General ‘Boy': The Life of Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Browning

by Richard Mead

  Encouraged by Brooke, Boy decided quickly that the division should be prepared to fight as such, rather than in small parties or even as brigades or brigade groups, a policy promoted by one school of thought. Building a division with what was initially a very small HQ was a frustrating business. To create the divisional troops, a number of units, including a light artillery battery, a reconnaissance squadron and a field park company were detached from 1 Airlanding Brigade Group before the end of 1941, with the other units from the brigade following progressively during the course of 1942. Henniker was able to assemble a properly functioning HQ Royal Engineers in February, whilst both divisional signals and a field ambulance were formed that April.

  The first opportunity for men from the division to see action, however, was in exactly the sort of small-scale operation which the alternative school of thought espoused. Operation ‘Biting’, better known as the Bruneval Raid, brought Boy into working contact for the first time with the raid’s sponsor, Lord Louis Mountbatten, a man who would later play a major part in his life. Mountbatten had become Adviser Combined Operations in late 1941 and his mandate, among other things, was to develop opportunities for taking the war to the enemy. With the strong support of Churchill, he was given access to the resources of all three services.

  There was great concern at the time in the RAF about serious bomber losses, which were attributed in part to the Germans’ development of a new radar system. One of the radar sites was believed to be at Bruneval, on the French coast near Le Havre, and a plan was hatched to parachute in a party to remove the equipment for evaluation, using the RAF to get it there and the Royal Navy to take it out again.

  Boy’s first conference with Mountbatten on the operation was on 8 January 1942 at Combined Operations HQ at Richmond Terrace. The two men had met before, but only incidentally. Now, working together for the first time, they found that they thought very much alike. Boy was immediately attracted by the plan, which would showcase the capabilities of his paratroopers, and set about delivering his part of it, reporting back to Mountbatten just over two weeks later. Not wanting to use his most experienced unit, 1st Parachute Battalion, in case it was required intact for a larger operation, he asked the 2nd Battalion to select the party, which was drawn from C Company. Under the command of Major John Frost, it began training on Salisbury Plain at the end of January.

  The operation was a near perfect success. The landing party, which included a detachment from the Airborne Division’s Royal Engineers, was dropped into France from Whitleys10 on 27 February 1942. It landed some distance from the objective, the building where the radar was housed, but made its way there and took the Germans by complete surprise. The withdrawal involved some alarming moments, but the majority of the party, together with their valuable prize of a Würzburg radar set, was lifted safely off the beach and returned to England by sea. The casualties amounted to three killed, two missing and seven wounded, a very low number proportionately for airborne operations. Churchill was delighted and invited Frost to address a meeting of the War Cabinet on 3 March, which was also attended by the Chiefs of Staff and by Mountbatten, Boy and Walch.

  Immediately after this meeting, Boy went on nine day’s leave – the first time that he had been able to take more than a day or two off at once since early November. Daphne was still living at Langley End. Frenchman’s Creek had been published in the previous autumn, Daphne subsequently acknowledging that the privateer hero was a combination of Boy and Christopher Puxley. She continued her infatuation with the latter, but not long after Boy’s leave had ended, she was discovered in his arms by an astounded Paddy Puxley, who had no idea of what was going on under her nose. The parties behaved with some dignity, but it was clear that Daphne and the children would have to leave.

  It had been Daphne’s intention to go down to Fowey for the summer and the move was now accelerated. Ferryside had been partially commandeered by the Royal Navy and there was no room for the family there, so she rented 8 Readymoney Cove, a large cottage at the seaward end of the town. She could not get Christopher out of her mind and her next writing project was Hungry Hill, a novel based closely on the Puxley family, about whom she had become well informed over the previous eighteen months. Christopher continued to see her, coming down to stay at the Fowey Hotel and spending the days with her at the Watch House, a tiny building on the cliffs near Polruan, overlooking Lantic Bay. Boy remained entirely ignorant of the affair.

