REPUTATIONS REPUTATIONS PArt one ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET EARL MOUNTBATTEN OF BURMA Innovator, statesman and hero on two fronts

Lord Mountbatten’s force of personality and ability to galvanise had a marked impact on the war against the Nazis, and, the war had a marked impact on him, as Joshua M Casper explores.

arl Mountbatten of Born Prince Louis of Battenberg biography Burma was one of in 1900 the predictably precocious E the most influential young Prince Louis Albert Francis Nickname(s): Dickie Britons of the 20th Victor Nicholas or ‘Dickie’ (so as Born: June 25, 1900, Windsor century. The naval hero was an not to be confused with his Uncle Died: August 27, 1979 (aged 79), Mullaghmore, Ireland integral part of the Allied victory, Nicky, Czar of Russia) knocked off his Allegiance: /British Empire propelling him into the centre Great-Grandmother Queen Victoria’s Service/branch: /Chief of Combined spectacles while in her arms during Operations, Supreme Allied Command South East Asia, of power and shaping his world view. When war broke out in his christening. First Sea Lord, Chief of the Defence Staff Lord Mountbatten followed in his Battles/wars: First World War: North Sea, internment 1939 he began a meteoric rise of the High Seas Fleet, Second World War: Namsos, the that saw him climb to First Sea father’s footsteps and entered the Royal Lizard, Crete, [As planner: Operation Biting, Operation Lord, Admiral of the Fleet, and Naval College in 1913. He received his Chariot, Operation Jubilee, ], to senior NATO command before first posting as a midshipman in 1916, Recapture of Burma, Post-war: Operation Tiderace under the command of Admiral David Awards: KG, GCB, KCB, CB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, becoming Chief of the Defence KCVO, MVO, DSO, KStJ, CStJ, Order of Isabella (Spain), Staff – the professional head of Beatty, who would eventually become Order of the Nile (Egypt), Order of the Crown (Romania), the British military – helping to Admiral of the Fleet. After the war he Order of the Star (Romania), War Cross (Greece), became a naval attaché and aide-de- Legion of Merit (USA), Order of the Cloud and Banner form the Ministry of Defence. He (Republic of China), DSM (USA), Grand Cross of the shaped the monarchy too, when, camp to the Prince of Wales during Légion d’honneur (France), Order of the Star (Nepal), while at Dartmouth Royal Naval both of his high-profile world tours. Order of the White Elephant (Thailand), Order of George The future Edward VIII and Duke of I (Greece), Order of the Netherlands Lion (Netherlands), College, he was instrumental in Order of Aviz (Portuguese Republic), Royal Order of the courtship of a young Princess Windsor was Mountbatten’s best man Seraphim (Sweden), Order of Thiri Thuhamma (Burma), Elizabeth and Prince Philip. Such when he married Edwina Ashley, one Order of the Seal of Solomon (Ethiopia) was Mountbatten’s role within the of Britain’s most eligible socialites and family, the Duke and Duchess of granddaughter of banker Ernest Cassel. OPPOSITE Official photograph showing Chief of Combined Cambridge named their third child Though he didn’t need to work, Operations, Lord Louis Mountbatten at his desk, 1943. for him, and Prince Charles calls Mountbatten was determined to (ALL IMAGES VIA AUTHOR UNLESS NOTED OTHERWISE) him his “honorary grandfather”. succeed in the navy. After a spell at »

