by Richard Mead
DCR Division Cuirasée de Réserve
DD Duplex Drive
DLM Division Légère Mécanique
DS Directing Staff
DSD Director of Staff Duties
DSM Distinguished Service Medal (US)
DSO Distinguished Service Order
DUKW ‘Duck’ (amphibious vehicle)
FEC French Expeditionary Corps
GCB Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
GHQ General Headquarters
GOC General Officer Commanding
GOC-in-C General Officer Commanding-in-Chief
GSO1 General Staff Officer Grade 1
GSO2 General Staff Officer Grade 2
GSO3 General Staff Officer Grade 3
HQ Headquarters
IRA Irish Republican Army
KBE Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire
KCB Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath
KDG King’s Dragoon Guards
LAA Light Anti-Aircraft
LCT Landing Craft, Tanks
LST Landing Ship, Tanks
LVT Landing Vehicle, Tracked
MBE Member of the Order of the British Empire
MC Military Cross
MGRAC Major General Royal Armoured Corps
MI Military Intelligence – as in MI5
MP Member of Parliament
MSC Military Staff Committee
MT Motor Transport
OBE Officer of the Order of the British Empire
OCTU Officer Cadet Training Unit
OP Observation Post
OTC Officers Training Corps
POW Prisoner of War
RA Royal Artillery
RAC Royal Armoured Corps
RAF Royal Air Force
RAMC Royal Army Medical Corps
RHQ Regimental Headquarters
RIC Royal Irish Constabulary
RMC Royal Military College
RTC Royal Tank Corps
RTR Royal Tank Regiment
SO Staff Officer
SOS Senior Officers School
SSM Squadron Sergeant Major
TEWT Tactical Exercise Without Troops
VC Victoria Cross
VCIGS Vice-Chief of the Imperial General Staff
VD Venereal Disease
WVS Women’s Voluntary Services
UN United Nations
Acknowledgements
I owe an enormous amount to Bob and Jon McCreery and their sister, Sarah Groombridge, for their unqualified support throughout my work on this book. Bob and Jon gave most generously of their time, as did Bob’s wife Jeanette, and provided me not only with their recollections, but also with a number of useful documents and photos. Jon was particularly helpful about the McCreery and McAdam families, on which he is the expert. The majority of Dick’s and Lettice’s papers, including Dick’s diaries, most of his letters and many photos, had been left in the care of Sarah, who spent weeks sorting them all out for me. She helped me greatly with the interpretation of some aspects of Dick’s life and, with her husband Dave, was most hospitable on the frequent visits which I paid to them. Sarah’s son, Alexander Meynell, and her first husband, Hugo Meynell, who gave me a full interview, were also very helpful.
I was unable to meet Dick’s fourth surviving child, Charles, but we had a lengthy correspondence and he was kind enough to provide me with information pertinent to his own relationship with his father: on the same subject I also corresponded with Dr Celia Green, whom I would like to thank for her help. Bill and Kip McCreery, great-grandsons of Walter McCreery’s brother, Lawrence, produced some further helpful background, whilst Rod and Robert McAdam, distant cousins by descent from John Loudon McAdam, provided me with family trees from that side of the family.
Information on Dick’s boyhood and schooldays is sparse, but at least I was able to visit the College Library at Eton, where the College Archivist, Penny Hatfield, was most helpful.
My research into Dick’s regimental career was assisted greatly by a number of people, including Major David Chappell, then the Regimental Secretary, and the late Major Bobby Collins, then the Regimental Archivist, who had known Dick well and told me a number of anecdotes about him. As the last surviving 12th Lancer who had served under Dick in the regiment, Major Freddie Hunn was a most valuable source. I am also grateful to Mike Galer, the Curator of the 9th/12th Lancers Museum in Derby for allowing me to inspect documents and use the facilities there on two occasions. Colonel Richard Charrington, the grandson of Rollie Charrington, a former CO of the 9th/12th Lancers himself and the author of a very fine book on the amalgamated regiment, provided me with a copy of the photo of 12th Lancer officers on Telegraph Hill, just before Dick was badly wounded.
I met Peter Willett who served under Dick in Eighth Army and Austria. Major George Brown, who was Dick’s ADC in Germany, was most helpful on that period and very kindly read and commented on the relevant chapter. For Dick’s colonelcy of the 14th/20th Hussars, I am grateful to Colonel David Woodd, the current Colonel of its successor regiment, the King’s Royal Hussars, and the son of Colonel Basil Woodd, a CO of the 14th/20th during Dick’s tenure, and to Major General Mike Palmer, who was Adjutant of the regiment at much the same time.
