St Army Croup,. NW Europe, 1944 'Monty's' fondness for odd uniforms is legend. Here he wears his famous beret with the general officer's and Royal Tank Regimenl cap badges. His BD blouse has an opened, faced collar with gorget patches; woven ranking on the shoulder straps; and the 2[st Army Group patch on both sleeves. He wears il over a grey pullover and old KD slacks, relics of the desert, and in several pholos spans lhis long scarf of camounaged parachute silk. He habilually wore a gold watch chain looped belween the breast pockels of the blouse.

E I: Lieutenant-Ceneral Ceorge S. Patton, COC US 3rd Amry; .Normandy, summer /944

The namboyant 'Blood and Guts', who perhaps loved uniforms more than any other Second World War personality except Goring, wears his

her stars of rank fixed lO a highly polished and ~rnished helmet liner. His '944 wool field jacket, hirl, and tie arc all in contrasting shades of

'Olil'e Drab': he wears them with riding breeches nofficer's 'pink', and russclLOp-bo01S. Thcjackct adorned with gilt buttons, 'US' lapel clips, 3rd Irm)' patches on both slcc\'es, and service and ound bars on the left forearm; rank stars appear n jacket shoulder straps and shirt collar. A black leather belt with polished brass fittings "Pports two open-lOpped holsters for his silveraled. ivory-handled Coil Peacemakers, A riding :up was orten in evidence. Needless to add, this only one of the combinations of uniform and n~;gnia in which Pallon was occasionally photo~aphed,

Gmual Dwighl D. EisenhOl.l'er, uprtmt Comandrr .lllied E.\pediliona~v Force; England. Februa~, '944 Pholographed while inspecting the US 3rd Aroured Division during preparation for the !

\ormand) invasion, '1 ke' wears the dark Olive

Ilab Ol'erseas cap, with general's gold piping '" Ihe four silver stars of his rank. The shon )()lo\'crcoal bears the same ranking on shoulder

[,IPS partly hidden by Ihe shawl collar; on the r'\"C-s are one ~in. and one I~in. black bands, ntir)in~ a general officer. The 00 \1'001 slacks worn-for some reason-tucked into British bbin~ anklets; and 'Ike' sports a pair of lowish wash-leather gloves.

Litu/manl-Ceneral Omar •\'. Bradl~)', coe US tAm!,}'; .Vormmui..Y, 1944 d's' hamel) features and steel-rimmed spee~

'Windy' Gale at his divisional HQ. in Normandy, 1944; note the 'Pegasus' Rag of British airborne troops. (Imp. War Mus.)

years of British airborne troops. He commanded the first battalion, and subscquenl1y thc first

brigade of British paratroops; did much background work on this type of operation. including the e\'olution of Ri\F liaison; and led 6th Airborne Division into viclOrious ballie in Nor-

are in keeping with his unassuming style,

mandy in June 1944. He filled senior airborne

d his plain field uniform is in contrast to the

staff appointTllents during the Arnhem operation

'lilaI') dandyism of Pauon. He wcars his rank r on a helmet liner; thc popular 'tanker's );'I't' with kniued collar, cuffs and waist, with

and the Rhine crossings: and before his final retirement sen'Cd both as C-in-C British Rhine

"lOg pinned to the strapless shoulders and a 'st patch on the left sleeve; issue 00 wool "I;", and strapped field boots.

\ '11\

Army and Deputy Suprcme Commander Europe. A photo shows him wearing this rather eccentric combination of a Denison smock with Bedford

cord breeches and ankle boots. The smock has the knilled collar lining popular with senior

.IfoJor-General Richard Cale. D· ",.n.- .\'111 Europe, '944

coe 6th

. Jirbome

'pent much of his career in staff appointnt" but was highly innucntial in the formative

officers, and a full-length zip. The general officer's cap badge is worn on the Illaroon paratrooper's beret, and the only Olher inslgllIa are gorget

patches on the BD blouse.

35

later commanded US forces in Korea, still wear· ing the grenade on his webbing that had become his 'trademark'. He was photographed in the Ardennes wearing a steel helmet with painted stars: the light OD jeep coat, with added shoulder straps bearing ranking and what seems to be the green unit commander's slide: 00 wool slacks, and jump-boots. His webbing comprises belt, braces; clip pouches, first aid pouch, and canteen carrier, with a holstered -45; to his braces are taped a grenade and a first field dressing.

F3: Major-Celleral James M. Cavill, COG US 821ld flirbome Divisioll; Hollalld, September 1944 'J umpingJ i Ill' Gavin, America's youngest general at 37, took over this division from Ridgway after serving as his deputy in Normandy. He led it in Since Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor (left) spent four years during the 1930s observing Japanese operations in China, and was fluent in Japanese, it is hardly surprising that the US ArDlY eDlployed his talents exclusively in Europe during the Second World War ... After serving as Ridgway's c.hid' of staff Taylor was proDloted to command the 10Ist Airborne Division in February 1944, and jumped with them over Normandy on 6 June and at Eindhoven in September. He was prevented front parac.huting to join his men during the siege of Bastogne in the Ardennes, but led them into Gerntany in 1945. Here, photographed at Brindisi during talks with Marshal Badoglio in October 19430 he wears the Airborne cap insignia. (Imp. War Mus.)

