General ‘Boy': The Life of Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Browning
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Major General David Rutherford Jones, then the Commandant of the Royal Military Academy, assisted by his ADC, Captain Will Jelf, arranged for my visit there. Andrew Orgill, the Librarian, provided some most useful information, Anthony Morton, the Archivist, followed up a number of my queries, and Peter Thwaites, the Curator of the Sandhurst Collection, gave me the benefit of his thoughts. Major Marcus Elmhirst, the Adjutant, explained the technicalities of riding up the steps of the Old Building and he and his wife were kind enough to let me look round Lake House, still the Adjutant’s residence. Shortly before my visit, Major Elmhirst had received a letter from Colonel David Fanshawe, himself late of the Grenadier Guards and a former Adjutant of the RMA, enclosing his mother’s account of Boy’s first ride up the steps. I am most grateful to Colonel Fanshawe for allowing me to use this.
As far as Boy’s athletic career in the 1920s was concerned, I had a most useful correspondence with Peter Emery, the Chairman of the South London Harriers. Tessa Pollack, the daughter of Boy’s batman in the 1930s, Guardsman Richards, let me have her father’s recollections. I gathered my information on the Small Arms School from a visit to the Corps Museum at Warminster, where Major Norman Benson was very helpful.
To many readers the most interesting part of Boy’s career will be the period with the Airborne Forces. Sir Brian Urquhart was on Boy’s staff from the earliest days of the Airborne Division. He was, of course, a critical witness on the question of Intelligence prior to Operation ‘Market Garden’, but his proximity to Boy over a much longer time made his recollections uniquely valuable and I am most grateful for his ready cooperation. Roy Urquhart’s daughter, Judith, has been consistently interested in my progress and has helped with introductions. Through her and Frank Newhouse, the Treasurer of the Arnhem 1944 Veterans Club, I was able to talk to a number of veterans, including David Eastwood, Bill Bloys and Maurice Herridge. I had a spirited correspondence with Major Tony Hibbert and a long interview with Colonel John Waddy. Colonel Waddy also told me of his experiences as an adviser on the film A Bridge Too Far, whilst John Coldstream, Dirk Bogarde’s biographer, was immensely helpful on the same subject.
My research on the airborne forces was further helped by Jon Baker, Curator of the Airborne Assault Museum, Susan Lindsay, Curator of the Museum of Army Flying, and her colleague Keith Male, Major Steve Elsey of the Army Air Corps, Mike Collins of the Parachute Regimental Association, and Nicholas Humphrey of the Airborne Forces Security Fund. I should also mention Jon Moore, the Chief Executive of Moor Park Golf Club, and Maz O’Brien, who showed me round Boy’s 1944 HQ.
In the Netherlands I had two meetings with Adrian Groeneweg and Wybo Boersma, both former directors of the Airborne Museum ‘Hartenstein’ in Oosterbeek and the undoubted experts on the Arnhem battle. I also met Frank van den Bergh of the National Liberation Museum at Groesbeek, who has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the whole of ‘Market Garden’ and who was able to correct some misconceptions. Arie-Jan van Hees was extremely helpful on the use of gliders during the operation and a number of other matters.
My particular thanks are due to Peter Harclerode and Neil Powell, both of whom read a draft of the section on ‘Market Garden’ and offered their own views on my description of the operation and my conclusions. Whilst I did not necessarily agree with them on everything, their criticism was most constructive and added value to what will be, for many people, the most important, but also the most controversial part of the book.