For the period of Dick’s retirement, I would like to thank Gretan Skan, Dick’s farm manager, Sylvia Crabbe (née Courtney), who was in service at Stowell Hill in the 1960s, Biddy Wingfield-Digby, a friend of Dick’s and Lettice’s and a leading light of the Blackmore Vale Hunt, and Paddy Heazell, formerly Headmaster of Hazelgrove, who told me about Dick’s governorship of King’s School, Bruton.
Overall I owe a huge debt to Major General John Strawson, whose work in researching for his own book on Dick was meticulously filed before being given to Lettice and subsequently passed on to Sarah. The letters received by General Strawson and the replies to his questionnaire were invaluable as opinions of Dick from nearly sixty friends, colleagues, peers and subordinates who are sadly no longer with us.
I would like to thank all who have given me consent to publish extracts from other works, but particularly Elizabeth Macdonald-Buchanan and Lieutenant-Colonel Alan Abraham for permission to include as Appendices the writings of their fathers, Hugh Vivian Smith and Mat Abraham.
I have had unfailing support at Pen & Sword from Brigadier Henry Wilson and help on practical matters from Matt Jones. My excellent editor, Jan Chamier, has carried out her task with the minimum of fuss, whilst Alex Swanston has converted my rough maps most elegantly.
As always, I could not have written this book without the encouragement of my wife, Sheelagh, and my two sons, Tim and Rupert. Rupert corrected the drafts of each chapter as they emerged and also coped fearlessly with Italian driving when we visited the battlefields from Salerno to the Garigliano.
Last, and by no means least, I am most grateful for the support of two of the greatest historians of the Second World War, Sir Max Hastings and the late Sir John Keegan, who both recognized that Dick McCreery deserves to be better known.
Sources and Bibliography
1. Primary Sources
The National Archives
CAB 106/895 Lecture notes by R. McCreery on the Tunisian campaign
CAB 120/253 Tank & AFV Situation Middle East 1942
FO 115/4365 United Nations MSC – brief on different opinions re size of forces
FO 371/46448 Position regarding British interests in Austria
FO 371/55292 Correspondence re transfer of R. McCreery from Austria to Germany
FO 371/67562 Brief on work of United Nations MSC
FO 1020/4, 5 & 7 R. McCreery personal papers & semi-official correspondence
FO 1020/87-9 Meetings & conversations Allied Commission for Austria (British)
WO 95/1140 12th Lancers War Diary 1914 – 19
WO 166/834 8 Armoured Division War Diary
WO 167/190 1 Division War Diary
WO 167/419 2 Armoured Brigade War Diary
WO 169/8592/3/4 X C
orps War Diary July to December 1943
WO 170, 181/5 & 190/4 Eighth Army War Diary G Main October to December 1944
WO 170/302-308 X Corps War Diary January to September 1944
WO 170/4174/6/8 & 4180 Eighth Army War Diary G Main January to April 1945
WO 201/389 Historical Notes on the RAC
WO 201/2581 18th Army Group formation
WO 201/2500 N. Africa, Middle East & Mediterranean – GHQ from 12.42 to 2.43
WO 204/1137 18th Army Group operational instructions & reports
WO 204/1422, 6841, 6987 Operation Avalanche – Operational Orders
WO 204/3864 Administrative directive to Commander 18th Army Group
WO 204/4981 Situation reports from 18th Army Group
WO 204/7571 Report on Assault Crossing of R. Volturno
WO 204/10015 Eighth Army monthly Allied Military Government reports
WO 204/10373 Engineer operations during the Final Campaign in Italy
WO 204/10449 & 10450 Evacuation of Cossacks & Caucasians forces from 36 Brigade Area
WO 214/48 N. Africa, Middle East & Mediterranean – GHQ from 8.42 to 12.42
Liddell-Hart Centre, King’s College, London
Papers of Brigadier S.T. Divers, General Sir Richard McCreery, Major General Sir John Winterton, General Sir Sydney Kirkman, Major General J.F.C. Fuller, Captain Sir Basil Liddell-Hart
The Museum of the 9th/12th Lancers
Casualty Book 1914 – 1918
Orders Book 1914 – 1918
Polo Book 1919 – 1938
Sundry other papers
The Tank Museum
Sundry papers
Eton College Library
Term calendars and school lists
Private McCreery papers
Diaries 1921 – 1967
Draft chapters for memoirs
Description of actions of 2 Armoured Brigade in France May – June 1940
Letters and completed questionnaires sent to John Strawson in 1971/2 (‘Strawson Papers’)
