The Last Great Cavalryman

by Richard Mead

  DCR Division Cuirasée de Réserve

  DD Duplex Drive

  DLM Division Légère Mécanique

  DS Directing Staff

  DSD Director of Staff Duties

  DSM Distinguished Service Medal (US)

  DSO Distinguished Service Order

  DUKW ‘Duck’ (amphibious vehicle)

  FEC French Expeditionary Corps

  GCB Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath

  GHQ General Headquarters

  GOC General Officer Commanding

  GOC-in-C General Officer Commanding-in-Chief

  GSO1 General Staff Officer Grade 1

  GSO2 General Staff Officer Grade 2

  GSO3 General Staff Officer Grade 3

  HQ Headquarters

  IRA Irish Republican Army

  KBE Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire

  KCB Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath

  KDG King’s Dragoon Guards

  LAA Light Anti-Aircraft

  LCT Landing Craft, Tanks

  LST Landing Ship, Tanks

  LVT Landing Vehicle, Tracked

  MBE Member of the Order of the British Empire

  MC Military Cross

  MGRAC Major General Royal Armoured Corps

  MI Military Intelligence – as in MI5

  MP Member of Parliament

  MSC Military Staff Committee

  MT Motor Transport

  OBE Officer of the Order of the British Empire

  OCTU Officer Cadet Training Unit

  OP Observation Post

  OTC Officers Training Corps

  POW Prisoner of War

  RA Royal Artillery

  RAC Royal Armoured Corps

  RAF Royal Air Force

  RAMC Royal Army Medical Corps

  RHQ Regimental Headquarters

  RIC Royal Irish Constabulary

  RMC Royal Military College

  RTC Royal Tank Corps

  RTR Royal Tank Regiment

  SO Staff Officer

  SOS Senior Officers School

  SSM Squadron Sergeant Major

  TEWT Tactical Exercise Without Troops

  VC Victoria Cross

  VCIGS Vice-Chief of the Imperial General Staff

  VD Venereal Disease

  WVS Women’s Voluntary Services

  UN United Nations

  Acknowledgements

  I owe an enormous amount to Bob and Jon McCreery and their sister, Sarah Groombridge, for their unqualified support throughout my work on this book. Bob and Jon gave most generously of their time, as did Bob’s wife Jeanette, and provided me not only with their recollections, but also with a number of useful documents and photos. Jon was particularly helpful about the McCreery and McAdam families, on which he is the expert. The majority of Dick’s and Lettice’s papers, including Dick’s diaries, most of his letters and many photos, had been left in the care of Sarah, who spent weeks sorting them all out for me. She helped me greatly with the interpretation of some aspects of Dick’s life and, with her husband Dave, was most hospitable on the frequent visits which I paid to them. Sarah’s son, Alexander Meynell, and her first husband, Hugo Meynell, who gave me a full interview, were also very helpful.

  I was unable to meet Dick’s fourth surviving child, Charles, but we had a lengthy correspondence and he was kind enough to provide me with information pertinent to his own relationship with his father: on the same subject I also corresponded with Dr Celia Green, whom I would like to thank for her help. Bill and Kip McCreery, great-grandsons of Walter McCreery’s brother, Lawrence, produced some further helpful background, whilst Rod and Robert McAdam, distant cousins by descent from John Loudon McAdam, provided me with family trees from that side of the family.

  Information on Dick’s boyhood and schooldays is sparse, but at least I was able to visit the College Library at Eton, where the College Archivist, Penny Hatfield, was most helpful.

  My research into Dick’s regimental career was assisted greatly by a number of people, including Major David Chappell, then the Regimental Secretary, and the late Major Bobby Collins, then the Regimental Archivist, who had known Dick well and told me a number of anecdotes about him. As the last surviving 12th Lancer who had served under Dick in the regiment, Major Freddie Hunn was a most valuable source. I am also grateful to Mike Galer, the Curator of the 9th/12th Lancers Museum in Derby for allowing me to inspect documents and use the facilities there on two occasions. Colonel Richard Charrington, the grandson of Rollie Charrington, a former CO of the 9th/12th Lancers himself and the author of a very fine book on the amalgamated regiment, provided me with a copy of the photo of 12th Lancer officers on Telegraph Hill, just before Dick was badly wounded.