Maureen Baker-Munton (née Luschwitz), Boy’s Personal Assistant at SEAC, contributed considerably to my understanding of Boy’s time there and Joan Ward also sent me some of her recollections. Mrs Baker-Munton was also very helpful on the post-war period as were Julie Burt (née Parker), Laila Embelton (formerly Spence), and Oriel Malet. I am grateful to Mrs Burt for allowing me to use a photo of Boy and her father with the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. Lieutenant General Sir Alistair Irwin, himself a former Military Secretary, helped me to understand that role. At Buckingham Palace, in addition to the Duke of Edinburgh, I was able to meet Brigadier Sir Miles Hunt-Davis, the Duke’s current Private Secretary and Treasurer, and one of his predecessors, Sir Brian McGrath, whilst Dame Anne Griffiths, the Duke’s Librarian and Archivist, had worked for Boy and was the most valuable source of information on his career there. Major General David Alexander told me how he had stood in for Boy as the Duke’s Treasurer.
For information about some of Boy’s extramural activities, I am obliged to Peter Carpenter (Kurt Hahn Trust), Simon Clegg (British Olympic Association), Deborah Dowdell (The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award), Jane Keskar (The Kipling Society), Luke Rittner (The Royal Academy of Dance), Gail Smith (Cutty Sark Trust) and Major General John Sutherell (The Officer’s Association), all of whom responded readily to my request for information, as did Lady Mary Holborow, the Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall. Tim Essex-Lopresti of the Civil Defence Association and Robin Woolven of the Mountbatten Centre for International Studies filled me in on the Civil Defence issues of the 1960s.
I am most appreciative for their help to Helen Taylor, Professor of English at Exeter University, and the acknowledged expert on Daphne du Maurier’s works, to Jessica Gardner and Christine Faunch, Professor Taylor’s colleagues at the University’s Special Collections, where the du Maurier papers are deposited, and to the Chichester Partnership for permission to quote from them. Others who assisted me during visits to their institutions were Karen Robson of the Hartley Library at the University of Southampton, where the Mountbatten Papers are housed, and Katherine Godfrey of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives at King’s College, London. I thank the Trustees of the Broadland Archives for permission to quote from the Mountbatten Papers and the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for permission to quote from the papers of Field Marshal Alanbrooke. Roderick Suddaby and the staff at the Imperial War Museum were invariably helpful and I am grateful to the Trustees for allowing me access to its collections and to each of the copyright holders who gave me permission to use extracts. I never failed to be impressed by the efficiency of the National Archives.
I would like to thank Henry Wilson of Pen & Sword for his enthusiastic support throughout the process and my editor, Jan Chamier, for her professionalism and good humour.
Finally, I could not have written this book without the encouragement of my wife, Sheelagh, and my two sons, Tim and Rupert. Rupert was a most valuable sounding board throughout the project, correcting the drafts of each chapter as they emerged and acting as my companion and chauffeur on my two visits to the Netherlands.
Sources and Bibliography
Interviews
His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh
Major General David Alexander
Mrs Maureen Baker-Munton
Mr Bill Bloys
Mr Wybo Boersma
Mr Christian Browning
Mrs Julie Burt
Lord Carrington
Mr Paul de Zulueta
Mr David Eastwood
Mrs Laila Embleton
Dame Anne Griffiths
Mr Adrian Groeneweg
Lady Leng
Mr Maurice Herridge
Lady Oriel Malet
