by Richard Mead
There was one, however, who towered above all …
I refer to Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Browning,
known to us all as General ‘Boy’.
General Sir Richard Gale, With the Sixth Airborne Division in Normandy
First published in Great Britain in 2010 by
Pen & Sword Military
An imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
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Copyright © Richard Mead 2010
ISBN 978 1 84884 181 9
ePub ISBN: 9781844683369
PRC ISBN: 9781844683376
The right of Richard Mead to be identified as Author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Contents
List of Maps
Foreword by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh
Introduction
Prologue
1. Family (1335–1896)
2. Tommy (1896–1914)
3. Boy (1914–1916)
4. Trenches (1916–1918)
5. Peace (1918–1924)
6. Sandhurst (1924–1928)
7. Hiatus (1928–1931)
8. Daphne (1931–1932)
9. Marriage (1932–1939)
10. Brigadier (1939–1941)
11. Pegasus (1941–1942)
12. Expansion (1942)
13. Setbacks (1942–1943)
14. Adviser (1943)
15. Corps (December 1943–June 1944)
16. Frustration (6 June–9 September 1944)
17. Sixteen (10–16 September 1944)
18. Market (17–20 September 1944)
19. Garden (21–24 September 1944)
20. Tragedy (24 September–9 October 1944)
21. Verdict (10–26 September 1944)
22. Aftermath (October–December 1944)
23. Kandy (December 1944–May 1945)
24. Victory (May–November 1945)
25. Singapore (November 1945–July 1946)
26. Return (July 1946–December 1947)
27. Princess (1948–1952)
28. Duke (1952–1956)
29. Breakdown (1956–1959)
30. Finale (1959–1965)
31. Postscript (1965–1989)
32. Retrospective
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Abbreviations
Notes
Acknowledgements
Sources & Bibliography
Index
List of Maps
Map 1. The ‘Market Garden’ Battlefield
Map 2. Nijmegen and Groesbeek
Map 3. The Island
Map 4. Arnhem and Oosterbeek
Foreword by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh
BUCKINGHAM PALACE
I am delighted that Richard Mead decided to write a biography of General Sir Frederick ‘Boy’ Browning. He was a very remarkable man with huge ability and great charm. He was a member of a generation which had to face the traumas of active service in two world wars; in front-line service in the first, and with all the heavy responsibilities, and risks, of higher command in the second.
Although I did meet him while he was serving as Chief of Staff to my uncle – Dickie Mountbatten – as Supreme Allied Commander in South East Asia, it was only when he came to us as Comptroller and Treasurer that I got to know him well. As I was still serving with the Navy, and expected to go on doing so for many years, I was inevitably away from home for much of that time. His seniority in the Army, his connection with the Grenadier Guards and his wide circle of friends in positions of responsibility, were immensely valuable to the Queen and myself in the early years after our marriage.
Even though we were in different age groups, and with different service backgrounds, we did have one great interest in common. We both enjoyed boats and yachting. It was in his converted MFV Fanny Rosa that I stayed during my first visit to Cowes Regatta in 1948.
His last years were sad, but they were only a very small part of his long, active and distinguished career.
Introduction
In selecting a British general of the Second World War for a new biography, I had a short list of eight, the only qualification for inclusion being that no such work already existed. The list comprised senior officers of distinction, some of whom had led large formations in the field, whilst others had exercised considerable influence from behind the scenes. One name stood out, however, a man whose military career had not matched those of some of the other contenders, but who was in every other way more interesting. Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Browning – called ‘Boy’ in this book from the time he received the nickname, prior to which he is ‘Tommy’, his name in the family – has long been of some interest to military historians as a result of his close association with Great Britain’s airborne forces during the Second World War. Their interest has focused on his involvement in Operation ‘Market Garden’ and the disaster at Arnhem, in connection with which he allegedly gave a now much-used expression to the English language – ‘a bridge too far’. However, it is also generally recognized that he was decorated for bravery in the Great War, represented his country at two sports, initiated a tradition at Sandhurst which persists to this day and served as a senior member of the Royal Household. To cap it all, he was married to one of the most enduringly popular novelists of the twentieth century, Daphne du Maurier. Why, then, had no biography appeared many years before?