F2: Major-Ceneral Mal/hew B. Rid,~wa..v, COG US 18th Airbome Gorps; .VW Europe. winter 1944 After a succession ofstaA'appointments Ridgway served first as deputy commander and later as commander of the S 82nd Airborne Division. Badly mauled in the Sicily im'asion, the 82nd achieved real fame in Normandy in June 1944 when it was dropped in darkness to secure the areas inland of Utah Beach. Badly scalLercd in its landings around Ste Mere Eglise, and with mOSI heavy equipment gone astray, the 'All American' Division had to fight for its survival. Under these strained circumstances, and with the Wehrmacht just 400 yards from his CP, Ridgway made his famous signal: 'Short 60 per cent infantry, 90 per cent artillery, combat efficiency excellent.' By 'ow hrs on D-Day his paratroops had successfully linked up with the seaborne invasion units. Given the task of forming an airborne corps in late t944, Ridgway fought in the Ardennes and at the Rhine crossings. He

36

Maj. Gen. James M. Gavin photographed near St Vith on the nort,hern shoulder orlbe 'Bulge' during the Ardennes fighting of December 1944. Gavin had his first application for parachute training turned down with the COOlOlent that he was 'not particularly fitted for this type of duty'. Two years later he was leading his regiment in a night jump over Sicily; and the following year, Anterica's youngest tW"o-star general at 37, he was commander of the 82nd Airborne Division. He led this crack formation in the Nijmegen and Ardennes operations, the breaching of the Siegfried Line and the final advance into Germany. (Imp. War Mus.)

capture of the IVa'll and Maas bridges during ration '~larket-Garden', his energy and effecfncsS apparendy unimpaired by a cracked rtcbra sustained in the drop-an agonising ur). Photographed at Graves during the operan, he wears a uniform distinguishable n·om that any private in his division only by the stars on Imel and shoulder strap. A small US quickntification nag is worn on the right shoulder, the divisional patch on the Iefl. He wears imal web equipment, and carries a Garand

.Ilajor-General Orde 9H

Will,~ate;

Burma,

Februa~y

m photographs of the Chindit commander rn at 'Broadway', the improvised airfield .md Japanese lines used by two of his three adcs in the second Chindit operation. An

!"nlrir in his dress and kit, as in other things, n~atc

wears his baltered sun-helmet covered 1\0 doth, a faded old jungle green bush jacket, KD slacks. Gorget patches arc worn on the aI', and woven ranking on shoulder strap t'. His '37 pattern webbing equipment (011or belt, braces, brace attachments, compass rh, canteen, and a small pack sl ung on his Idrr. He habitually carried the standard .303 LE rine, and here wears a cotton clip banr"lung round his body.

LI/uttl/allt-General Sir William Slim, GOC 14th mr;Bllrma,19N 15 en from a well-known colour photo of Bill " in a superbly charancristic aggressive r. The bush jacket and trousers, originally Ie green, are faded LO a nondescript khaki; Wk.t is filled with wown leather half-ball om. Ranking is worn on shoulder strap slides ol"cn form, and gorget patches on the collar. Ih .\rrny patch is worn on both upper sleeves, thr general officer's cap badge on the paggri fclt bush hat.

GlIleral of the AIII~)' Douglas Mac,lrthur, SlIlmme ltd Commander SI'J' Pacific; Phi/i/J/Jine.,-, Jalllia~)J jj

,\rthur was shrewd enough LO understand a simple uniform with a single touch of

Maj. Gen. Orde Wingate, seen here taking his ease in a C-47 aircraft fitted out for transporthtg the mulcs which carried much of the Chindits' heavy equipment in combat, was a self-styled 'boot up the backside of mankind'. He was a visionary and innovative leader of lightly-equipped indcpendcnt units operating in the enemy's rear, creating the Chindit brigades for operations in Burma by drawing on his past uperience of this type of fighting in Palestine and Abyssinia. He was also a neurotic, undisciplined, intense intellectual, a religious fanatic, and a Zionist, who invites comparison with 'Chinese' Gordon and T. E. Lawrence. He was killed in an air crash in March 1944. (Imp. War Mus.)

