Bernard Freyberg, 1st Baron Freyberg: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
No edit summary
Line 122: Line 122:
*1945-1946: Lieutenant-General Sir Bernard Cyril Freyberg, VC, KCB, KBE, CMG, DSO***
*1945-1946: Lieutenant-General Sir Bernard Cyril Freyberg, VC, KCB, KBE, CMG, DSO***
*1946-1951: Lieutenant-General Sir Bernard Cyril Freyberg, VC, [[GCMG]], KCB, KBE, DSO***
*1946-1951: Lieutenant-General Sir Bernard Cyril Freyberg, VC, [[GCMG]], KCB, KBE, DSO***
*1951-1963: Lieutenant-General [[The Right Honourable]] The [[Lord Freyberg]], VC, GCMG, KCB, KBE, DSO***
*1951-1963: Lieutenant-General [[The Right Honourable]] The [[Baron Freyberg|Lord Freyberg]], VC, GCMG, KCB, KBE, DSO***


==Notes==
==Notes==

Revision as of 13:59, 10 July 2009

Lieutenant-General The Right Honourable
The Lord Freyberg
VC, GCMG, KCB, KBE, DSO and three Bars
Freyberg at Cassino, Italy, 3 January 1944.
7th Governor-General of New Zealand
In office
17 June 1946 – 15 August 1952
Preceded byCyril Newall, 1st Baron Newall
Succeeded byCharles Norrie, 1st Baron Norrie
Personal details
Born(1889-03-21)21 March 1889
Richmond, Surrey, England
Died4 July 1963(1963-07-04) (aged 74)
Windsor, England
NationalityNew Zealand
AwardsVictoria Cross[1]
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (29 Jan 46)[2]
Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (24 Nov 42)[3]
Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Companion of the Bath (1 Jan 35)[4]
Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (1919)
Distinguished Service Order & three Bars (3 Jun 15,[5] 1 Feb 19,[5] 7 Mar 19,[5] 5 Jul 45[6])
Mention in Despatches (6)[7][8][9][10]
Knight of the Venerable Order of St. John (Dec 45)[11]
Croix de Guerre (France)
Legion of Merit (Commander) (United States) (2 Aug 45)[12]
Greek War Cross (1st Class) (10 Apr 42)[13]
Military service
AllegianceUnited Kingdom (1914–1937)
New Zealand (1939–1945)
Years of service1914–1937
1939–1945
RankLieutenant General
Commands1st Battalion, Manchester Regiment
2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force
New Zealand 2nd Division

Lieutenant-General Bernard Cyril Freyberg, 1st Baron Freyberg VC, GCMG, KCB, KBE, DSO & Three Bars (21 March 1889 – 4 July 1963), was an English-born New Zealand Victoria Cross recipient and soldier who later served as Governor-General of New Zealand.

A veteran of the Mexican Revolution, he became an officer in the British Army during the First World War. Freyberg was the first soldier on the beach during the Gallipoli Campaign and the youngest general in the British Army during the First World War,[14] later serving on the Western Front where he was decorated with the Victoria Cross. He liked to be in the thick of action—Churchill called him "the Salamander" due to his love of fire.

During the Second World War, he commanded the New Zealand Army Expeditionary Force in the Battle of Crete, the North African Campaign and the Italian Campaign. Freyberg was involved in defeat in the Battle of Greece, defeated again as the Allied commander in the Battle of Crete and performed successfully commanding the New Zealand division in the North African, including the Battle of El Alamein.

In Italy, he was defeated again at the Second Battle of Cassino as a corps commander, but later relieved Padua and Venice, and was first to enter Trieste, where he successfully confronted Tito's partisans. By the end of the Second World War, Freyberg had spent ten and a half years fighting the Germans.[15]

Early life

Freyberg, born in Richmond, London in England, moved to New Zealand with his parents at the age of two. He attended Wellington College from 1897 to 1904.

A strong swimmer, he won the New Zealand 100-yards championship in 1906 and in 1910.

On 22 May 1911, he gained formal registration as a dentist. He worked as an assistant dentist in Morrinsville and later practised in Hamilton and in Levin. While in Morrinsville he was asked to take up a subalternship in the local Territorial Army unit, but he did not succeed in gaining the King's commission.