Boy himself discouraged any such work in his lifetime, indeed he went so far as to obtain undertakings from some of those who served on his staff at South-East Asia Command that they would not cooperate with any potential biographer. After his death the members of his family were approached on more than one occasion by a would-be author but were unenthusiastic, whilst Daphne herself refused to write about him. Subsequently Boy did not come out well from the works of some historians, and indeed film directors, who covered ‘Market Garden’, but nobody appeared to have researched his role or his background in any depth, his detractors at best repeating the charges made by others, at worst resorting to little short of character assassination. It was time for a closer look.
Quite why Arnhem continues to exert such fascination is something of a mystery, although it probably has something to do with the British love of heroic failure: Sir John Moore’s retreat to Corunna, the Charge o
f the Light Brigade and the evacuation of the BEF from Dunkirk would be other good examples. The flow of books on the subject seems never-ending, notwithstanding that little in the way of new information has emerged over the last twenty years. British authors have, for the most part, concentrated on the exploits of 1 Airborne Division and the attempts of Horrocks’s ‘cavalry’ to relieve them. The deeds of the two American airborne divisions, other than in the crossing of the Waal at Nijmegen, have had much less prominence, whilst the actions of VIII and XII Corps have largely been ignored.
The criticisms of Boy have thus tended to be from the perspective of those concerned with Arnhem itself, which was not just a failure, but a disaster. This also explains something which I had not hitherto realized, which was that Boy has been far from popular with some of the veterans of 1 Airborne, who attach much of the blame for the debacle to him, compounding this with his subsequent treatment of the Polish General Sosabowski, who to many of them was a hero. This contrasts completely with the views of those who served under him at other times, who have by and large been great admirers.
Although almost every book on Arnhem, or on ‘Market Garden’ as a whole, refers to Boy, his appearance has been episodic, none of them following him closely through either the planning or the execution of the operation. I have tried to put him more firmly in context and the result produces alternative explanations for some of his decisions and actions to those which have become widely accepted, although a number of the criticisms continue to stick. Because I have decided to look at ‘Market Garden’ from Boy’s perspective, trying to focus on what he did and what he knew, I have written relatively little on the battle at Arnhem itself. It is more than just background noise, a description which might apply for the most part to the operations of VIII and XII Corps and, to some extent, of the US 101 Airborne Division, but it is not detailed, because Boy was largely unaware of events there, a fact which has, rightly or wrongly, led to much criticism of his role. However, the reader has a wide choice of literature should he wish to know more – indeed one is led to wonder if the world can really take much more on the subject.
As ‘Market Garden’ provided the only occasion bar the Japanese surrender in 1945 on which Boy can be said to have been at the centre of events of world importance, and as it represented the summit of his military career, it takes up a disproportionate part of this book. In reality it occupied a tiny part of his life: from the time of its conception to the withdrawal of the Airborne Corps HQ from Holland was a period one day short of a month. There were sixty-eight more years to research.
One of the major difficulties was the absence of a paper trail. Boy never kept a diary and relatively few of his letters have survived. The majority of those that have, written to Daphne in pencil whenever he could find a moment, on anything which came to hand if no proper writing paper was available, cover a short but fascinating period, from just before the invasion of Normandy to his departure from SEAC in July 1946. Surprisingly, hardly any of them seem to have passed through the hands of the censor, but he was in any event quite discreet, offering for the most part little for the military historian, though a great deal for the biographer. Every now and then, however, his enthusiasm for or frustration with military matters bursts through.
The letters to Daphne are not easy to read, as they are written in the private language used by the two of them, with much inversion of pronouns, for instance ‘me’ for ‘I’ and vice-versa, ‘ee’ for ‘you’ (possibly a reflection of Cornish dialect), some occasionally strange syntax and the frequent use of codewords. By way of example, the letters all end with the same words: ‘With all the love in a man’s heart to him own beloved Mumpty and God bless ’ee, the Bumps and small Tiny. Your own devoted Tim’. This may seem childish to some, but I find it rather endearing and reading the letters helps to add substance to Boy’s complex character.