martial splendour was muth more impressive under the circumstances of the Pacific war than an ovcr-decorated cffect! Hc habitually wore starched khaki shirtsleeve uniforrn enlivened only by his collar ranking, and by his unique uniform cap incorporating the US Army cap badge and the gold foliage of his Filipino ficld marshal's rank. HI: .Ilar.-hal of Ih, SOl-iet Ullioll SeII~),OIl K. Tima-

shenkn, commanding SH! F'ranl,. winter /94/ After leading SO"iet forces in the occupation of pans of Poland in September 1939, Timoshenko

37

of Stalingrad, overall command of 2nd and 3rcl Ukrainian FronLs (equivalenL lO LwO army groups), bUL in fact played liLtle pan in Lhe direction of operations. He wears the general officer's traditional astrakhan IJaIJaklw cap with a general's badge, and a grey kaftan: this lacks, according LO pholOgraphs, the collar piping and cuff deLail one would expect from the '935 regulaLions, but bears the marshal's sleeve ranking of.] uly '940 regulaLions. The collar ranking of the same regulations appears on Lhe coat, and on the khaki December 1935 'French' Lunic. The l\larshal's Star hangs at the Lhroat. Red-striped blue breeches and black lOp-boots are worn (see H3).

fl2: Marshal of lhe Soviet Union KOllslalllin K. Roko.\·sovsk.-v, commanding 1st B.l'florussian front; Ukraine, /944 Appointed to senior command in the wake of the purges of the '930s, Rokossovsky earned high praise for his steadfastness in defence of Moscow in late '941. He later served-under his old comrade Zhukov-in command of the northern pincer of

Rokossovsky as General of the Army, cODlmanding 1St Byelorussian Front in 1944. (Novosti)

Timoshenko photographed in 19371 with the rank of Army ComRlander. His efforts to modernise the Red Army when appointed Commissar of Defence were handicapped by the Rlassacre of command talent in Stalin's purges. After the disasters of 1941 42 he was overshadowed by bis forlner subordinate Zhukov. (Novosti)

was posLed lO the Finnish front. The humiliaLion of the Red Army in the Wimer War led him, as Commissar of Defence, £0 embark on a swingeing reform of the SO\'iet armies on the Central Russian Front. Despite his energy the re-organisation was far from complete when Germany attacked in '94' : Timoshenko's 47 di,·isions were forced back 600 miles, losing 400.000 men. The worst losses were in the south, and Timoshenko was sent £0 Lhis fronL lO replace Budenny in winLer '94' 42. His command was once more pushed into vast retreats by the German southern offensive of 1942. After a period in command in the far north 'T'imoshenko was given, in the aftermath 38

the Stalingrad counter-offensive, and at Kursk.

In command of the sOlllhern army group, the Byclorussian Front, he cleared the Ukraine, ..ached Poland, and then earned the hatred of many Poles by standing still before Warsaw while he Germans slaughtered the inhabitants during he suppression of the rising Moscow had ordered. In fact Rokossovsky's advance had genuinely run ut of impetus at this point; but it is impossible believe that Stalin was not behind his inactivity. In the last months of the war he swept across onhern Poland, captured Danzig, and linked p with the British near Lubeck in May t945. rom '949 to 1956 he was imposed on the Poles defence minister; Rokossovsky was in fact of Polish stock. Here he wears the marshal's daily uniform olp in khaki and red, with the general officer's dge. The black leather coat has marshal's ulder boards of the January '943 regulations,

and the khaki, gold-piped 'field' collar patches of a general officer. The stand collar of the Kitel tunic piped in red, is visible under the coaL 1

H3: Marshal qf the Soviet Union Geo>~~i K. Zhukov, Depu~y Supreme Commander Soviet .Inned Forces; Gennan)', May /945 Zhukov wears the January '943 regulation uniform of his rank. The Kitel has breast pocket naps, marshal's shoulder boards, red piping, and the decorations worn by Zhuko\' at the time of Germany\ surrender-many morc were soon LO be added. The blue breeches, piped and striped red, were worn throughout the war by this rank.

December 1941: Lt. Gen. K. K. Rokossovsky (cenlre) al the headquarlers of the Russian 161h Army, north of Ihe Moskva River. His conduct of bitter defensive baltles before Moscow that winler Dlarked Rokossovsky OUI for rapid advancemenl under his old comrade Zhukov. (Novosti)