  I met Peter Willett who served under Dick in Eighth Army and Austria. Major George Brown, who was Dick’s ADC in Germany, was most helpful on that period and very kindly read and commented on the relevant chapter. For Dick’s colonelcy of the 14th/20th Hussars, I am grateful to Colonel David Woodd, the current Colonel of its successor regiment, the King’s Royal Hussars, and the son of Colonel Basil Woodd, a CO of the 14th/20th during Dick’s tenure, and to Major General Mike Palmer, who was Adjutant of the regiment at much the same time.

  For the period of Dick’s retirement, I would like to thank Gretan Skan, Dick’s farm manager, Sylvia Crabbe (née Courtney), who was in service at Stowell Hill in the 1960s, Biddy Wingfield-Digby, a friend of Dick’s and Lettice’s and a leading light of the Blackmore Vale Hunt, and Paddy Heazell, formerly Headmaster of Hazelgrove, who told me about Dick’s governorship of King’s School, Bruton.

  Overall I owe a huge debt to Major General John Strawson, whose work in researching for his own book on Dick was meticulously filed before being given to Lettice and subsequently passed on to Sarah. The letters received by General Strawson and the replies to his questionnaire were invaluable as opinions of Dick from nearly sixty friends, colleagues, peers and subordinates who are sadly no longer with us.

  I would like to thank all who have given me consent to publish extracts from other works, but particularly Elizabeth Macdonald-Buchanan and Lieutenant-Colonel Alan Abraham for permission to include as Appendices the writings of their fathers, Hugh Vivian Smith and Mat Abraham.

  I have had unfailing support at Pen & Sword from Brigadier Henry Wilson and help on practical matters from Matt Jones. My excellent editor, Jan Chamier, has carried out her task with the minimum of fuss, whilst Alex Swanston has converted my rough maps most elegantly.

  As always, I could not have written this book without the encouragement of my wife, Sheelagh, and my two sons, Tim and Rupert. Rupert corrected the drafts of each chapter as they emerged and also coped fearlessly with Italian driving when we visited the battlefields from Salerno to the Garigliano.

  Last, and by no means least, I am most grateful for the support of two of the greatest historians of the Second World War, Sir Max Hastings and the late Sir John Keegan, who both recognized that Dick McCreery deserves to be better known.

  Sources and Bibliography

  1. Primary Sources

  The National Archives

  CAB 106/895 Lecture notes by R. McCreery on the Tunisian campaign

  CAB 120/253 Tank & AFV Situation Middle East 1942

  FO 115/4365 United Nations MSC – brief on different opinions re size of forces

  FO 371/46448 Position regarding British interests in Austria

  FO 371/55292 Correspondence re transfer of R. McCreery from Austria to Germany

  FO 371/67562 Brief on work of United Nations MSC

  FO 1020/4, 5 & 7 R. McCreery personal papers & semi-official correspondence

  FO 1020/87-9 Meetings & conversations Allied Commission for Austria (British)

  WO 95/1140 12th Lancers War Diary 1914 – 19

  WO 166/834 8 Armoured Division War Diary

  WO 167/190 1 Division War Diary

  WO 167/419 2 Armoured Brigade War Diary

  WO 169/8592/3/4 X C
orps War Diary July to December 1943

  WO 170, 181/5 & 190/4 Eighth Army War Diary G Main October to December 1944

  WO 170/302-308 X Corps War Diary January to September 1944

  WO 170/4174/6/8 & 4180 Eighth Army War Diary G Main January to April 1945

  WO 201/389 Historical Notes on the RAC

  WO 201/2581 18th Army Group formation

  WO 201/2500 N. Africa, Middle East & Mediterranean – GHQ from 12.42 to 2.43

  WO 204/1137 18th Army Group operational instructions & reports

  WO 204/1422, 6841, 6987 Operation Avalanche – Operational Orders

  WO 204/3864 Administrative directive to Commander 18th Army Group

  WO 204/4981 Situation reports from 18th Army Group

  WO 204/7571 Report on Assault Crossing of R. Volturno

  WO 204/10015 Eighth Army monthly Allied Military Government reports

  WO 204/10373 Engineer operations during the Final Campaign in Italy

  WO 204/10449 & 10450 Evacuation of Cossacks & Caucasians forces from 36 Brigade Area

  WO 214/48 N. Africa, Middle East & Mediterranean – GHQ from 8.42 to 12.42

  Liddell-Hart Centre, King’s College, London

  Papers of Brigadier S.T. Divers, General Sir Richard McCreery, Major General Sir John Winterton, General Sir Sydney Kirkman, Major General J.F.C. Fuller, Captain Sir Basil Liddell-Hart