There exist a scattering of other letters to Daphne from the late 1940s and early 50s, a small number to his sister and his Aunt Helen and some more formal letters written whilst at Buckingham Palace, but not on palace business. A handful of other documents have survived, notably the journal of the cruise to Fowey on which he first saw Daphne and the manuscript of his unperformed ballet Jeanne d’Arc. Otherwise there is nothing from him at all. Boy did, however, leave his mark through the writings of others, not just in military histories, but in personal reminiscences. He features in a number of published autobiographies and collections of private papers.
As far as Boy’s relationship with Daphne was concerned, I found that much of the work had been done for me. I had read Margaret Forster’s excellent biography of Daphne soon after its publication in 1993 and was pleased to hear from the family that it was very accurate, their only significant criticism being that it had failed to bring out sufficiently a sense of fun which she shared with Boy. Daphne herself could certainly not be charged with any failure to leave a paper trail, most of which is housed in the archives at Exeter University.
The most uneventful time of Boy’s professional life as far as a researcher is concerned is the inter-war period during which, except for the four years at Sandhurst, he was on regimental duty. There are virtually no living witnesses of this period, apart from members of the family who were very young, and little of moment took place other than a relatively brief episode when he commanded a battalion in Egypt. Thanks to the good offices of his elder daughter, Tessa, I was able to obtain all Boy’s confidential reports, which provided some background to the trajectory of his career.
As far as Boy’s post-war career and private life are concerned, we move on to much firmer ground, as there are many who still remember him. This period will not prove so interesting to the military enthusiasts, but it throws yet more light on the personality of the man, which was much more complex than has ever been recognized by military historians. The side of his character which Boy showed to the world, even to those with whom he worked closely, was quite different from that which his family and close friends knew.
During my research I spoke to a number of people who knew Boy well, others who knew him only slightly and a few who knew him not at all, but were still relevant to his story. All had views to offer, both positive and negative, and nobody was indifferent to him, which confirmed me in my view that he would be an interesting subject. A sine qua non of the project was the cooperation of Boy’s children, but happily for me they also felt that it was high time the record was put straight.
Note on nomenclature
I have described military units and formations in the following way, which may not conform to strict practice, but is at least consistent: 21st Army Group, Second Army, XXX Corps, 1 Division, 2 Brigade, 3rd Battalion. If the formation is specialized, for instance Armoured or Airborne, I say so. There are occasions when I discard the word ‘Division’, using for instance just ‘1 Airborne’ when its repetition would make the text somewhat laboured, but the context should be clear.
Prologue
The biting wind drove gusts of rain across the bleak countryside, which stretched as far as the eye could see, its horizon broken only by the occasional farm building and a few lines of trees along the muddy roads and innumerable intersecting ditches. The man in the Airborne smock and the maroon beret stood by his jeep, waiting for his colleague to join him. He felt as bleak as his surroundings and desperately worried. The operation on the previous night had been a complete disaster, extinguishing any hope for a miraculous deliverance.
In the distance another jeep appeared, driving fast towards him. It drew up alongside and a man in a peaked cap and a smock with a sheepskin collar stepped out. He looked tired, as well he might, not least because he had just experienced a hair-raising drive through enemy lines. After greeting him, the first man asked the only questions which mattered:
‘What did Bimbo say, Jorrocks?’
‘He said that he’ll support whatever we decide. Monty agrees.’
‘And what do you think?’
‘I
’m sorry, Boy, but I think we’ve had it.’
‘You know I do, so let’s get them out tonight.’
For the man in the peaked cap, it was the end of his hopes. For the man in the maroon beret, it was also the end of his dreams.
Chapter 1
Family (1335–1896)
If the family genealogists are to be believed, the Browning family is of some antiquity. One of them has traced its origins back to the second son of the chieftain of the Celtic tribe known as the Brunii, who were settled in what is now Belgium at the end of the first century BC. The story goes that this son refused to bow to Julius Caesar and sailed north, settling first in the Frisian Islands and then on the south side of Bukken Fjord in Norway. One of his descendants travelled to England in the fifth century, as legend has it to assist King Vortigern in his campaign against the Picts, decided to stay on and eventually put down roots in Wessex.