Notes sur les planches en couleur

Farbtafeln

AI: L-niformf' absolumtnl r~/i:lf'mtlllai", pour n" /i:'r,uk. ),r mrmf' inslp;nt oe (.I~qUI"IIf' clail porte l>.Ir I~ officil"!"! dl" IOU$ KraOt"$. a\1"1 drs fcuilll.'l or chcnc sur 1,1 \i~ierc POUI" Ie<; Kr;ldrs fquhillrnl~;j cdui dr Rrnh
AI: \·ollkommrlle \·or..c:hrifhuniform fUr di("\('n Dtt·n'lll:l,ld D",,-,..elbc· "liiltrn.,bzeithen \\ urde \on .llkn Offilitf\ran/i:en /i:1·lr,l/i:rn. mil Lil henl.lub .Iuf (kill MUIZell\( hil"m IIlr den Rang, gleillmrniJt: dl"lll dt.., ,\rll1<"c.gl·nc'r"l, A2: Dd'>clbc ,ll;alt 1i'lr die Ro~ ,II ~,I\ \ Omtlere. In d('r \\ei,.t·u"1 rolx'llunifol m \Ourdt d.l'l ,\b/tilhen \on dt'n Armtlaufs(h]ill;c·n"lLi dfn hullerll.lpprll \flV:"17t. A3: Seine· ~lul7(· \Oal" bek.11l1ll lur dl·rrn '7crlntllrrlr' f'orm, t'ill( Angt·\\ohnhril. dil· er ,il h ,1Il('i/i:nrll' ab rl" Illil dn] 1"·i,,nIS\i... hl·\I Onltit'u·n ill 1919 diemr. EI' trilRl einl' Ro),11 ,\ir Forrr \us/('lbc 'Initl' llie/(l"I"];ull·, lX'm("rll· dir I h;lr"llerisli'l(he I'o'lilion drl" Pi..toklll.l" Ill"

81: Simplr uniforl1l(" dr dNrl ehl·mi.... tl ,hort .4\{,\!f' 1,lmru'>C'o hOIl", 'chukka boou·. 811: I'ar eOlllra~IC, \oici ulle IClim' 01' '\("ni(t' lropllalt-, ,1\1" boulOns dorfs. 83: Son virux manleau or c'l\'alrrir ponr ["i-t U"OIl dl'" lmupl·' colonialn. rl Ir"I rlOilr"l aU1( manl hClIN.

81: Ellll.lChf' \\U,ltllunilorm, be-lthelld aus Hrnld und Shorh. mil dOl

C.: Calot

a\('( galon d'or pour un general CI In {"toiln. .4ppropriN'\ ,IU Jt:r.4d{". pOrte .4\('(' 101 chtmi~ \'{"rl-oli\(· ct In IMIlI.4lon.'io rfJt:lem('nl,lIr . Gr.ld(· IIldiquc sur Jc ("01. imigne de la 51h Arm) sur !'cpauk g,llll h('; felllturOIl d(' lr{"illi$ a\rt clui de f("\ohrr. IllUllitiolU. sa(oclw df' pr("m,i('rSt."couf\ el pod\(' pour 101 bou$SOlr. C2: Blou50n 1';;Illadll:·n. p.alllalons am("nralllS,. bi'r("1 d unlu· dt lanu anglais. aHC g;llons f'1 insignes d'uniu" poIondis. C3: Loi pTrft-rtnt(' netlt dt TilO poUT ItS uniformo namo):1J1l1 5'("51 nprimCt- ,i pallir dl 194-1; en 1943, dans la 1II01lIagnf'. il portail CrW" simple I('nuc dVIIl II' S("ul orntmenl CSI l'in$igne 10mmuniSI(" sur 1(" l'alOI

tm

01: Ca..qutllt dt R:~niral; 'ballltdreu' oingl.l.i~ .a\t't rin I~nt du :lo COTp' sur 101 nHtneht; giltl de cuir 51111$ manthe dt !oOld,lI. 011: Cr.ule indi(IUI· ,ur In pall~ d'cp;lUk'l de tt 'Iremh-l·o_ll·, ,1\t'C l'imigne 'CanMI.I'. 03: L,... unilormt·s hauaen couleurdt ~Iontgomtl"\ etaitnllc-Rend,lirC'<: il I'n pOl Ie il I une \rnioll ~ simple: hirtl d(" t.lnkislt a\~ In d("ux f.l.nl("u'l: ill'ill;lI("1i; blou'iOll I'll' 'baltl~rt$$'; \itux pointaloll5 dt dnen; insitl;nt d·ep.lult du 11'1 \rm) Croup; foulard ell !oOi(" dt par;uhuu·.

La predilnlion de ,r,moll pour k .. ullilornw" f.IIH;ti,ir t'" ill lllaliil(..,l,·; nOln 101 doublurt llHtrlturt Ir("\ pollt du I ",,-,<\ut". Ir blou"m ornc d·lIl'llI;m" tn tolJ$ gtnres, tl $011 f;lnltLL1(' 11(-,11;1.111" E2: "Ilt' port{" Ie m,lnlr,lU 1I1un (·n laln(" a\'~' In Jt:alon'l no'.... de ,l{tlwr..1 ,i I.t mall( IWII", Ie I ,lllll; rl. Jl{IUI UIl(" r.liton II ur!conque. drs ~u;'lrrs .u1!!;lai~t"'I. £3: Lr sobrr llnifOfmr clr comh.l\ cit· ilron dl.., I.tnlisln a\tc seukmenl Irt c-toilrt clt ....n tl;radr ('I. l'in,i.!l:ll(· de 1.4 1'1 \nm mr I'I·p.4U1lg'lll( ht £1:

