Commando General

by Richard B Mead

  Ann Fleming, to my horror, has telegraphed ‘Presume Ivor Claire based Laycock dedication ironical’. I replied that if she breathes a suspicion of this cruel fact, it will be the end of our friendship.20

  In the novel the character most closely based on Bob, Tommy Blackhouse, falls down a ladder on the ship to Crete and breaks his leg, thus avoiding any responsibility for the debacle. Ivor Claire, on the other hand, a debonair member of the Commando raised by Blackhouse, deserts his men on Crete and manages to get back to Egypt. Claire is not based on any single real person, but is a blend of some of the officers of 8 Commando, although none of these, apart from Waugh himself, was on Crete. Bob, who considered that he himself had been let off lightly in the novel, later described Claire as a ‘mixture of Eddie Fitzclarence, Bones Sudeley and Peter Beatty and, I expect, Randolph, though part of the character is not unlike his great friends Philip Dunne & Peter Milton’.21

  Fleming was clearly being mischievous and was taken aback by Waugh’s response, which was vitriolic. However, the use of the words ‘this cruel fact’ have been taken as evidence of Waugh’s belief that Bob’s and his own evacuation without the majority of Layforce was in some way dishonourable. What needs to be understood is Waugh’s own state of mind at the time and his recollections of Crete thereafter. A man whose otherwise unsoldierly qualities belied his considerable personal courage, he was absolutely appalled by the behaviour of many of the soldiers during the retreat, and particularly of Colvin, who was the model for the character, but not the role, of the fictitious Major Hound.

  In 1976 Graham was asked if Waugh thought that Bob should have stayed behind. His reply was: ‘He never said, or hinted so. Perhaps because he had a personal horror of being captured!’22 The second sentence was confirmed by Bob’s account of their walk back from the first meeting with Weston on 31 May, during which Waugh asked Bob if he could have leave of absence to see the Roman Catholic padre. Bob asked him why:

  ‘ I am determined not to suffer the ignominy of capture,’ replied Evelyn, ‘and I wish to ask him whether it would be considered suicide if I drowned in an attempt to swim back to Egypt.’23

  It proved impossible to locate the padre, and Bob observed:

  Whether or not he would have struck out on his long swim had the necessity arisen I do not know for, as it turned out, we embarked on the last ship to leave the island. By the look on his face at the time I gathered that Evelyn believed this to be a dishonourable thing to do though it made sense to me for, at least, we lived to fight another day.24

  It does seem likely that Waugh’s shame at their flight from the island was, to some extent, shared in his own mind with Bob, in spite of his admiration for a man who had become his mentor and was to remain his supporter.

  There was, on the other hand, not a hint of official disapproval of Bob’s actions, let alone anything stronger, in Weston’s despatches, the Inter-Services Report or any other official or semi-official account of the campaign. On the contrary, notwithstanding the demise of Layforce shortly afterwards, with the inevitable impact on Bob’s short-term prospects, his personal standing remained high, and in due course his career resumed its steep trajectory. Moreover, his immediate subordinate, George Young, who was unable to get his men and himself away, believed strongly that Bob’s actions were justified and that:

  Whilst battalion commanders are duty bound to go into captivity with their men in such situations, formation commanders, because they have no direct contact with the troops under their command, are under no such onus.25

  Bob’s own reflections on his escape from Crete, whilst expressing justification for his decision to leave, did, nevertheless, introduce more than a suggestion of doubt about doing so:

  Was I right in using arguments which influenced Weston to countermand his original orders, should I, personally, have embarked that night knowing that nearly three-quarters of my command was still ashore? Probably not. There is much to be said in support of the principle that the Captain is the last to leave the sinking ship. At the time, however, my motive seemed reasonable enough and I am confident that my Brigade Staff, with the possible exception of Evelyn, heartily agreed with my contention that we would be more use to our country by returning with the remnants of Nos. 7, 50 and 52 Commandos to rejoin Nos. 8 and 11 in Egypt than by spending the rest of the war in a prisoner of war camp. Once the order to surrender was given I maintained that every able-bodied man who succeeded in getting back to Egypt had done the right thing. ‘Qui s’excuse s’accuse.’ I have never been happy about leaving Young and his gallant men behind.26