16 17 REPUTATIONS REPUTATIONS

Christ College Cambridge and naval ended with a Samurai sword resting fronts and essential to allied victory. demise of Mountbatten’s HMS Kelly: the Kelly when, with paintbrush in signal communications school – an area in the hands of King George VI. In “I have a congenital weakness for “What sort of ship do I want the hand, he had received the famous in which he excelled – he cut his teeth between, he would have his ship feeling certain I can do anything,” Torrin to be?” asks Captain Kinross, cable “Winston is back!” Churchill in the Mediterranean. His first foray sunk, make it to the big screen, help Mountbatten once confessed to played by Coward, using a pseudonym had returned as First Lord of the was in when in 1934 he was plan the largest invasion in world . but the very words of his close friend Admiralty, the same position he had given command of his first ship, the history, be at President Roosevelt Mountbatten. Having heeded his held during the Great War. He was aptly named HMS Daring. and Prime Minister Churchill’s side A HAPPY credo, the crew exclaims: “A happy back in the saddle as head of the navy By 1942 the Nazis began constructing in Quebec and with successors Attlee SHIP, SIR ship, sir! An efficient ship sir!” as Britain was on the brink of war, their Atlantikwall, having occupied and Truman in Teheran, and help Mountbatten’s war started with an Kinross orates: “...Some of you soon he would head the war cabinet much of Europe, while Japan had free millions. event that was famously retold with might think I am ambitious wanting and be Prime Minister in a coalition conquered the Pacific and wrought To say the least, the man who an Academy Award performance, both but, in my experience, you can’t government with Labour lead Clem havoc in China and Southeast Asia. would become Earl Mountbatten and he wouldn’t have had it any other have one without the other. She Attlee as his deputy. Meanwhile, in Britain, a newfangled of Burma and the last Viceroy of way. Noël Coward’s In Which We can’t be happy unless she is efficient, Churchill and the Mountbatten department called Combined India was indispensable on two Serve dramatises the life and eventual and she certainly won’t be efficient family had strong ties. It was during Operations, led by a loquacious unless she is happy.” Mountbatten the Great War that Mountbatten’s RIGHT iconoclast with Royal connections was – or Kinross – then tells his crew father, Prince Louis of Battenberg Mountbatten charged with bucking convention to Von Ribbentrop has signed a non- was forced to resign due to the anti- on board turn the tide of war. A sardonic staff aggression pact with Hitler and war German sentiment that swept Britain, the officer had some poetic thoughts on his is imminent. Instead of the standard much to the chagrin of Churchill. HMS Kelly. intrepid leader: three weeks to get the Torrin (or It was a seminal moment in the life Mountbatten was a likely lad, Kelly) ready to sail, the crew must do of Lord Mountbatten, also known A nimble brain Mountbatten had, so in three days: “None of us will take then as Prince Louis of Battenberg. And this most amiable trait: our clothes off, or turn in, or swing The Battenbergs were forced to Of each new plan which came his way our hands for the next three days relinquish their German Royal titles He’d always claim in accents pat and nights until the job is finished. and anglicise their name as had King ‘Why, I myself invented that!’ Then we’ll send Hitler a telegram. George VI, from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha Adding when he remembered it, The Torrin is ready you can start to Windsor. His father’s ousting drove For any scoffer’s benefit, your war!” him. Roughly the point in his career Mountbatten later recalled that When he’d conceived the bright idea, everyone picked up a paintbrush THE KELLY As ‘August 1934’ and the crew had the ship ready in Like his silver screen namesake BELOW Or ‘Some time during the Boer War’. three days. They painted the Kelly Captain Kinross, Mountbatten always 'HMS Kelly, 1939' Lord Louis Mountbatten’s wartime ‘Mountbatten pink’ – a colour he sensed war. Alongside confidants by Montague triumphs and tribulations began on a devised – to better camouflage Churchill and Anthony Eden, he Dawson. small destroyer named HMS Kelly and ships. Mountbatten was prepping abhorred appeasement, pursued by

“Lord Louis Mountbatten’s wartime the governments of Stanley Baldwin ABOVE triumphs and tribulations began on a and Neville Chamberlin. Mountbatten Lord Mountbatten had been trying to modernise the in 1973, taken in small destroyer named HMS Kelly and navy and prepare for war since the Belgravia, London, ended with a Samurai sword resting late 1930s. He tried to pressure the by Allan Warren. in the hands of King George VI.” Admiralty to adapt a new anti-aircraft (ALLAN WARREN) gun and ensure communications were properly encrypted. “I happen LEFT to know of two instances where Captain Lord Mountbatten turned his restless Lord Louis energy onto things that weren’t his Mountbatten on concern at the time,” recalled Donald the bridge of McLachlan, author of the book Room HMS Kelvin. 39, quoted in John Terraine’s The Life and Times of Lord Mountbatten. “He became interested in anti- aircraft guns, strictly the domain of the gunnery division. It was he who pressed against almost unbelievable opposition for the Oerlikon gun which was then only accepted at the 11th hour and then became standard equipment throughout the fleet. Now if we had gotten the gun in the nick of time; we were six years late with measures to stop the enemy deciphering warship and merchant ship signals. Had the navy accepted Mountbatten’s advice in 1936 and adopted the cipher machine »