Letters from Dick to Lettice, Minnie (mother), Frances (grandmother) and others
Letters to Dick from Walter (father) and many others
Condolence letters to Lettice
Army service record
Sundry other papers
2. Other Sources
Army Lists
Dictionary of National Biography
Eton College Chronicle
The Twelfth Royal Lancers Journal & The 9th/12th Royal Lancers Regimental Journal London Gazette
The Times Digital Archive
Who’s Who
Wikipedia and other websites
3. Books
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Blumenson, Martin, Mark Clark, London 1985
Booker, Christopher, A Looking-Glass Tragedy, London 1997
Brockbank, Robin, A Short History of the 9th/12th Royal Lancers (Prince of Wales’s) 1960 – 1985, Privately published 1990
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Bryant, Arthur, Triumph in the West: 1943 – 1946, London 1959
Butcher, Harry C, Three Years with Eisenhower, London 1946
Carver, Michael, Harding of Petherton, London 1978
Charrington, Harold, The 12th Royal Lancers in France August 1914 – November 1918, Privately published 1921
Charrington, Richard, Spearmen: The History of the 9th/12th Royal Lancers, Privately published 2010
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Clark, Mark, Calculated Risk, London 1951
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Cloake, John, Templer: Tiger of Malaya, London 1985
Connell, John, Auchinleck, London 1959
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David, Saul, Churchill’s Sacrifice of the Highland Division: France 1940, London 1994
David, Saul, Mutiny at Salerno: An Injustice Exposed, London 1995
D’Este, Carlo, World War II in the Mediterranean: 1942 – 1945, Chapel Hill 1990
D’Este, Carlo, Fatal Decision: Anzio and the Battle for Rome, London 1991
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De Guingand, Francis, Operation Victory, London 1947
Doherty, Richard, Ireland’s Generals in the Second World War, Dublin 2004
Doherty, Richard, Eighth Army in Italy: The Long Hard Slog, Barnsley 2007
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Douglas, Sholto (with Robert Wright), Years of Command, London 1966
Eisenhower, Dwight D., Crusade in Europe, London 1948
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Forty, George & Livesey, Jack, Tanks & Armoured Fighting Vehicles, London 2010
Fraser, David, Alanbrooke, London 1982
Fraser, David, And We Shall Shock Them: The British Army in the Second World War, London 1983
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Grove, Eric, World War II Tanks, London 1976
Hamilton, Nigel, Monty: The Making of a General 1887 – 1942, London 1981
Hamilton, Nigel, Monty: Master of the Battlefield 1942 – 1944, London 1983
Hamilton, Nigel, Monty: The Field-Marshal 1944 – 1976, London 1986
Harpur, Brian, The Impossible Victory: A personal account of the Battle for the River Po, London 1980
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Horrocks, Brian, A Full Life, London 1960
Hunt, David, A Don at War, London 1966
Jackson, W. G. F., Alexander of Tunis as Military Commander, London 1971
Joslin, H. F., Orders of Battle: Second World War 1939 – 1945, London 1960
Kempton, Chris, ‘Loyalty & Honour’: The Indian Army September 1939 – August 1947, Milton Keynes 2003
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Macksey, Kenneth, Armoured Crusader: The Biography of Major-General Sir Percy ‘Hobo’ Hobart, London 1967
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br /> Macmillan, Harold, The Blast of War 1939 – 1945, London 1967
Marshall-Cornwall, James, Wars and Rumours of Wars, London 1984
Martel, Giffard, An Outspoken Soldier: His Views and Memoirs, London 1949
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Stewart, Patrick, History of The XII Royal Lancers, London 1950
Strawson, John, General Sir Richard McCreery… A Portrait, Privately published 1973
Strawson, John, The Italian Campaign, London 1987
Strawson, John, Hussars, Horses & History, Barnsley 2007
Tuker, Francis, Approach to Battle, London 1963
Verney, Gerald, The Desert Rats: The 7th Armoured Division in World War II, London 1954
Von Senger und Etterlin, Frido, Neither Fear nor Hope, London 1963
Warner, Philip, Auchinleck: The Lonely Soldier, London 1981
Warner, Philip, Horrocks: The General Who Led From the Front, London 1984