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Description: | Ms account (62pp, written in 1977) with ts transcription (50pp) covering his career in the British Army (1917 - 1949), including: family background (1898 - 1916); training at RMC Sandhurst (1916 - 1917), and commissioned into the Royal Welch Fusiliers (1917); journey to Egypt and joining 2nd Garrison Battalion Royal Welch Fusiliers in Cairo and the Western Desert; then patrolling in the desert with No 2 Light Car Patrol of the Machine Gun Corps; which becomes attached to the Desert Mounted Corps in Palestine and advances against the Turks in the assault on Aleppo (1918); then occupying Aintab until handed over to France (November 1918 - November 1919); and Haifa (December 1919 - March 1920); joining 4th Battalion Tank Corps to form the 7th Armoured Car Company on return to the United Kingdom (March 1920 - January 1921); then service as a workshop officer in India on the North West Frontier (January 1921 - March 1924); returning to the UK (1924 - 26); with 5th Armoured Car Company in China (January 1927 - March 1929); returning to the UK as adjutant with 4th RTC (March 1929 - ? September 1932); in India with 7th Armoured Car Company (? September 1932 - ? January 1934); at Staff College, Camberley (January 1934 - January 1936); in India (January - September 1936); returning to the UK as Brigade Major with the Tank Brigade (September 1936 - January 1939); attending and then Tank Course instructor at Senior Officers' School, Sheerness (January - September 1939); then OC 49th Tank Battalion, Yorkshire (from August 1940), and forming an RAC branch in Cairo, Egypt (early 1941); active service in North Africa as GSO1, 7th Armoured Division (May - December 1941), taking past in Operation 'Battleaxe' (June 1941), Operation 'Crusader' (November - December 1941); promoted Brigadier and GOC 4th Armoured Brigade (December 1941 - June 1942) until relieved of Command after the Knightsbridge Battle; then GOC 1st Tank Brigade (? June - August 1942) during the first Battle of Alamein; then GOC 23rd Armoured Brigade (August 19412 - January 1944), taking part in the battles of Alam Halfa (September 1942), Alamein (October - November 1942), Mareth Line (March 1943), Wadi Akarit (April 1943); then the invasion of Sicily (July 1943; then Brigadier RAC, 8th Army in Italy (July 1943 - January 1944); then Major General RAC, 21st Army Group taking part in the Normandy landings and liberation of North West Europe (January 1944 - May 1945); afterwards a member of the Luneburg Court to try the staff of Belsen (1945); then GOC 11th Armoured Division, 8 Corps, 53rd Division and 49th Armoured Division in Germany and UK (1945 - 1949); commenting on witnessing one of the last cavalry charges (1918); life in India and operations on the North West Frontier; the planning for D-Day; Major General Sir Harry MacAndrew; Field Marshals Lord Slim, Earl Wavell and Viscount Montgomery. Also included are a brief synopsis of his career during 1917 - 1945, (3pp); a programme issued on the 21st Anniversary of the Battle of El Alamein (28pp, October 1963); and a ts Command Study of the Battle of Gazala (May - June 1942) (255pp, January 1967).
Cataloguer SHJ
Catalogue date 2000-03-25 | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Richards, G W | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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