Viscount Montgomery of Alamein
Viscountess Montgomery of Alamein
Sir Brian Urquhart
Mr Frank Van den Bergh
Colonel John Waddy
Lieutenant Colonel The Lord Wigram
Primary Sources
The National Archives
AIR/1026 US XVIII Corps, 82 & 101 US Airborne Divisions reports on Market Garden
AIR 37/1214 I Airborne Corps report on Market Garden
AIR 37/1249 XXX Corps summary on Market Garden
CAB 121/97 & 98 Cabinet papers re Airborne Forces January 1941- August1944
CSC 104034 & 4066 Royal Military College Exam Lists
DEFE 3 220-7 Ultra Decrypts 31 August–18 September 1944
WO 32/10927 Establishment of FAAA
WO 32/12322 D
ivision of duties between Adjutant-General and Military Secretary
WO 95/1215 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards War Diaries August 1915–January 1919
WO 165/82 Directorate of Air 1942
WO 166/978 128 Brigade War Diary
WO 166/927 24 Guards Brigade War Diary
WO 166/6547 1 Airborne Division War Diary December 1941–December 1942
WO 166/10464 1 Airborne Division War Diary January–April 1943
WO 166/10465 HQ Airborne Troops AQ December 1943
WO 166/10472 HQ Airborne Troops War Diary December 1943
WO 169/392 1 Airborne Division War Diary January–June 1944
WO 169/8666 1 Airborne Division War Diary July–December 1943
WO 171/133 HQ 21st Army Group intelligence summaries September–October 1944
WO 171/223 HQ Second Army G(I) War Diary September 1944
WO 171/366 I Airborne Corps War Diary 17–30 September 1944
WO 171/367 I Airborne Corps (Rear) War Diary 9–29 September 1944
WO 171/368 HQ Airborne Troops January–May 44 (Documents)
WO 171/369 HQ Airborne Troops War Diary January–July 1944
WO 171/370 HQ Airborne Troops War Diary August & October–December 1944
WO 171/376 Guards Armoured Division War Diary September 1944
WO 171 393 1 Airborne Division intelligence summaries September 1944
WO 171/594 Browning address re morale 17 August 1944
WO 171/605 5 Guards Armoured Brigade War Diary September 1944
WO 171/638 32 Guards Brigade War Diary September 1944
WO 204/10504 1 Airborne Division in Italy
WO 203/518 Formation & Training of 44 Indian Airborne Division
WO 205/313 & 314 21st Army Group re Market Garden
WO 205/432 Orders for Operation ‘Comet’
WO 205/433 VIII Corps War Diary September 1944
WO 205/693 21st Army Group lessons of Market Garden
WO 205/872 21st Army Group report on Market Garden
WO 205/1125 Capture of Nijmegen Bridge
WO 205/1126 XXX Corps report on Market Garden
WO 205/1341 XXX Corps Operational Order for Market Garden
WO 208/5562 G2 SHAEF intelligence summaries September 1944
WO 219/552 & 2860 Formation of FAAA
WO 219/5167 SHAEF weekly intelligence summaries August–October 1944
WO 285/3 & 4 Second Army Intelligence Summaries 24 May–31 December 1944
WO 285/9 & 10 Diary of General Sir Miles Dempsey 6 June–9 October 1944
Imperial War Museum
Montgomery Collection
BLM 108, 109, 115, 119, 120, 126, 128 & 130
LMD 59, 62 & 63
Papers of Captain L. C. R. Balding, Air Chief Marshal Sir Leslie Hollinghurst, Major J. H. Money, Lieutenant-Colonel G. Tilly, Major-General R. E. Urquhart, Brigadier A. G. Walch
Liddell-Hart Centre, King’s College, London
Papers of Field Marshal Viscount Alanbrooke, Captain Sir Basil Liddell-Hart, General Sir Richard O’Connor, Major-General Sir Ronald Penney, General Sir Harold Pyman
National Army Museum
Army Lists
Hartley Library, University of Southampton
Mountbatten Papers MB1/C1, 32, 47, 50, 64, 120, 125, 129, 132, 144, 145, 146, 148, 150, 152, 153 & E23
Special Collections, University of Exeter
Du Maurier Collection
Airborne Assault Museum, Duxford
Papers of General Sir Richard Gale
Various letters, minutes and other papers
Museum of Army Flying, Middle Wallop
Various letters, minutes and other papers
Archives of the Grenadier Guards
Various letters, minutes and other papers
Eton College Library
Term calendars and school lists
Private Browning Papers