Freyberg left New Zealand in March 1914. Records exist of him in San Francisco and in Mexico, where he may have taken part in the civil war then raging in that country. Upon hearing of the outbreak of war in Europe in August 1914, he travelled to England.

World War I

In late 1914 Freyberg met Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, and persuaded him to grant him a Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve commission in the Hood Battalion of the newly-constituted Royal Naval Division.

In 1915 Freyberg became involved in the Dardanelles campaign. During the initial landings by Allied troops following the unsuccessful attempt to force the straits by sea, Freyberg swam ashore in the Gulf of Saros. Once ashore, he began lighting flares so as to distract the defending Turkish forces from the real landings taking place at Gallipoli. Despite coming under heavy Turkish fire, he returned safely from this outing, and for his action he received the Distinguished Service Order. He received serious wounds on several occasions and left the peninsula when his division evacuated in January 1916.

File:Victoria Cross Medal Ribbon & Bar.jpg
The Victoria Cross

In May 1916 Freyberg was transferred to the British Army as a captain in the Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regiment.[16] However, he remained with the Hood Battalion as a seconded temporary major[16] and went with them to France. During the final stages of the Battle of the Somme, when commanding a battalion as a temporary lieutenant-colonel, he so distinguished himself in the capture of Beaucourt village that he was awarded the Victoria Cross.[1] On 13 November 1916[17] at Beaucourt-sur-Ancre, France, after Freyberg's battalion had carried the initial attack through the enemy's front system of trenches, he rallied and re-formed his own much disorganised men and some others, and led them on a successful assault of the second objective, during which he suffered two wounds, but remained in command and held his ground throughout the day and the following night. When re-inforced the next morning he attacked and captured a strongly fortified village, taking 500 prisoners. Though wounded twice more, the second time severely, Freyberg refused to leave the line until he had issued final instructions. The citation for the award,[1] published in the London Gazette described the end result of these actions, stating that "[Freyberg] enabled the lodgement of the corps to be permanently held, and on this point the line was eventually formed"[1] for subsequent offensives.

During his time on the Western Front Freyberg continued to lead by example. His leadership had a cost however: Freyberg received nine wounds during his service in France, and men who served with him later in his career said hardly a part of his body did not have scars.

Freyberg gained promotion to the rank of temporary Brigadier (although he still had the permanent rank of only Captain)[18] and took command of a brigade in the 58th Division in April 1917, which reportedly made him the youngest general officer in the British Army. He was awarded a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George the same year. In September a shell exploding at his feet inflicted the worst of his many wounds. When he resumed duty in January 1918 he again commanded 88th Brigade in 29th Division,[15] performing with distinction during the German offensive of March–April 1918. He won a bar to his DSO in September that year.

Freyberg ended the war by leading a cavalry squadron detached from 7th Dragoon Guards to seize a bridge at Lessines, which was achieved one minute before the armistice came into effect, thus earning him a third DSO.[5][19] By the end of the war Freyberg had added the French Croix de Guerre to his name, as well receiving five Mentions in Despatches after his escapade at Saros.

Interbellum

Early in 1919 Freyberg was granted a regular commission in the Grenadier Guards and settled into peacetime soldiering. From 1921 to 1925 he was a staff officer in the headquarters of the 44th Division. He suffered health problems arising from his many wounds, and as part of his convalescence he visited New Zealand in 1921.

On 14 June 1922 he married Barbara McLaren (a daughter of Sir Herbert Jekyll and the widow of Hon. Francis McLaren) at St Martha on the Hill. Barbara had two children from her previous marriage, and she and Freyberg later had a son, Paul, born in 1923.

In the general election of 1922 he stood unsuccessfully (coming second) as an Independent Liberal candidate for Cardiff South. He represented New Zealand on the International Olympic Committee in 1928-30.

Promoted to the permanent rank of major in 1927 (having been a substantive captain since 1916),[20] he held a GSO2 staff appointment at Headquarters Eastern Command until February 1929 when he was promoted lieutenant-colonel and appointed to command 1st Battalion, Manchester Regiment.[21] In 1931 he was promoted colonel (with seniority backdated to 1922)[22] and was appointed Assistant Quartermaster General of Southern Command. In September 1933 he moved to a GSO1 posting at the War Office[23] before being promoted major-general in July 1934.[24]

With this promotion, at the age of only 45, he seemed headed for the highest echelons of the army. However, medical examinations prior to a posting in India revealed a heart problem. Despite strenuous efforts to surmount this, Freyberg, who was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1936, was obliged to retire on 16 October 1937.[25]

Second World War

Major General Freyberg at the Battle of Crete.