  The Museum of the 9th/12th Lancers

  Casualty Book 1914 – 1918

  Orders Book 1914 – 1918

  Polo Book 1919 – 1938

  Sundry other papers

  The Tank Museum

  Sundry papers

  Eton College Library

  Term calendars and school lists

  Private McCreery papers

  Diaries 1921 – 1967

  Draft chapters for memoirs

  Description of actions of 2 Armoured Brigade in France May – June 1940

  Letters and completed questionnaires sent to John Strawson in 1971/2 (‘Strawson Papers’)

  Letters from Dick to Lettice, Minnie (mother), Frances (grandmother) and others

  Letters to Dick from Walter (father) and many others

  Condolence letters to Lettice

  Army service record

  Sundry other papers

  2. Other Sources

  Army Lists

  Dictionary of National Biography

  Eton College Chronicle

  The Twelfth Royal Lancers Journal & The 9th/12th Royal Lancers Regimental Journal London Gazette

  The Times Digital Archive

  Who’s Who

  Wikipedia and other websites

  3. Books

  Alexander, Harold, The Memoirs of Earl Alexander of Tunis 1940:1945, London 1962

  Anon, The Story of 46 Division 1939 – 1945, Graz 1946

  Anon, The Tiger Triumphs: The Story of Three Great Indian Divisions in Italy, London 1946

  Aris, George, The Fifth British Division 1939 to 1945, London 1959

  Barber, Laurie & Tonkin-Covell, John, Freyberg: Churchill’s Salamander, London 1990

  Barnett, Corelli, The Desert Generals, London 1960

  Barr, Niall, Pendulum of War: The Three Battles of El Alamein, London 2004

  Blaxland, Gregory, The Plain Cook and the Great Showman: The First and Eighth Armies in North Africa, London 1977

  Blaxland, Gregory, Alexander’s Generals: The Italian Campaign 1944 – 45, London 1979

  Blumenson, Martin, Mark Clark, London 1985

  Booker, Christopher, A Looking-Glass Tragedy, London 1997

  Brockbank, Robin, A Short History of the 9th/12th Royal Lancers (Prince of Wales’s) 1960 – 1985, Privately published 1990

  Brockman, Robin & Collins, Robert, A Short History of the XII Royal Lancers (Prince of Wales’s) 1945 – 1960, Privately published 1994

  Bryant, Arthur, The Turn of the Tide: 1939 – 1943, London 1957

  Bryant, Arthur, Triumph in the West: 1943 – 1946, London 1959

  Butcher, Harry C, Three Years with Eisenhower, London 1946

  Carver, Michael, Harding of Petherton, London 1978

  Charrington, Harold, The 12th Royal Lancers in France August 1914 – November 1918, Privately published 1921

  Charrington, Richard, Spearmen: The History of the 9th/12th Royal Lancers, Privately published 2010

  Churchill, Winston S., The Second World War, Volumes II to VI, London, 1949 – 1954

  Clark, Mark, Calculated Risk, London 1951

  Clarke, Rupert, With Alex at War: From the Irrawaddy to the Po 1941 – 1945, Barnsley 2000

  Cloake, John, Templer: Tiger of Malaya, London 1985

  Connell, John, Auchinleck, London 1959

  Danchev, Alex & Todman, Daniel (Eds), War Diaries 1939 – 1945: Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, London 2001 & 2003 (paperback)

  David, Saul, Churchill’s Sacrifice of the Highland Division: France 1940, London 1994

  David, Saul, Mutiny at Salerno: An Injustice Exposed, London 1995

  D’Este, Carlo, World War II in the Mediterranean: 1942 – 1945, Chapel Hill 1990

  D’Este, Carlo, Fatal Decision: Anzio and the Battle for Rome, London 1991

  D’Este, Carlo, Eisenhower: Allied Supreme Commander, London 2002

  De Guingand, Francis, Operation Victory, London 1947

  Doherty, Richard, Ireland’s Generals in the Second World War, Dublin 2004

  Doherty, Richard, Eighth Army in Italy: The Long Hard Slog, Barnsley 2007

  Donovan, John (Ed.), A Very Fine Commander: The Memoirs of General Sir Horatius Murray, Barnsley 2010

  Douglas, Sholto (with Robert Wright), Years of Command, London 1966

  Eisenhower, Dwight D., Crusade in Europe, London 1948

  ffrench-Blake, R. L. V., A History of the 17th/21st Lancers, 1922 – 1959, London 1962

  Ford, Ken, Battleaxe Division: From Africa to Italy with the 78th Division in 1942 – 45, Stroud 1999

