On This Day ... in 1810 & Others
British troops under Sir George Beckwith, supported by a fleet commended by Vice Admiral Cochrane, captured Guadeloupe. Beckwith had distinguished himself as a regimental officer during the American War of Independence & he subsequently iserved in high administrative posts & in numerous successful military operations in the West Indies during the French Revolutionary & Napoleonic wars.He attained the full rank of general in 1814 & commanded forces in Ireland, 1816-1820. He died in London on the 20th of March 1823.
1917: Captain H.W. Murray of the Australian 4th Division ( Australia's highest decorated soldier during World War I ) won the Victoria Cross at Stormy Trench north-east of Gueudecourt, France.
Capt Murray led his company in an attack and quickly captured the enemy position, fighting back three heavy counter attacks by the enemy. He encouraged his men, led bombing and bayonet parties and carried wounded men to safety.
1920: The RAF College at Cranwell was established for the training of officer cadets, under the command of the great aviation pioneer, Air Commodore Longcroft.
1941: Lieutenant General Sir Richard O'Connor's superb campaign in the Western Desert came to fruition, as the first units of the British 7th Armoured Division emerged from a great sweep across the desert to cut off the Italian Tenth Army's line of retreat at the village of Beda Fomm.
A small force of motorised infantry, artillery and armoured cars under Lieutenant Colonel Combe of the 11th Hussars blocked the road, and despite repeated Italian efforts to break through, held their position. Meanwhile, as British tanks arrived on the scene from their gruelling march across the desert, they harried the flanks of the huge column of Italian men and equipment, while 6th Australian Division, which had pursued the Tenth Army along the coast, closed in from the north-east. The Italians were forced to surrender on 7 February. With just two divisions, O'Connor had advanced over 500 miles and captured 130,000 prisoners, 400 tanks and 1,300 artillery pieces.
Comments
To bad that Lieutenant General Sir Richard O'Connor was captured... otherwise we might have avoided Monty altogether.
(Yes, I have the typical American view of Sir B. Montgomery, as seen through a prism of Patton)
Posted by: SSG Jeff (USAR) | February 4, 2008 10:21 PM
SSG, all the British desert generals before Monty performed at least competently, sometimes even brilliantly. Each was dismissed ingloriously, and went on to serve competently elsewhere. It was their misfortune not to have all those tanks and guns, all those Ghurkas, and not be Monty.
Posted by: comatus | February 5, 2009 6:41 AM
Monty is very over-rated. He was in the right place at the right time to become England's Hero of the Desert. He screwed the pooch in Market Garden though, his luster began to tarnish after that. He was too cautious and too damn slow.......not the mark of Offensive General......
Posted by: Gunny | February 5, 2010 12:17 AM
many years ago - My Scouts & I were given the task of clearing the barn at Monty's house in Hampshire where he stored his 'war caravans' - we were allowed to keep things that we found that his son reckoned were worthless..... Amongst the old suitcases & general tat (sorry) - we found several old Nazi flags - we were allowed to sell through an auction house 3 - & raised a couple of grand for the scout troop! - So I gave him the thumbs up!
Posted by: hugh | February 5, 2010 9:01 AM
Monty was popular with the men on the ground, both brit and yank, he was the voice of sense on the normandy landings, had theAmericans had their way it would have been smaller and sooner, when Hitler was not nearly as tied up in Russia, might well have failed, Bradley was hiding 8 miles back drinking and hiding when Monty was driving along the front, in North Africa is was one thing to play with the Italians, when Rommel came it was different, Monty did have a lot of new kit but some huge errors marked some of his predecessors.
Posted by: Chris Edwards | February 7, 2010 4:31 AM
Sorry to hurt your feelings Chris, but Monty's biggest fan was Monty and the Brit's he led. Not the American GI. Monty was in the right place, at the right time, to become the Hero and Savior of the British Army in the North African Desert, never mind that it General Harold Alexander doing all the behind the scene dicisions, and the fact that the US just pumped all kinds of money and US Equipment into the Brit Desert Army......Then later, we have Market Garden, something Monty came up with, all by himself! By the way, General Bradley was not a drinker and was more of an Offensive Tactical General than "Monty", who was all show and arrogant fluff.
Posted by: Gunny | February 7, 2010 3:28 PM
One in the eye for Bradley is when he locked himself away for several days because he feared being assassinated by Germans in GI uniforms during the first few days of the Battle of the Bulge. Not the most inspirational action for a leader to take.
Posted by: George | February 8, 2010 10:47 PM
Did you know, that Monty took full credit for the relief of the 101st at Bastone and winning the Battle of the Bulge. Pure Monty self-promotion, I believe. And the story about Bradley hiding from Skorzeny and his band of infiltrators...is pure Monty poppy-cock, putting down American Leadership in the field, like Patton or Bradley. Remember- Market Garden!!!
Posted by: Gunny | February 9, 2010 2:24 AM