by Richard Mead
4 Letter to Lettice 27.7.44.
5 Six new cavalry regiments had been formed in late 1940 and early 1941, the 22nd and 25th Dragoons, the 23rd and 26th Hussars and the 24th and 27th Lancers. All were disbanded after the end of the War.
6 His injury was inflicted by a flying object which he later claimed was a piano liberated by the Grenadier Guards and which he took to be a form of revenge for his treatment of the regiment on Monte Camino!
Chapter 21: Army Commander
1 Letter from Templer 18.10.44.
2 Letter from Auchinleck 27.10.44.
3 Letter to Lettice 2.10.44.
4 Harpur The Impossible Victory p.125.
5 The relationship had been even more difficult than that between Clark and Dick. Kirkman was a highly professional commander, but he was careful not to waste the lives of his men unnecessarily. Clark equated this with lack of drive and gave him a very hard time.
6 Strawson Papers.
7 The nickname was short for Napoleon, although whether it reflected the French Emperor’s stocky figure or his martial temperament is not known.
8 Letter to Lettice 18.12.44.
9 Letter to Lettice 9.1.45.
10 His proper name was Arrigo Boldini. The Medaglio D’Oro al Valore Militare is awarded for ‘deeds of outstanding gallantry in war’.
11 Charrington was an old friend of Brooke’s, a Staff College contemporary and a neighbour in Hampshire. He came back from retirement, taking a drop in rank to lieutenant colonel.
Chapter 22: The Old Steeplechaser
1 Those which had included 2 and 9 Armoured Brigades and the 12th Lancers.
2 The son and heir of John Buchan, 1st Lord Tweedsmuir, the famous author who had been Governor-General of Canada from 1935 until his death in office in 1940.
3 Later Lord Killearn.
4 On one occasion Dick noticed that a bush had moved from the previous day!
5 Draft Memoirs.
6 Harpur The Impossible Victory p.135.
7 In mid-March Anders was made C-in-C of all the Polish forces fighting in the West by the Polish Government-in-Exile. The command of II Polish Corps devolved on Lieutenant General Bohusz-Szyszko, but in practice Anders continued in full control.
8 Truscott ignored Clark’s obsession with taking Bologna, preferring to outflank the city to the west.
9 Freyberg had also managed to increase his strength and the division now incorporated one armoured and three infantry brigades, making it the largest such formation in the army.
10 Tank brigades differed from armoured brigades in that they deployed the Churchill infantry tank rather than Shermans. They were ideal for the assault phase, but not so good for any action requiring rapid movement.
11 Letter from Nye 23.3.45.
Chapter 23: The Last Battle
1 Strawson Papers.
2 Comprising 3 Carpathian Rifle Brigade from 3 Carpathian Division and 4 Wolynska Infantry Brigade from 5 Kresowa Division, it took its name from its commander, Major General Klemens Rudnicki.
3 Donovan A Very Fine Commander p.180.
4 Ibid p.181.
5 Strawson Papers.
6 Strawson Papers.
7 Donovan A Very Fine Commander p.184.
8 Freyberg was apparently given permission by Dick to be first into the city on the understanding that the 12th Lancers would be there too.
9 56 Division was given the official credit for the liberation of Venice.
Chapter 24: Aftermath
1 For a brief period in late May/early June, when Clark returned to the USA for a victory parade in Chicago, Dick was placed in temporary command of 15th Army Group.
2 The eventual border was agreed in September 1947 in the Treaty of Paris, which gave Yugoslavia some territory west of the Isonzo, together with the whole of Istria. Trieste and a strip of coastal land became a Free Territory, under the control of the United Nations. In October 1954 the Free Territory was divided between Italy and Yugoslavia, the former acquiring the city itself.
3 The numbers of both Yugoslavs and Russians given in the various accounts are highly confusing and contradictory, so those shown here are the ones recorded by Dick himself.
4 The horses were either slaughtered or transported to Italy for distribution to farmers there.
5 The Russians completed their withdrawal from Styria without incident on 24 July.
6 This was for administrative ease, as East Tyrol was and is separated from the rest of Tyrol by part of the province of Salzburg, but is adjacent to Carinthia.
7 Now Vienna International Airport.
Chapter 25: High Commissioner
1 Zheltov was Konev’s nominal deputy, but he was also a senior officer in the NKVD, the Soviet security service, and a political commissar: his prime function was to ensure that Konev toed the party line.
2 Strawson Papers.
3 Figl opposed the Nazis and spent most of the previous seven years in concentration camps. In February 1945 he was sentenced to death, but was saved by end of the War.