  Chapter 12

  Expansion (1942)

  On 16 April 1942 Winston Churchill visited the Airborne Division with General George C. Marshall, the US Army Chief of Staff, who was on his first wartime visit to Britain. The two men and their entourage were treated to a display of parachuting and glider landing at Everleigh, a short distance from Netheravon. Every available aircraft from 38 Wing was used, twelve Whitleys for the parachute troops and nine ancient Hector tugs towing Hotspur gliders. The day was cold and blustery and there was a parachute fatality, but it was not this which upset the Prime Minister. Boy spelt out succinctly the issues facing him, notably the lack of aircraft and gliders, so Churchill, deeply concerned by the lack of cooperation from the RAF, convened a meeting for the following month to address the problem.

  The meeting took place on 6 May and was chaired by the Prime Minister himself. In addition to Boy, the attendees were Brooke, Ismay, Air Chief Marshal Portal, the Chief of the Air Staff, Colonel Ian Jacob1 of Churchill’s staff, Colonel J. J. Llewellin, the Minister of Aircraft Production, with his Permanent Secretary, and representatives from both the Air Ministry and the War Office. Boy addressed the meeting and described how, in terms of personnel, the Airborne Division would be complete by the end of the month but, whilst trained for ground action, could not be trained for airborne operations without adequate aircraft. With such aircraft, he envisaged that training could be completed quickly, although he still expected both a three to four month delay before further special equipment was delivered and a bottleneck in the training of glider pilots due to shortages of gliders coming off the production lines.

  Portal was clearly reluctant to release further bombers, proposing that pressure be applied to the Americans to provide suitable transport aircraft, in the absence of which sacrifices would have to be made elsewhere. By this time, however, the Prime Minister had the bit between his teeth. After further debate, he issued a memo to Portal: ‘Please make me proposals for increasing the number of discarded Bombers which can be placed rapidly at the disposal of the Airborne Corps. At least 100 should be found (Boy had asked for 96) within the next three months. We cannot go on with 10,000 men and only 32 aircraft at their disposal.’ Three days later Portal replied, grudgingly agreeing to allocate 83 Whitleys between May and September, with 10 heavy bombers (Halifaxes) to tow Hamilcar gliders. Strong opposition, however, continued from the RAF, and specifically Bomber Command, and this would dog the development of the airborne forces for some time yet as the debate continued at the highest level, with Brooke and Portal the leading protagonists.

  Boy was also lobbying in other directions. Realizing that Mountbatten carried some influence, at least with the Prime Minister, he had met him a few days before Churchill’s visit to the division, eliciting a memo from the Chief of Combined Operations to the Chiefs of Staff on 15 April. ‘I wish to draw the attention of the Chiefs of Staff’, wrote Mountbatten, ‘to the desirability of employing airborne forces in larger numbers than hitherto for raids.’ Boy then invited Mountbatten to deliver a lecture at the Divisional Tactical Week and ensured that he remained an ally on the Chiefs of Staff Committee, where the debate was about to intensify. In September, as Brooke confronted Portal again on the issue, the CIGS was briefed to advance Mountbatten’s view that the airborne forces would be an essential part of any major operation against the Continent.

  Boy was also able to demonstrate tacit support from the Royal Family, when the King and Queen paid a visit to the Airborne Division on 21 May, accompanied by Paget from Home Force
s and Sir James Grigg, the Secretary of State for War. The day’s activities started with an inspection of the 1st Parachute Battalion, the Glider Pilot Regiment and the RAF, and a static display of gliders and aircraft, followed by a film on parachute training. The royal couple then inspected the rest of the division before lunch at Syrencote House, followed by a demonstration of parachuting and glider landing. It was the first of a number of visits engineered by Boy, which did a great deal for the morale of the troops and, because it was widely reported in the press, for their standing with the public.