FI: Bert'I de pM;l1 hUli"lr .I\I'{ l'in'lglll' de l/:c-ni'r,ll; '.Irr,tll dl' p,lr,1l hUli'll' 'Denison'; tl, curitu\('"m,·III. d .... I ulOIl<"\ dr ehr\;l1 pont;"" ;1\1'1 dl.., bOllinrs F2: 'Jt("P-10;;lI', bollr'l d(' poOld.II" de ,.1 di\i.ion ,i If n't"'l IMf it'S i'lOilcs de son taSCjuc rl.; la p.. lIe cI't'p.IlIlt'.

a

GI; L'e'l:lelllrique Wingale ponail un simpk uuifi.um(· Iro"il.,I .. I\~ un euque (olonial drmodi. un nlulptmenl de 10111" de \011'1.11 tl UII h"ll, G2: Lnilormt Iropita! reglellltnlairr dt .g~n(oral. a\N. Ihapc.1ll (I\- brou>!o(" dt·lori· d'lln insigll(' dl' gt;l1I~ral, 1"1 I'insignt· de 1.1 141h Ann) sur I hallUC m,llIchr. G3: L'Ullifortlll" IrM dipouill~ que M.ItAnhur 1)(ln,lil loujoun, .I\I'{ S,I 1.uqlH'llt parli(uliirc pon.4nl l'insignt 011\1('1 de lourrurr dl· /NJ/NJUa. ('! l'etoilr de marrl hal rn prndalll. H2; ~Lltll(·.IU dr ruil eOlSqutllt tl plaquN SUl\.4nt 1M inslructions df' 19-1l H3: l..t IUmque "klltr inlroduilt ("II '9-13, qUMKllt""I imi,ll;llcs dll r;U1g furrnl rnlt"\n du col 1'\ d("!l tlHlnrhrllrs pour i'lre pl;lC' ~ur I,"'t i'p;lUII'll line lr"dilioll r"ppelhllll I'c;poqUI" lSarisle. ~c'·Ilc-raJ .t\~

belicbll"n I'oildledt'lnen ',lIul.:l.:,. booh·. BII: 1m Gr/i:,·n,.lll d,I/U. I)('rfrl,,· lropisl Ill' Di("n-t.411 gl'hullifonll mil \fr/(oJdl'lell Knopftn \Jilt! R.lJlI~ab/t·i, hen ill .4llel K,i\ ,Illrrirlllaml"! Ir;;'KI d;", hinlu,:duKlI" Kr,l/(elloll>l.cil hell dl'l Koioniahruppcn und W"in Ranl/;;lbtti, htn an drn Armelauf fhlaJt:en

B3;

CI: ·(h(".... e,~\ lap' FtldmuI7e mil Goldp."ptlierung filr rinen (;1'l\eral ,o\\ie Ranl/:;lbzeilhfllSlrrne. mil oli,grllllem Ilf'md lind 1I000n gttraRrn R.lIIl1:.lbltid\('n am Kr,ll(t'n. d.lS Ahltifhl'lI oer l'S 5..\rmce .Iuf clrr linl.:rn Sthulltr; !i:f'\Oeb!.t'T Lcintllgurtel mil l'islolrnlaMh('. "Iunilionl>- und Erne Hllftbcultl. Komp,uslx-uld. C2: Kanadi~hM Biousoll. l·S HOSt"n. B.tSlfn mulzt brili\{ her Pan7erlruppcn, mil polnisrhrm R,lng- und Einhrll.abzri" I hen. C3: TilOS Lidx- 7,U aun:illiJt:eu l'niformen w urdr \'on 19-1-4 ,m I)('merkl; ill drn Bt·rJl;t·n illl .l.lhr '9-13 lruq ('r di"..... l"illfarlll' KO\liilll. nur mil d("m kommunislist htn ~liilU"nolbzeichrnJt:Nt hmi"ull 01: &hirmmulzr dn Grllc'r,lls; briti'llht'r b.4ltltdr , mil R,lllg,lb/t'ichrn

und Ab7.eichrn drs 30 Corps am .\rml"!: II·den\(" :irml"llo\(" \\ 1..,11" dC$ Soldalen Ran~ab,-rirhen an den Sc.hullrrkl.lppt·n dl." 'lrt'nch 10_11'. nlil 'K.mad,l· .\bzeil hell. 03: "lonlll:omer}" farlx-nfrohr l"niformen \Oaren Ir.tl:eml:ir; hitr lr~lgl tr tine 7itmhch einfachr \"("r Ion; 8,Islfnmijl7t drl" PoIIlZtrlruPPCIl mil 'If''i nell 7,\0 M bt'ruhmttn Abzeil hell: b;lllll'dr ,810u.oll; alte "ii"tnuniform· hO~fl\; SthultcT.. blriehrn d,'r 11\1 \nm Croup: Sl h.tl .llIS F,,11 chirm'l('idl".