  Chapter 12

  Disbandment

  Like his companions, Bob had had very little sleep since they first left Alexandria and so, having drunk several mugs of hot, sweet tea, he made up for some of what he had lost. Although a number of German planes were picked up on the radar, none attacked and Kimberley made a trouble-free passage. One of the first people Bob met after landing on 1 June was his brother Peter, who had just arrived from Tobruk in ‘Pedlar’ Palmer’s schooner, the Maria Giovanni. He sent a telegram to his parents to tell them of the reunion, but nothing to Angie, as he had not told her that he was going to Crete. In fact she had found this out from another source, so was greatly relieved to hear from Bob’s sister Rosemary that he was back in Alexandria. It was several days before Bob had time to write to her with a brief description of his adventures.

  With his HQ re-established at Sidi Bishr, Bob reported to GHQ in Cairo on the following day. Arthur Smith told him that he would have to give evidence to the Inter-Services Committee which was being put together under the chairmanship of Colonel Guy Salisbury-Jones, the former Chief Staff Officer of the British Military Mission to Greece. Salisbury-Jones, who was well-known to Bob, had accompanied the Greek royal family to Crete, where Bob had met him briefly on the roadside during the retreat.

  Smith then dropped a bombshell, telling Bob that there was no possibility of providing reinforcements for Layforce from volunteers within Middle East Command. The Prime Minister was demanding offensive action in the Western Desert, and there were not enough troops as it was. In the meantime, however, C Battalion, which was due to arrive back in Egypt from Cyprus within the next two days, had been selected for a role in the imminent Allied invasion of Vichy French-held Syria, which was all too likely to lead to further casualties.

  Bob was too late to have any involvement with C Battalion’s actions on the Litani River in the Syria-Lebanon campaign, in their way the most successful of all those carried out by Layforce during its short history. The operation was mounted in support of the left flank of the invasion force, whose immediate path was blocked by the Litani. The intention was for three separate parties to land north of the river and neutralize the Vichy defences, allowing 7 Australian Division to cross and advance up the coast. The battalion embarked in Glengyle on 6 June with the objective of landing very early the next morning, but in all too familiar fashion the sea proved to be too rough. On the following night the surf had subsided sufficiently to permit the landings, and all three parties embarked satisfactorily in their landing craft. By this time, however, surprise had been lost and the commandos landed with the moon behind them and the sun in their eyes. In these circumstances they were lucky not to incur heavy losses on the beaches.

  Y Party in the centre under Lieutenant Colonel Pedder and Z Party on the left under Captain George More, the Adjutant, both landed on the correct beaches. Initially there was only modest opposition, and More’s party was particularly successful, both capturing guns and other equipment and taking prisoners. With no sign of the Australians, however, it was forced to retire across the Litani, which it managed successfully, other than one detachment which was forced back to the beach, where it surrendered, having taken a number of casualties. On the next day the prisoners were released by their Vichy captors.

  Pedder’s party, in the meantime, attacked a Vichy redoubt covering the key bridge, which they found had already been demolis
hed. The attack continued, however, so that the Australians could construct a pontoon bridge at the site. Resistance was fierce and Pedder was killed, as was the second-in-command of the party. With the other officers and many men dead or wounded, command devolved on the Regimental Sergeant Major, who succeeded in taking the nearby barracks, thus preventing the enemy from reinforcing the redoubt.

  X Party on the right under Geoffrey Keyes was landed on the wrong side of the river mouth. However, he established contact with the Australians, from whom he borrowed a boat, which he used to ferry his men across the river under heavy fire, eventually gathering enough to capture the redoubt and enable a pontoon bridge to be constructed. This was effectively the end of the battle, in which C Battalion had distinguished itself, albeit at a considerable cost. Five officers had been killed and total casualties amounted to 123 men, about 25 per cent of the battalion’s strength. Keyes, who took over command, in which he was subsequently confirmed, re-concentrated the battalion at Haifa before it returned to Cyprus, where Bob visited it on 23 June.