  In the following month a significant development took place at the War Office. Since its formation, the responsible department had been the Directorate of Staff Duties, where the airborne forces’ interests had been handicapped by the lack of relevant experience. It was now decided to appoint a Deputy Director for Air, reporting to the DSD. The officer selected was Gale, who reluctantly handed over 1 Parachute Brigade to Flavell. He was an excellent choice, a no-nonsense infantry officer, but one with a good sense of humour, who commanded a great deal of respect throughout the Airborne Division and was also well liked by the RAF. He and Boy had developed an excellent relationship, not least because Gale subscribed wholeheartedly to Boy’s view that the division should be trained and employed as a whole and not piecemeal. Gale took as his GSO1 Gerald Lathbury, another outstanding airborne soldier. Relations between the War Office and Boy’s HQ, never easy during the first six months of 1942, improved immeasurably.

  By the summer of 1942, other than in respect of aircraft and gliders, the equipping of the Airborne Division was proceeding much more satisfactorily. At the beginning of May a committee was set up ‘to co-ordinate arrangements for the development, production, supply, transport and storage of all equipment for airborne forces, and to secure rapid decisions’. Under the chairmanship of Sir Robert Renwick, an industrialist seconded to the Ministry of Aircraft Production, its members included technical experts from Renwick’s ministry and senior officers and civil servants from both the Air Ministry and the War Office, together with Boy himself. It had the effect of reducing to a minimum the bureaucratic hold-ups which had dogged the airborne forces since their inception.

  Boy’s efforts to instil esprit de corps were also going well and morale was generally rising, although he was constantly seeking ways to improve it. The Glider Pilot Regiment had been constituted as part of the Army Air Corps, but the parachute battalions, which had accepted men from nearly every regiment in the British Army, were initially without any affiliation. In August 1942 it was decided that they should form a new regiment, the Parachute Regiment, which would also be part of the Army Air Corps, but would develop its own its own traditions and honours. The first Colonel Commandant was Field Marshal Sir John Dill, Brooke’s predecessor as CIGS and now Head of the Joint Staff Mission in Washington and British representative to the Combined Chiefs of Staff. With Brooke himself appointed as Colonel Commandant of the Glider Pilot Regiment, there was no doubt about the level of support from the very top of the Army.

  Another opportunity to improve morale emerged in 1942. Boy received an approach from Captain Jock Pearson of the Glider Pilot Regiment, who had been concerned with some of the financial difficulties being experienced by the men under his command and elsewhere in the regiment. Like the parachutists, the glider pilots came from every conceivable regiment, but it had proved difficult to tap into regimental funds once they had transferred elsewhere, so he had decided on his own initiative to set up the Glider Pilot Benevolent Association. He now asked Boy if he would consider a fund for the whole of the airborne forces.

  Boy was enthusiastic, agreeing with Pearson that no soldier should have to worry about his financial affairs and that all of them would take comfort from knowing that their dependants would be looked after if they were killed. A trust deed for the new Airborne Forces Security Fund was drawn up by a firm of solicitors, offices were found and with the help of Mr Gordon Boggon, a philanthropist, the services of a full-time controller were secured. At a meeting on 19 May attended by Boy, Pearson, Walch and Chatterton, those present were appointed Trustees, together with Goschen and Eagger, with Boy becoming the first Chairman. A considerable amount of funds were attracted from the public and from commercial organizations associated with the airborne forces.

  Whilst morale improved, the emphasis on discipline did not necessarily work to Boy’s favour in terms of his personal profile in the division. There was a great deal of resentment to start with among men who were looking for a chance to see action and who failed to understand how drill and standards of turnout could be relevant. He was quietly but widely known as ‘Bullshit’ Browning among those who found themselves subjected to his regime, but who failed to comprehend his motives. Even amongst some longer serving regular officers, there was a feeling that he was more concerned with burnishing his own reputation than with fighting the Germans.