02:

EI: P,lIlOn, Litbe lUr ,lUs.tl:t'f.llltm· l'nif(lnuen i'l hirr drmon'lncn; btlll{"l"l.:l· das ho
FI: B,,,lenmulu der F.III... hirml:il;lt'r mil dIm Allteil hrn der Gentr,,!\IlIUIL{"; 'I}("n...on· rall<;(hirmlJlld; und ("'\,71·nln'lh /i:'1'nUIl: Reilh(JlS{"1l aus K.4mlllll:anhlolf mil kur/en Kui... hl·I,llddll. F2: ·.Jrq)-'Q;.II·. Fall\lhirnl" j~ige,",lil'fcl und GurldltuK,IU,ru,nUlIl:. I·ilht hllf',lidl RidKW"\~ '\\'Irell' 7ril hrn' tint· H,llIdgr.milu· "Olll(· ,m der .... hulln .inl!:l·br,lt hI. F3: I)CI jUl{rndlich(" Ga\in unerlennb;lr \011 jetlnl\ .111Ikrnl Sold.11 ,rill("r 1)1\1,,1011. au~r ,In ~inen R.lIlg$ttrnt'n am Hrlm und ~. huhnU.'pp{"n GI: DI'I" e);/enll"i\l. he \\ ing.llt IrUK sehr l·int.lll\\" 11111" nUlllfol m mil dem ,lllmOOlsrlwn $onnenhrlm. d,l$ Cllnel/l'UIl: <"int.., ~(Jld;tlnl und rin Grwrhr. G2: Rrgul;irt Troptlluniform fUr rinen Grllnal. mil tll·1ll D,(hul1gdhul. Jt:t'SI:hmul'kl mil tinem Ct'neralsmiil7.("llolb7fit hl·n und dc·nl\b/ri, hrn der '''lh Arm~ aufj~em ,\rmel, G3: I)it hr t'illl,Hh(",. imllier \un "I.II Anhur gNragenc l'nifoflll. mil seiner spcziellrn Schinmnulle. dil· d.l\ ~lhirmmiil' "Unabzrichl'n dcr lIS .\rme<· lragl. uud d;(, goldenf bl h('lll.,ub. Itl d("ln rr .Ih Feidmarsch.lll del' Filipino Armee berelhlil;ll W,lr. HI: \\inttruniform ndeh den )kuimmun/i:'t'n \on 19J5. mil ckr (;enl"r.,h papalha \'Iitshut und dit '''larsth.III''ltrn·".\uvl·irhnung .1111 11,11, Il.in· Rend, 1,12: PI'rsQnlich("r Lrderm;\ntcl. mil "hil/e und R.lIlg.lhtt·i.lll'n n.ll h den I\Mlimmungrn \011 19-11. H3: Dt'l" Kill'! l'llIlormrOtl, I·jngdlihn llll Jahr '943. allo dit Rantl;J.lu("irhell \om Kragrn und dnl\rmrlauJ" hl:ll:{'n IU den tr,ldiciontlltn St:hulltrll.lppcn IMlh tan'li"hnn "lu,lf"r \e"'I·l/l 1'0 urden.

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160 44 4] 90 106 122 199 211 227 8B 176 181 22J 152 149 192 162 J72 IB5 IB9 84 114 119 251 126 110 20.4 167 9B 206 226 96 77 78 115

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Nap's Guard Infantry (2) Nap's German Alles (I Nap'sGermanA esll) Nap'sGermanA ,es(3, Nap'sGerman lesl4) Nap'sGermanAII,es(5) Nap's SpeCialist Troops Nap'sOverseasArmy Nap's Sea SoIdoers Nap's Ita an Troops Austr,an Army{ 1).lnfantry Austrian Army (2): Cavalry AuStrldn SpecialIst Troops Prusslan Ltne Infantry Pruss,an Light Infantry Prusslan Reserve & Irregulars PrusSlan Ctva ry 1792- I f!lJ7 PrusSlanCavalry 1!D7·IS RUSSIan Army (I j.lnfantry RUSSian Army (2).; Cavalry Wellin~on'sGenerals

Wellington's Infantry (I) Welilngton'slnfantry(2) We1hngtoo's Highlanders Wei ngton'sLlghtCavaJry Wellington's Heavy Cavalry Wellongtoo's Specaalist Troops BrunswICk Troops 1809,15 D..itcn·Belglan Troops HanovenanArmy 1792-18Ie The Amencan War 1812·14 ArtllleryEqulpments flags of the Nap Wars (I flags of the Nap Wars (2) Flags of the Nap Wars (3)