  Ford, Ken, Mailed Fist: 6th Armoured Division at War 1940 – 1945, Stroud 2005

  Forty, George & Livesey, Jack, Tanks & Armoured Fighting Vehicles, London 2010

  Fraser, David, Alanbrooke, London 1982

  Fraser, David, And We Shall Shock Them: The British Army in the Second World War, London 1983

  French, David, Raising Churchill’s Army: The British Army and the War against Germany 1919 – 1945, Oxford 2000

  Graham, Dominic & Bidwell, Shelford, Tug of War: The Battle for Italy: 1943 – 45, London 1986

  Greacen, Lavinia, Chink: A Biography, London 1989

  Grove, Eric, World War II Tanks, London 1976

  Hamilton, Nigel, Monty: The Making of a General 1887 – 1942, London 1981

  Hamilton, Nigel, Monty: Master of the Battlefield 1942 – 1944, London 1983

  Hamilton, Nigel, Monty: The Field-Marshal 1944 – 1976, London 1986

  Harpur, Brian, The Impossible Victory: A personal account of the Battle for the River Po, London 1980

  Hickey, Des & Smith, Gus, Operation Avalanche: The Salerno Landings 1943, London 1983

  Horrocks, Brian, A Full Life, London 1960

  Hunt, David, A Don at War, London 1966

  Jackson, W. G. F., Alexander of Tunis as Military Commander, London 1971

  Joslin, H. F., Orders of Battle: Second World War 1939 – 1945, London 1960

  Kempton, Chris, ‘Loyalty & Honour’: The Indian Army September 1939 – August 1947, Milton Keynes 2003

  Kesselring, Albert, The Memoirs of Field Marshal Kesselring, London 1953

  Konstam, Angus, Salerno 1943, Barnsley 2007

  Koskodan, Kenneth K. No Greater Ally: The Untold Story of Poland’s Forces in World War II, Oxford 2009

  Lewin, Ronald, Montgomery as Military Commander, London 1971

  Lewin, Ronald, Man of Armour: A study of Lieut-General Vyvyan Pope and the development of armoured warfare, London 1976

  Macksey, Kenneth, Armoured Crusader: The Biography of Major-General Sir Percy ‘Hobo’ Hobart, London 1967
<
br />   Macmillan, Harold, The Blast of War 1939 – 1945, London 1967

  Marshall-Cornwall, James, Wars and Rumours of Wars, London 1984

  Martel, Giffard, An Outspoken Soldier: His Views and Memoirs, London 1949

  Maule, Henry, Spearhead General, London 1961

  Montgomery, Bernard, El Alamein to the River Sangro, London 1948

  Montgomery, Bernard, The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Montgomery, London 1958

  Moorehead, Alan, Eclipse: Europe 1943 – 1945, London 1945

  Morgan, Frederick, Peace and War: A Soldier’s Life, London 1961

  Nicholson, Nigel, Alex: The Life of Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis, London 1973

  Orgill, Douglas, The Gothic Line, London 1967

  Pierce, Margaret, East of the Gabilans, Santa Cruz 1976

  Place, Timothy Harrison, Military Training in the British Army, 1940 – 1944: From Dunkirk to D-Day, London 2000

  Porch, Douglas, Hitler’s Mediterranean Gamble: The North African and the Mediterranean Campaigns in World War II, London 2004

  Richardson, Charles, Flashback: A Soldier’s Story, London 1985

  Richardson, Charles, Send for Freddie: The Story of Montgomery’s Chief of Staff, Major-General Sir Francis de Guingand, London 1987

  Roberts, Pip, From the Desert to the Baltic, London 1987

  Rolf, David, The Bloody Road to Tunis: Destruction of the Axis Forces in North Africa, November 1942 – May 1943, London 2001

  Rossignoli, Guido, The Allied Forces in Italy 1943 – 45, Newton Abbott 1989

  Ryder, Rowland, Oliver Leese, London 1987

  Stewart, Patrick, History of The XII Royal Lancers, London 1950

  Strawson, John, General Sir Richard McCreery… A Portrait, Privately published 1973

  Strawson, John, The Italian Campaign, London 1987

  Strawson, John, Hussars, Horses & History, Barnsley 2007

  Tuker, Francis, Approach to Battle, London 1963

  Verney, Gerald, The Desert Rats: The 7th Armoured Division in World War II, London 1954

  Von Senger und Etterlin, Frido, Neither Fear nor Hope, London 1963

  Warner, Philip, Auchinleck: The Lonely Soldier, London 1981

  Warner, Philip, Horrocks: The General Who Led From the Front, London 1984