  This was manifestly unfair. There is little doubt that Boy was personally ambitious and that he saw the fortunes of the airborne forces as intimately linked with his own. There is equally little question of his genuine belief that he had been given the responsibility for building a potentially war-winning organization and of his determination to do what was necessary to make it work. If that meant using all his connections in the corridors of power, so be it. In fact, there were probably few men of his seniority who could have marshalled such an array of supporters in the face of the active opposition of the RAF and the dead hand of bureaucracy.

  On a more personal level, Boy was almost invariably highly regarded by those with whom he came into the closest contact. Among his seniors, his admirers included Brooke, Sergison-Brooke, Paget and later Montgomery and Mountbatten, although he was to experience difficulties with the Americans. Some of his peers undoubtedly found him pushy and begrudged his access to high places, which, to them at least, seemed to give him preference, but once again, those with the most immediate exposure to him generally appreciated his virtues. The members of his staff, both in the airborne forces and subsequently, were mostly devoted to him, as were those who worked for him personally, such as Johnson and Boy’s longstanding driver, Alex Johannides. Part of the reason was that he was so evidently concerned for their well-being, as was demonstrated by his response to a serious parachute accident to Brian Urquhart. The latter incurred injuries which were life-threatening, with a potentially disastrous medical treatment only averted by Boy’s intervention and insistence that the Army’s Chief Orthopaedic Surgeon should take the case.

  Notwithstanding his background, there was absolutely no trace of snobbishness in Boy’s character and those who actually met him, of whatever rank, found that he would talk without looking down on them. Henniker told the tale of an animated conversation between Boy and a corporal in one of the RE field companies. Henniker asked afterwards what they had been talking about, to be told in detail with the conclusion ‘He’s really a very intelligent General, Sir!’ He discovered subsequently that Boy thought that the corporal, too, was very intelligent and took this as epitomizing the bonds between the men in airborne forces. However, Boy could not meet everybody and his magic, unlike that of Montgomery or Slim, seems only to have worked at short range.

  The airborne movement as a whole was by now gathering pace and by mid-1942 a number of Great Britain’s allies had established parachute units and formations, the most advanced of whom were the Poles. Colonel Stanislaw Sosabowski, who after a number of adventures had escaped from both Poland and France, had formed an Officers’ Cadre Brigade in the summer of 1940, based in Scotland. In February 1941 he was given permission to send a number of his men for parachute training at the PTS at Ringway and, on their return, decided to constitute his formation informally as a parachute brigade. In September of that year, at a ceremony attended by Gale and Newnham, General Sikorski, the Polish C-in-C, announced that it would in future be known as 1 Polish Parachute Brigade. Relationships between the Poles and their British counterparts were good.
They were popular at Ringway, where they established a permanent group of instructors, whilst small groups from the Airborne Division visited their brigade in Scotland and vice-versa. Early in 1942 Sosabowski called on Boy and received a warm welcome, with Boy undertaking to help the Poles with equipment, and later in the year thirty Polish officers were attached to the Airborne Division for instruction

  Other countries also established parachute units in the UK, notably the Free French in battalion strength and the Norwegians, Dutch and Belgians as independent companies, whilst a party of Canadian officers arrived for training at the PTS in August. It was clear, however, that it was Britain’s newest allies across the Atlantic who would create the largest and most sophisticated force. Colonel Wells at the US Embassy had remained in close contact following his success with the jeeps and in early April, shortly before Marshall’s visit with Churchill, Boy invited him down to spend four days with the division. At the end of May, Brigadier-General Bill Lee, who had commanded the first airborne soldiers in the USA and went on to raise 101 Airborne Division, visited Boy’s HQ and inspected 1 Parachute Brigade. Some weeks later 2nd Battalion, 503 Parachute Infantry Regiment,2 under Lieutenant Colonel Edson D. Raff, disembarked in the UK and came under the temporary command of the Airborne Division, based at Chilton Folliatt, near Hungerford. The Americans trained with their British comrades, establishing for the first time a close bond which would last through the war. Boy arranged for them all to receive airborne berets, although these could not be officially worn, and he was generally well received by the battalion’s members.