19TH CENTURY

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212 2B I 17] 56 272 61 170 177 179 190 207 17 )B 252 258 265 161 IB6 168 275 241 191 196 198 201 212 215 219 224 249 67 268 91 92 211 217 277 57

Bolivar and San Martm US Dragoons 1833~ 35 Alamo & Texan War 183S-6 MexiUn-AmeriUn War 1846-8 The MexICan Adventure 1861-67 Amencan·lndlan Wars 1860-90 Amencan CIVil War Armies: (I): Confederate '2)' Unl()ll 3) Staff. SpeClallsts. Mantlme 4: State Troops (5): Volunteer MIlitia Army of Northern Vlrgll'lla Army of the Potomac Flags of the American CIVil War I)' Confederate 2)- Umon 3) State & Volunteer Amencan Plains Indians The Apaches USCavalry 1850·90 The Tatplng Rebellion 1851-66 RUSSIan Army of the Cnmean War Bntlsh Army on CampaIgn I) 1816-1853 (2): The Cnmea 1854-56 (3): 1857-81 (4): 1882-1902 Victoria's Enem,es (I): Southern Afnca '2) NorthemAfrlCa 3): Jndla (4) ASia Canadian Campaigns 1860-70 The Indian Mutiny Bntlsh Troops In the Indian Mutmy 1857-59 Bengal Cavalry Regiments Ind,an Infantry Regiments french Army 1870-71 (I) French Army 1870-71 (2) The Russo-Turkish War 1877 The Zulu War

59 Sudan Campaigns 1881·98 2J0 US ArrTf'/ 1890· 1920 95 The Boxer Rebelhon

THE WORLD WARS 80 81 H5 269 208 182 187 74 117 I 12 120 225 70 216 H6 220 24 266

H 229 IH 21) 119 1)1 101 147 254 2]8 142 169 282 270 274 278

The Gerrnan Army 191" 18 The Bntlsh Army 191" 18 BritIsh Temtorlal Units 191418 The Ottoman Army 1914-18 Lawrence and the Arab Revola Brot,sh Battle Ins,gnla I) 191"-18 (2) 1939-"5 The Spanish CIV IWar The Polish Army 1939-45 Brotlsh Battledress 1937·61 Allied Commanders of WW2 The Royal Air Force US Army 1941-45 The Red Army 194 i -45 The Romanian Army TheSA 1921-45 The P<;1nzer Dlv,s,ons The Allgemeine 55 TheWaffenSS Luftwaffe Fie d DYl!oIOOs GermanCommandersd\N'W2 German MP Un ts German Airborne Troops Germany"sE,FrootAllles Germany's $pan,sh Volunteers Wehrmacht Fore,gn Volunteers Wehrmacht Aux ary Forces AllIed ForeIgn VoIuntee1'"S PartIsan Warlare t 941·45 ReslstanceWarlare 194().45 AxiS Forces In YugoslaVia 1941-45 Flags of the Th,rd Reich (I ) Wehrmacht (2) Waffen-SS (3) Party & Po :eUnts

MODERN WARFARE III 174 116 156 I)) IH 1)5 250 127 128 194 165 104 14] 209 217 18) 202 242 159 178 221

MalayanCampa'gn 1948-60 The Korean War 1950-53 The Special A,r ServIce The Royal Mannes J956·84 Banle for the Falklands , land Forces (2) NavaJ Forces (3): Air Forces Argentine Forcestn the Falklands Israeli Army 1948-73 Arab Armies (I): 1948-73 ArabArm~(2) 1973-88 AnTuesIn lebanoo 1982-84 V~tnamWarArmles 1962·75 V'etnam War ArmIes (2) War In Cambodia 1970-75 War In Laos 1960-75 Modern Afncan Wars I) RhodeSIa I96S"a) (2) Angola & Mozamblque (3) Sooth-West AfrICa Grenada 1983 RUSSia's War In Afghanistan Central Amencan Wars

GENERAL 65 107 lOB 11B 72 214 205 2)4 157 121 164 161 197

The Royal Navy BntlVl Infantry, Equlpts (I) Bntlsh Infantry. Equopts (2) British Cavalry Equopts The Northwest Frontier USln(antryEqulpts US Army Combat Equlpts German Combat Equopts Flak~ets

Australian Army t 899-1975 Canadian Army at War Spanlsn Foreign Legion Royal Canadian Mounted Po/ICe

mmi]

MEN-AT-ARMS SERIES

MILITARY

r!mm MILITARY

An unrivalled source of information on the uniforms, insignia and appearance of the world's fighting mcn of past and present. The Men-at-Anus titles cover subjects as diverse as the Inlperial Roman army, the Napoleonic wars and Gernlan airborne troops in a popular 48-pagc format including some 40 photographs and diagrams, and eight full-colour plates.