The British Army classified Freyberg as unfit for active service in 1937. However, following the outbreak of war in September 1939 he returned to its active list in December as a specially employed major-general.[26] Following an approach from the New Zealand government, Freyberg offered his services and subsequently gained appointment as commander of the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force and of the New Zealand 2nd Division.

In the chaos of the retreat from the Greek mainland campaign of 1941, London gave Freyberg command of the Allied forces during the Battle of Crete. Controversy surrounds his use of ULTRA intelligence messages during this battle.[27]

Promoted to Lieutenant-General and knighted via Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, Freyberg continued to command the New Zealand 2nd Division through the North African and Italian campaigns of the British Eighth Army. He had an excellent reputation as a divisional-level tactician. Churchill described Freyberg as his "salamander" due to his love of fire and wanting to be always in the middle of the action. [28]

Freyberg however disagreed strongly with his superior, General Claude Auchinleck, and insisted that as a commander of a national contingent he had the right to refuse orders if those orders ran counter to the New Zealand national interest. On the other hand, Freyberg enjoyed a good relationship with General Bernard Montgomery, who thought highly of the experienced New Zealander.

In the climactic Battle of El Alamein in October–November 1942, the New Zealand Division played a vital part in the Allies’ final breakthrough; for his leadership of it Freyberg was immediately upgraded to a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath. During the ensuing pursuit of the Axis forces across North Africa to Tunisia, where they surrendered, he led the New Zealanders on a series of well-executed left hooks designed to outflank successive enemy defence lines.

Freyberg was injured in an aircraft accident in September 1944. After six weeks in hospital he returned to command the New Zealand Division in its final operations, which involved a series of river crossings and an advance of 250 miles in three weeks. By the time of Germany’s capitulation, the New Zealanders had reached Trieste, having already liberated both Padua and Venice, where there was, briefly, a tense standoff with Yugoslav partisans. This success earned him a third bar to his DSO in July 1945,[6] and he was also made a commander of the US Legion of Merit. By the time he relinquished command of the division, on 22 November 1945, he had accepted an invitation to become Governor-General of New Zealand – the first with a New Zealand upbringing. He left London for his new post on 3 May 1946, after being made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George. His links with the army were cut when his retirement took effect on 10 September 1946.

Freyberg had excelled in planning set-piece attacks, such as at Operation Supercharge at Alamein, Operation Supercharge II at Tebaga Gap, and in the storming of the Senio line in 1945. However, the two occasions that Freyberg commanded at Corps level—at Crete and Monte Cassino—counted as less successful. Throughout the war he showed a disdain for danger. He showed notable concern for the welfare of his soldiers, taking a common-sense attitude to discipline and ensuring the establishment of social facilities for his men. He had become a very popular commander with the New Zealand soldiers by the time he left his command in 1945.

Post-war

Following his retirement from the Army, Freyberg served as Governor-General of New Zealand from 1946 until 1952. In this post he played a very active role, visiting all parts of New Zealand and its dependencies.

The Crown raised Freyberg to the peerage as Baron Freyberg of Wellington in New Zealand and of Munstead in the County of Surrey in 1951.[29]

After his term as New Zealand Governor-General had finished Freyberg returned to England where he sat frequently in the House of Lords. On 1 March 1953 he became the Deputy Constable and Lieutenant-Governor of Windsor Castle;[30] he took up residence in the Norman Gateway the following year.

In 1955, Freyberg High School in Palmerston North, New Zealand opened.

Freyberg died at Windsor on 4 July 1963 following the rupture of one of his war wounds, and was buried in the churchyard of St Martha on the Hill in Guildford, Surrey. His wife is buried at his side, and their son, who was awarded the Military Cross, at the end of their graves.

Styles

Note: An asterisk (*) denotes a Bar to the DSO.