4 Among other things, he was largely responsible for reviving the Spanish Riding School after the War.
5 These were all branded with British Army numbers to prevent what Dick called any ‘funny business’.
6 At 5 – 1 among 14 starters, Jumbo was probably well worth a punt, particularly as he had won the maiden race at a meeting at Graz a week earlier.
7 Letter from Bevin to Lawson 4.4.46.
8 Letter from Mack to Bevin 22.5.46.
Chapter 26: The Rhine Army
1 De Guingand had been working at the War Office as Director of Military Intelligence, but he had been in poor health: moreover, Brooke did not trust his judgement. Simpson was another Montgomery protégé and turned out to be an excellent choice as VCIGS.
2 In April 1947 he rejected pleas for clemency after the first Ravensbrück trial and was upset when two of the condemned prisoners cheated justice by committing suicide.
3 Conscription under the wartime National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939 continued after the end of the War. Peacetime conscription was enshrined in the National Service Act 1948. In practice the flow of conscripts was continuous.
4 Later Bishop of Coventry. He had been a contemporary of Dick’s brother Jack at Eton.
5 He was later accepted into the 12th Lancers on Dick’s recommendation.
6 He was relieved by Horrocks, whose health proved not to be up to the job and who was himself succeeded by Keightley.
Chapter 27: Winding Down
1 He was rather hurt that Kirkman and Steele had been promoted ahead of him, but his backdated seniority restored his position on the Army List.
2 Letter from Winterton 14.12.47.
3 Jon, with only a short school holiday, went to stay with his Aunt Helen at Stratton Audley.
Chapter 28: Indian Summer
1 He had lectured there during the War, but there appears to have been no other connection.
2 The BVH and Sparkford Vale Harriers were merged in 1971.
3 Later the Yeomanry Benefit Fund.
4 Memorandum to Templer 12.5.57.
5 Twelfth Royal Lancers’ Journal April 1959.
6 Ibid.
Chapter 29: Finale
1 Later the 4th Duke of Westminster.
2 Chairman of the Governors.
3 One of the buildings at Hazelgrove is named after him.
4 Strawson Papers.
5 Ibid.
6 Dick’s moral code on marriage was particularly strict. When John Harding was cited as a co-respondent in a divorce in 1964, he was appalled, telling Harding that it would have been better if he had died at Gallipoli.
7 An autopsy revealed that his right coronary artery was congenitally abnormal, so it was remarkable that he had led such an energetic life.
Chapter 30: Postscript
1 Alexander Memoirs p.17.
2 Letter from Dill 18.8.43.
3 Admiral of the Fleet Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope
, C-in-C Mediterranean 1939 – 42 and 1943, First Sea Lord 1943 – 46.
4 Admiral of the Fleet Lord Tovey, C-in-C Home Fleet 1940 – 43.
Index
AAI (Allied Armies in Italy)
Abbeville
Abraham, Major General S.M.O’H.
Adair, Major General Sir Alan
Adam, General Sir Ronald
AFHQ (Allied Forces HQ)
Ailly
Ain Beida
Alam Halfa
Alanbrooke, Field Marshal Viscount
commands Mobile Division
commands II Corps
advises evacuation of Second BEF
appointed C-in-C Home Forces
hand in Dick’s promotions
visitsArmoured Division
and Exercise Bumper
appointed CIGS
sends Dick to Auchinleck
visits Middle East with Churchill
selects Dick as Alexander’s COS
faith in Dick in 18th Army Group
meets Dick on his return from Tunisia
visits X Corps
meets Dicks during leave from Eighth Army
visits Dick in Austria
choice of Dick as VCIGS or C-in-C Germany
on Dick’s article in 12th Lancers Journal
Albert Line
Alexander of Tunis, Field Marshal Earl
career
Montgomery’s opinion of
style of command
Dick’s opinion of
pre-war visits to France
frustrations during Phoney War
opinion of Dick
at Southern Command
and Exercise Bumper
appointed C-in-C Middle East
relationship with Montgomery
and Battle of El Alamein
appointed Commander 18th Army Group
promises Dick a field command
command in Tunisia
at Salerno
visits X Corps with Brooke
advances to Gothic Line
replaces Leese with Dick at Eighth Army
orders Eighth Army to advance
appointed to Supreme Command in Mediterranean
and last battle in Italy
and German surrender
appointed Governor-General in Canada
Dick visits in Canada
Dick accompanies on battlefield tour
Alexander of Tunis, Margaret, Countess
Alexandria
Alfonsine
Algiers
Allenby, Field Marshal Viscount
Allfrey, Lieutenant General Sir Charles
Allhusen, Major D. S.