Letters from Boy to Daphne, Grace Browning and Helen Browning
Letters to Boy on his retirement
Letters to Daphne following Boy’s death
Sundry letters written by and to Boy
Description of the voyage of Ygdrasil to Fowey in 1931
Outline for ballet Jeanne d’Arc
Boy’s Army Service Record and Confidential Reports
Browning and Alt family trees
Sundry other papers
Other Sources
Dictionary of National Biography
Eton College Chronicle
First Guards Club Handbook
London Gazette
Royal Military College Magazine & Record
The Times Digital Archive
The Guards Magazine
Who’s Who
Books
Adair, Allan (ed. Oliver Lindsay), A Guard’s General – The Memoirs of Major General Sir Allan Adair, London 1986
Asher, Michael, The Regiment – The Real Story of the SAS, London 2007
Badsey, Stephen, Arnhem 1944 – Operation Market Garden, Oxford 1993
Baynes, John, The Forgotten Victor – General Sir Richard O’Connor, London 1989
Baynes, John, Urquhart of Arnhem, London 1993
Belchem, David, All In A Day’s March, London 1978
Bennett, David, A Magnificent Disaster – The Failure of Market Garden, The Arnhem Operation, September 1944, Newbury 2008
Blake, George, Mountain and Flood – The History of the 52nd (Lowland) Division 1939–1946, Glasgow 1950
Bond, Brian (ed.), Chief of Staff – The Diaries of Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Pownall – Volume Two 1940–1944, London 1974
Boothroyd, Basil, Philip – An Informal Biography, London 1971
Brandreth, Gyles, Philip & Elizabeth – Portrait of a Marriage, London 2004
Brereton, Lewis H., The Brereton Diaries, New York 1946
Browning, Denys, Why The Grenadiers? – A Chaplain’s Memoirs of the 5th Battalion Grenadier Guards 1942–1945, Privately Published 1986
Bryant, Arthur, The Turn of the Tide – 1939–1943, London 1957
Bryant, Arthur, Triumph in the West – 1943–1946, London 1959
Buckingham, William F., Arnhem 1944, Stroud 2002
Butcher, Harry C., Three Years with Eisenhower, London 1946
Carton de Wiart, Adrian, Happy Odyssey, London 1950
Chatterton, George, The Wings Of Pegasus – The Story of the Glider Pilot Regiment, London 1962
Churchill, Winston S., The Second World War, Volumes II to VI, London, 1949–1954
Clark, Lloyd, Arnhem – Jumping the Rhine 1944 and 1945 – The Greatest Airborne Battle in History, London 2008
Coldstream, John, Dirk Bogarde – The Authorised Biography, London 2004
Colville, John, Man of Valour – Field-Marshal Lord Gort VC, London 1972
Danchev, Alex & Todman, Daniel (eds), War Diaries 1939–1945 – Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, London 2001 & 2003 (paperback)
Davies, Brian L., British Army Uniforms & Insignia of World War II, London 1983
D’Este, Carlo, Bitter Victory – The Battle for Sicily 1943, London 1988
D’Este, Carlo, Eisenhower – Allied Supreme Commander, London 2002
De Guingand, Francis, Operation Victory, London 1947
Dover, Victor, The Sky Generals, London 1981
Du Maurier, Daphne, Myself When Young (originally published as Growing Pains: The Shaping of a Writer), London 1977
Du Maurier, Daphne (ed. Oriel Malet), Letters from Menabilly – Portrait of a Friendship, London 1993
Eisenhower, Dwight D, Crusade in Europe, London 1948
Essame, Hubert, The 43rd Wessex Division at War 1944–1945, London 1952
Firbank, Thomas, I Bought a Star, London 1951
Forster, Margaret, Daphne du Maurier, London 1993
Fraser, David, Alanbrooke, London 1982
Fraser, David, And We Shall Shock Them – The British Army in the Second World War, London 1983
Fraser, David, Wars and Shadows – Memoir
s of General Sir David Fraser, London 2002
Fullick, Roy, Shan Hackett – The Pursuit of Exactitude, Barnsley 2003
Gale, Richard, With the Sixth Airborne Division in Normandy, London 1948
Gale, Richard, Call To Arms – an Autobiography, London 1968
Gavin, James M., Airborne Warfare, Washington DC 1947
Gavin, James M., On to Berlin – Battles of an Airborne Commander 1943–46, New York 1978