  • 1889-1914: Bernard Cyril Freyberg
  • 1914-3 June 1915: Commander (temp.) Bernard Cyril Freyberg, RNVR
  • 3 June 1915-May 1916: Commander (temp.) Bernard Cyril Freyberg, DSO, RNVR
  • May-June 1916: Captain Bernard Cyril Freyberg, DSO
  • June-July 1916: Captain (Temp. Major) Bernard Cyril Freyberg, DSO
  • July-12 December 1916: Captain (Temp. Lieutenant-Colonel) Bernard Cyril Freyberg, DSO
  • 12 December 1916-1917: Captain (Temp. Lieutenant-Colonel) Bernard Cyril Freyberg, VC, DSO
  • 1917-1 February 1919: Captain (Temp. Brigadier) Bernard Cyril Freyberg, VC, DSO
  • 1 February-7 March 1919: Captain (Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel; Temp. Brigadier) Bernard Cyril Freyberg, VC, DSO*
  • 7 March-June 1919: Captain (Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel) Bernard Cyril Freyberg, VC, DSO*
  • June 1919-1920: Captain (Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel) Bernard Cyril Freyberg, VC, DSO**
  • 1920-1927: Captain (Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel) Bernard Cyril Freyberg, VC, CMG, DSO**
  • 1927-1929: Major (Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel) Bernard Cyril Freyberg, VC, CMG, DSO**
  • 1929-1931: Lieutenant-Colonel Bernard Cyril Freyberg, VC, CMG, DSO**
  • 1931-1934: Colonel Bernard Cyril Freyberg, VC, CMG, DSO**
  • 1934-1935: Major-General Bernard Cyril Freyberg, VC, CMG, DSO**
  • 1935-1941: Major-General Bernard Cyril Freyberg, VC, CB, CMG, DSO**
  • 1941-1942: Lieutenant-General Sir Bernard Cyril Freyberg, VC, KBE, CB, CMG, DSO**
  • 1942-1945: Lieutenant-General Sir Bernard Cyril Freyberg, VC, KCB, KBE, CMG, DSO**
  • 1945-1946: Lieutenant-General Sir Bernard Cyril Freyberg, VC, KCB, KBE, CMG, DSO***
  • 1946-1951: Lieutenant-General Sir Bernard Cyril Freyberg, VC, GCMG, KCB, KBE, DSO***
  • 1951-1963: Lieutenant-General The Right Honourable The Lord Freyberg, VC, GCMG, KCB, KBE, DSO***

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d You must specify date= when using {{London Gazette}}.
  2. ^ You must specify date= when using {{London Gazette}}.
  3. ^ You must specify date= when using {{London Gazette}}.
  4. ^ You must specify date= when using {{London Gazette}}.
  5. ^ a b c d You must specify date= when using {{London Gazette}}.
  6. ^ a b You must specify date= when using {{London Gazette}}.
  7. ^ You must specify date= when using {{London Gazette}}.
  8. ^ You must specify date= when using {{London Gazette}}.
  9. ^ You must specify date= when using {{London Gazette}}.
  10. ^ You must specify date= when using {{London Gazette}}.
  11. ^ You must specify date= when using {{London Gazette}}.
  12. ^ You must specify date= when using {{London Gazette}}.
  13. ^ You must specify date= when using {{London Gazette}}.
  14. ^ Youngest General WW1
  15. ^ a b Kay, p. 549
  16. ^ a b You must specify date= when using {{London Gazette}}.
  17. ^ You must specify date= when using {{London Gazette}}.
  18. ^ You must specify date= when using {{London Gazette}}.
  19. ^ You must specify date= when using {{London Gazette}}.
  20. ^ You must specify date= when using {{London Gazette}}.
  21. ^ You must specify date= when using {{London Gazette}}.
  22. ^ You must specify date= when using {{London Gazette}}.
  23. ^ You must specify date= when using {{London Gazette}}.
  24. ^ You must specify date= when using {{London Gazette}}.
  25. ^ You must specify date= when using {{London Gazette}}.
  26. ^ You must specify date= when using {{London Gazette}}.
  27. ^ "The controversies - The Battle for Crete". New Zealand History online. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 2009-07-09.
  28. ^ Stevens (1962), p. 121. Ancient superstition had it that the lizard-like salamander could live in fire.
  29. ^ You must specify date= when using {{London Gazette}}.
  30. ^ You must specify date= when using {{London Gazette}}.

References

External links


Political offices
Preceded by Governor-General of New Zealand
1946 – 1952 		Succeeded by
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
New Creation
 Baron Freyberg
1951 – 1963 		Succeeded by

Template:Persondata

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bernard_Freyberg,_1st_Baron_Freyberg&oldid=301370619"