AlpeCantenaia
Alpe di Poti
Amiens
Andelle, River
Anders, Lieutenant General Wladyslav
Anderson, General Sir John
Anderson, General Sir Kenneth
Anzio
Aquitania, SS
Arbuthnott, Major General Keith, Viscount
Argenta and Argenta Gap
Arkwright, Lieutenant Colonel F.G.B.
Arkwright, Major General R.H.B.
Army, Australian
Division
5 (1914 – 18)
9
Army, Brazilian
Division
Brazilian Expeditionary Force
Army, British
Army Group
15th
18th
21st
Army (World War II or after unless
shown differently)
BAOR
BTA
First
Second
Third (1914 – 18)
Fourth (1914 – 18)
Eighth
Dick commands
Command
Eastern
Northern
Southern
South-Eastern
Corps (World War II or after unless
shown differently)
I
II
V
VIII
IX
X
Dick commands
XII
XIII
XIV (1914 – 18)
XXX
Division (World Waror after unless shown differently)
Guards (1914 – 18)
Guards Armoured
1
1 Armoured
1 Cavalry
2
2 Armoured
2 Cavalry (1914 – 18)
4
5
5 (1914 – 18)
6 Armoured
7 Armoured
8 Armoured
9 Armoured
10 Armoured
11 Armoured
15 (Scottish)
25 (1914 – 18)
44
46
50 (1914 – 18)
50 (Northumbrian)
51 (Highland)
52 (Lowland)
53 (Welsh)
56
66 (1914 – 18)
78
79 Armoured
Mobile (inter-war)
Brigade/Support Group (World War II
unless shown differently)
1 Armoured
1 Guards
1 RTC (inter-war)
1 Support Group
2 Armoured (formerlyLight Armoured)
2 Cavalry (inter-war)
2 Parachute
2 Special Service (later Commando)
3 Armoured (formerlyHeavy Armoured)
3 Cavalry (1914 – 18)
4 Armoured
5 Cavalry (1914 – 18)
7 Armoured
7 Motor
7 Support Group
8 Armoured
8 Support Group
9 Armoured
13
15
17
21 Tank
22 Armoured
23 Armoured
24 Armoured
24 Guards
25 Armoured Engineer
25 Tank
26 Armoured
27 Armoured
28
28 Armoured
31 Tank
34 Tank
38
61
128
131
138
139
150
167
168
169
198 (1914 – 18)
199 (1914 – 18)
201 Guards
Cairo (inter-war)
Canal (inter-war)
Cavalry (inter-war)
Commando
Jewish
Regiment/Battalion
1st County of London Yeomanry (Middlesex Hussars)
1st King’s Dragoon Guards
1st Reserve Regiment of Cavalry
1st Royal Dragoons
2nd Dragoon Guards (The Queen’s Bays)
2nd Dragoons (Royal Scots Greys)
3rd/4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters)
3rd Hussars
4th Hussars
5th Lancers
5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards
6th Reserve Regiment of Cavalry
7th Dragoon Guards
7th Hussars
8th Hussars
9th Lancers
9th/12th Lancers
10th Hussars
11th Hussars
12th Lancers
background
in Great War
in Ireland
in England
in Egypt
mechanization
Dick commands
in Second World War
post-war
amalgamation
14th/20th Hussars
15th Hussars
15th/19th Hussars
16th/5th Lancers
17th Lancers
17th/21st Lancers
20th Hussars
21st Lancers
27th Lancers
&nb
sp; 44th Reconnaissance Regiment
73rd Anti-Tank Regiment
101st Anti-Tank/Anti-Aircraft Regiment
Black Watch
Border Regiment
4th Battalion
Coldstream Guards
3rd Battalion
Derbyshire Yeomanry
1st
2nd
Essex Regiment
1st/4th Battalion
Grenadier Guards
6th Battalion
Household Cavalry
King’s Royal Rifle Corps
1st Battalion
7th Battalion
Life Guards
Lothians and Border Horse
Lovat Scouts
Manchester Regiment
8th Battalion
North Somerset Yeomanry
Rifle Brigade
2nd Battalion
7th Battalion
11th Battalion
Royal Gloucestershire Hussars
Royal Horse Artillery
5th Regiment
Royal Horse Guards
Royal Irish Fusiliers
Royal Tank Corps/Royal Tank
Regiment
7th Battalion
8th Battalion
40th Battalion
41st Battalion
45th Battalion
46th Battalion
47th Battalion
50th Battalion
Royal West Kent Regiment
5th Battalion