COMPA 10

SERIES FROM OSPREY

ELITE Detailed information on the uniforms and insignia of the world's most famous military forces, Each 6+-page book contains some 50 photographs and diagrams, and 12 pages of full-colour artwork.

WARRIOR Definitive analysis of the armour, weapons, tactics and motivation of the fighting men of history, Each 64-page book contains cutaways and exploded artwork of the warrior's weapons and armour, NEWVANG ARD Comprehensive histories of the design, development and operational usc of the world's arnloured vehiclesand artillery, Each 48-page book contains eight pages of full-colour artwork including a detailed cutaway of the vehicle's interior. CAMPAJGN Concise, authoritative accounts of decisive encounters in military history, Each 96-page book contains more than 90 illustrations including nlaps, orders of battle and colour plates, plus a series of three-dimensional baule maps that nlark the critical stages of the campaign,

THE ANCIENT WORLD 218 An(.IentChmeseArmles

109 AnCient Middle East

137 The Scythlans 7QO.300 B.C. 69 Greek & Persian Wars 500-32] B.C. 148 Army of Alexander the Great 121 CarthagInian Wars ..6 Roman Army

(I): Caesar-T";'Jan 93 (2): Hadnan-Constantlne 129 ROme's Enemies:

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(I Germanl(s & Daclans 158 (2): GaUIC & 8ntlsn Celts 115 (Jt. Parth,a,ns & Sassantds 180 ("):Spcun218B.C-19B.C lO (5): The Desert Frontier

THE MEDIEVAL WORLD 247 RomaI'\OoByzantJneArm.es.;th-9thc. 154 Arthur & Anglo-Saxon Wars

255 115 150 89 85 1]1 15 111 155 100 I 05 211

Armoes of the Musltm Conquest Arm.es d Islam, 7th-II th C The Age d Charlemagne 8yzantlne ArmIe'S 886-1118 Saxon, V,kJng & Norman French Med.evalArmIe'S ICO)..IJOO ArmJe5dtheCnJ~

Salad,n &the Saracens Kn,ghts d Chnst EICId&R«onqulsta 1050-1492 The r1ongols The Age d Tamertane

Pfeose note then (or space reasons obbmototed tides are moen obc:we; when please quore the IltIe number, WJ Y"ont Herw', etc.

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251 50 151 94 1]6 166 195 259 140 210 II I 144 II] 145

Medieval Ch,nese ANTlies Medieval European Armies Scots &Welsh Wars The SWISS 1300-1500 Italian Armies 1)00.1 SOO German Armies 1300-1500 Hungary & E Europe ICO).IS68 The Mamluks 12S()..1517 Ottoman Turks 1300-tn4 Venetian Emptre 1200-1670 Arm,es cJ Crict and futlers Medieval Burgundy 1364-14n Arm,es of Aglncourt Wars cJ the Roses 99 MedIeval Heraldry

16TH AND 17TH CENTURIES 256 The Insh Wars 1485·1603 191 Henry VIII"s Army ]8 The landsknechts I0 I The ConqUistaelore§ 26] Mughullndl.J IS04·1761 1]5 Gustavus Adolphus (I): Infantry 262 Gustavus Adolphus (2): Cavalry 14 EngllshClvIIWarArmoes 110 ~1"Iodd1vmy 1615-60 20] lOUIS XN's Army 261 The BntLsh Army I6i:/). 1704 91 Marlborough'sArmy 86 5amuralArmoes IS~16IS 184 Pol+shArmIe'S 1569-1696(1) 188 Pohsh ArmIe'S 1569·1696 (2)

Avec annotations en francais sur'" les planches en couleur'", Mit Au(~eichnunlen~u( Deutsch aber'" den Fvbtafeln

219 The Border Relvers

18TH CENTURY 261 260 264 118 1]6 240 248 211 216 280 48 228

18th Century Highlanders Peter the Great's Army (I): Infantry Peter the Great's Army (2): Cavalry ,lacobite Rebellioos Fredenck the Great (I) Frederick the Great (2) FrederICk the Great (3) Austnan Army 1710-80 (I) AustnanArmy 1740-80(2) Austrl.Jn Army 1710-80 (3) WoIfe'sArmy Amenc.an Wocx:Jland Ind,ans ]9 Bntlsh Army In N Amenc.a 244 French In Amer. War 100 27] GeneralWashmgton'sArmy(J): InS·lns

NAPOLEONIC PERIOD 257 19 87 64 55 68 16 8]

141 146 15]

Napoleon's Camp'llgns In Italy Napoleon's Egyptl<1J"l CampaIgn Napoleon"s f'1arWls

Nap'sCulras51e1"5&CarabnJet'5 Nap"sDragoons&lancers

Nap"sLJne Chasseurs Nap'sHussars Nap's Guard Cav~ry Nap"sunelnfantry Nap's ught Infantry Nap's Guard Infantry (I)

TrUe list contmued on Imide bode

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