  B Battalion in the meantime had remained at Mersa Matruh, but on 8 June Sudeley, Dunne and Churchill sailed to Tobruk, followed on the next day by nine officers and 109 other ranks. On arrival they were bombed on their way to the transit camp and lost two dead and four injured. The intention was to make a number of raids on German and Italian positions, but Sudeley’s nerve failed after some postponements and he insisted on the detachment being withdrawn again, returning himself to Alexandria in advance. This caused considerable embarrassment to Bob, who was in Cairo when Sudeley reappeared. He had to write a very difficult letter to Major General Leslie Morshead, the Australian commanding the Tobruk garrison, offering the rather lame excuse that Sudeley had believed that the members of his battalion should return to take up other appointments due the imminent disbandment of Layforce. In the event, this episode caused considerable distress to Daly and more generally within B Battalion, in which morale plummeted.

  Following a meeting in Cairo on 12 June, it had indeed been decided to disband Layforce, and Morshead and other interested parties were sent a letter on the subject on 15 June. A Battalion had been reduced to 150 all ranks under Nicholls. B Battalion was still substantially intact, but very unhappy. C Battalion stood at only 75 per cent of its full strength. D Battalion had effectively ceased to exist, apart from a number of casualties who had been evacuated from Crete before the surrender. The Brigade HQ was already being run down, with both Graham and Franks posted elsewhere during June, followed on 7 July by Waugh, who was returned to the Royal Marines and shipped back to the UK.

  The letter of 15 June made it clear that it would be impossible to guarantee that all those whose six months engagement for Special Service had expired would be permitted to return to their own units in the UK, either at the time or in the future, although applications for posting to the Home Establishment on compassionate grounds would be considered. Personnel of A, B and D Battalions would, however, be allowed to return to their own units in the Middle East. Likewise, officers and men in these battalions who elected to remain in a Special Service unit would be able to do so, but the future organization of this would depend on the numbers who applied. In the meantime, volunteers for guerrilla activities in the Far East were specifically called for. C Battalion would remain on its present organization until operations permitted it to be treated in the same way as the others.

  Forty-seven officers and 692 other ranks remained in A, B and D battalions, not much more than a single battalion’s full establishment of 36 officers and 537 other ranks. Of these, 17 officers and 315 other ranks expressed a wish to remain in a Special Service role; three officers and 121 other ranks, led by Nicholls,1 volunteered for service in the Far East and departed shortly afterwards; 11 officers and 182 other ranks decided to return to their own units in the Middle East and India; nine officers and 43 other ranks applied to return to the UK on compassionate grounds; seven officers and 26 other ranks made other specific applications for transfer.

  Of the officers of 8 Commando who had sailed for the Middle East, Milton, Stavordale, Sudeley, Usher, Campbell and Ian Collins of No. 3 Troop were selected for posting to the Home Establishment. Campbell, however, remained in the Middle East and Sudeley died before he could get back to the UK, of a condition which stopped his sweat glands working, causing fatal heatstroke. It is possible that this condition may have had an effect on his behaviour in Tobruk.

  However, 8 Commando did manage one last hurrah when a small party returned to Tobruk in July. Led by Mike Kealy, with Philip Dunne as his second-in-command, three other officers, including Jock Lewes, and 70 other ranks, it found itself attached to an Indian regiment, 18th King Edward VII’s Own Cavalry, with which it co-operated very cheerfully, carrying out a number of successful patrols to reconnoitre the Italian positions. On 18 July the detachment, split into three parties, each accompanied by Australian sappers, mounted a major raid on a feature held by the Italians known as the Twin Pimples. The small force worked its way around to the rear of the enemy position and, as soon as diversionary fire was opened by the Indians, attacked with great success, killing most of the Italians and blowing up their ammunition dumps. As it was withdrawing, the Italians laid down heavy fire from nearby and one man was killed and four wounded, but this was thought to be a small price for an otherwise successful raid. No prisoners were taken, but two days later Lewes brought one back from a patrol.

  On 18 June, in the aftermath of the decision to disband Layforce, Bob sent a signal to Roger Keyes, copied to GHQ Middle East:

  Following for D.C.O. repeated Brigadier HAYDON from Colonel LAYCOCK S.S. Bde. Repeated cancellation of Combined Operations caused continued inactivity of S.S. Bde from arrival here until recently (with exception unopposed and not very satisfactory BARDIA raid in April). Past three weeks, however witnessed extensive use S.S. tps resulting in successful actions but such heavy casualties that disbandment now ordered by C-in-C with exception C Bn now defending Cyprus. A Bn (7 Commando) and D Bn (ME Commando) fought fierce rearguard action CRETE but seventy percent failed return Egypt. C Bn (11 Commando) carried out very successful daring raid SYRIA Colonel PEDDER killed and twenty-five percent unit killed wounded or missing. Captain KEYES returned safely having done excellent work. B Bn (8 Commando) now executing raids WESTERN DESERT. As Bde is disbanded do you require my services in UK.2

  Wavell, who three days later was to hear of his replacement as C-in-C Middle East by General Sir Claude Auchinleck, immediately asked that the CIGS should recall Bob. He also suggested, apparently contrary to what had been agreed, that the Commandos’ troops should be returned to the UK, together with Glengyle and Glenroy, Glenearn having been badly damaged off Crete. A signal came back in due course that the Prime Minister had decided that the Glen ships should remain in the Middle East and that the Commandos should in some way be reconstituted; on 28 June another signal arrived from Dill requesting that Bob should return to the UK by the first available aircraft.

  The dates of Bob’s departure from Cairo or arrival in England are not recorded in any war diary, but it seems likely that the former was during the second week of July. In any event, he relinquished his appointment as Officer Commanding Layforce on 15 July, on which day he gave up his acting rank of colonel and reverted to his war substantive rank of major, which he had held since 11 October 1940.3 The delay between the signal from the CIGS and the date of departure was caused by his having to wait for the Salisbury-Jones Committee’s report on Crete, which he was to deliver in person. This had to be typed out in great haste and was handed to Bob by Arthur Smith before Smith or anyone else at GHQ had had time to read it. The Chief of Staff impressed on Bob that he should go straight to the War Office on arrival in England and hand it over to Dill and to no one else. Smith did agree, however, that Bob could take a second copy for Roger Keyes.

  Bob’s journey took him by Sunderland flying boat up the Nile to Khartoum and thence by Lockheed Lodestar across Africa
to Lagos. On the way he read the report:

  It was a splendid document, but, as I turned the pages I began to wonder what lay in store for its author after Wavell and Arthur Smith had read it too!4 Salisbury-Jones had not minced his words and by the time one had finished reading it one was left in no doubt whatsoever that the battle of Crete had been lost principally because G.H.Q. Middle East had failed to take even the most elementary measure for the defence of the island.5

  In Lagos Bob boarded a BOAC Boeing Clipper flying boat, now attired in ‘a ghastly pair of reach-me-down grey flannel trousers, a pale blue shirt and a dreadful brown homburg hat’6 and provided with a passport and papers representing him as an official of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, so that he could avoid internment in any neutral country The Clipper was an exceptionally comfortable aircraft which even boasted beds for the passengers, and Bob found a congenial companion in Harold Caccia, an Old Etonian of his own vintage who had been a member of the British Embassy in Athens at the time of the German invasion and had been evacuated first to Crete and then to Egypt. They landed in the Gambia for the night, where they were able to swim in the Atlantic before the plane took off in the morning. The next stop was Lisbon, where it transpired that Bob’s new passport had an unacceptable visa. Asked if he knew anyone who might vouch for him, he suggested the British Ambassador, Sir Ronald Campbell, to whom he wished to pass on news of his son Robin. Campbell immediately sent a car for him and gave him an excellent lunch, which was followed by an even more excellent dinner with Caccia in a fish restaurant.

  The Clipper then flew on towards its destination, Poole Harbour, but the weather closed in and it was diverted to Shannon in Ireland, where an uncomfortable interview with a customs officer ended happily when Bob claimed acquaintance with a popular local horse dealer. In due course Bob made his way to London and the War Office, stopping only at Combined Operations HQ to hand a copy of the Inter-Services Committee Report to Keyes, who was delighted when Bob told him that he had recommended Geoffrey for a Military Cross for his actions on the Litani.