18 19 REPUTATIONS REPUTATIONS

RIGHT that I propose letting him off with a been a great thrill to me to meet Lord Louis caution – or rather two cautions: one Roosevelt at various times during the Mountbatten to him, and one to me, for having war, I had admired him ever since before being failed to impress myself sufficiently he was first elected. I was a strong pushed into in three months on all of you, for you supporter of his ‘New Deal’ policy. the water during to know that I would never tolerate And the support and help he gave us the "Crossing the such behaviour. when we stood alone, before Russia Line" ceremony “Nobody will ever again leave their or America came into the war, were on HMS Renown. post. I will never give the order, things we could never forget. (PA ARCHIVE) ‘Abandon Ship’. The only way in “We became personal friends in which we will ever leave the ship will 1942 when I stayed with him at the be if she sinks under our feet.” White House. But as Supreme Allied True to his word, he stayed on Commander I stood in a special the bridge as the Kelly disappeared. relationship to him. He had made His ship had gone down, but that quite clear to me at Quebec, BELOW Mountbatten’s mettle brought when I was appointed. ‘General Lord Louis filmgoers to tears and forged a lifelong Eisenhower,’ he told me, ‘is as much a Mountbatten bond with his men. Most of the pivotal servant of your King as of me. I trust with Edward, monologues were you will feel the same way about me Prince of Wales, Mountbatten’s own words and the tale in southeast Asia.’ I promised him I Malta, April 1920. of HMS Kelly served a important role would be a good American, and he (PA ARCHIVE) in boosting wartime morale. laughed and thanked me.” Mountbatten’s visit to the White She met her ultimate fate – as did WINSTON House was cut short by a message her doppelganger, Torrin – during WAS CALLING from 10 Downing Street that would “Nobody will ever again leave the . As Philip Ziegler, His beloved ship lost, it was first change the entire course of his career. their post. I will never give Mountbatten’s official biographer thought Mountbatten would take Winston was calling. Mountbatten, notes, while he was an impetuous over the carrier HMS Illustrious, being as he often did during the war, the order, ‘Abandon Ship’. The captain, he aroused loyalty from rebuilt at Norfolk, Virginia. So, he went to Chequers. There Winston only way in which we will ever his crew. Mountbatten recalled: “It travelled to the States with his wife, told him he was not to lead HMS leave the ship will be if she was about this time, I believe, that a Edwina, in the summer of 1941. Illustrious, but move to Combined sinks under our feet” certain admiral coined a phrase about Edwina, who by then had found her me: ‘I know of nobody I’d sooner be life’s work as patron of the St John Operations. A navy man at heart, ABOVE with in a tight corner than Dickie Ambulance Corps, went on a goodwill Mountbatten looked none too pleased Combined Mountbatten, and I know of nobody tour to thank the American Red Cross, and wanted to go back to sea. “Have Operations who could get me into one quicker.’” while Mountbatten spoke at what he you no sense of glory?” Churchill, training with After a sailor abandoned post when characterised as a woefully unprepared who like Mountbatten lacked not for small craft. the Kelly was attacked, Mountbatten Pearl Harbor. sense of self, grumbled truculently. (US NATIONAL showed leniency and inspired the It was during that trip he first met Mountbatten could nary refuse. ARCHIVES) crew with rhetoric: “You’ve just been President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Though just a Rear-Admiral he through a harrowing experience… Out He and Mrs Roosevelt even took in took over from his mentor and polo LEFT of 260 men, 259 behaved as I expected a screening of In Which We Serve at buddy Admiral of the Fleet Roger Mountbatten they would. One did not. One left his the White House. A relationship was Keyes. Some with more seniority – addresses the post. This is a most serious offence in cemented, Mountbatten later told especially the Chiefs of Staff – had men of No.6 time of war, and you may be surprised documentarian John Terraine: “It had doubts. Despite Mountbatten’s Commando prior relative youth and lack of seniority, to the abortive RIGHT which the RAF were trying out then his ability to win friends and influence raid on the Adour Mountbatten hundreds of ships would be saved from people had won over the likes of Estuary (Operation (far left) at the the U-boats.” FDR and Eisenhower, who called Myrmidon) in April 1943 Quebec Mountbatten’s predictions were him intelligent, courteous, and said 1942. The raid Conference. L to prescient. Britain was at war, and HMS he would make a good choice, as did was called off R: Admiral of the Kelly was part of the fifth destroyer Roosevelt. partly due to Fleet Sir Dudley flotilla, where they fought in the North poor weather. Pound, Gen Sir Sea. Though his rhetoric was soaring, SPIRIT OF Alan Brooke, ACM his luck as captain was less so. The THE HIVE Sir Charles Portal, Kelly was damaged three times – hit While perceived as a newfangled AM L Breadner, by a mine, in a collision and finally and eccentric operation by some Field Marshal Sir torpedoed. His daughter Lady Pamela of the more conservative forces at John Dill, Lt-Gen Hicks recalled the crowds cheering as Whitehall, Combined Ops changed Sir Hastings Ismay, the Kelly limped home in tow after the course of the war and modern Adm E King, Gen being mined. Mountbatten, despite his warfare. They were the extension H Arnold, Adm arguably less than discerning decisions of the commandos, and the general W Leahy, Lt-Gen K at the helm, was greeted as a hero. ideology of combined forces was to Stuart, V-Adm By the time HMS Kelly entered the get disparate branches of the military P Nelles and Mediterranean in April 1941, she working from one strategic page. Gen G Marshal. had spent half the war in drydock. The concept – while old as war »

20 21 REPUTATIONS REPUTATIONS

RIGHT itself – was formalised for the first Success in war was about organisational means to execute an Survivors of the time, with Mountbatten as its eventual fostering harmony among men, unprecedented coastal incursion sinking of HMS Crown head. Today the British know forces and nations. Individual – the largest co-ordinated military Kelly outside the it as the Chiefs of Staffs Committee vanity needed to be subsumed for invasion in world history. All the Imperial War (which since 2011 has included the good of the whole. Unity was landing craft, transport and raids on Museum with Commander, Joint Forces Command, paramount to military success. Normandy fell under their umbrella. Mountbatten's as one of its positions). It is a concept he adhered to Mountbatten recalled that had daughter, Lady Mountbatten was promoted to throughout his professional life, Churchill summed up his job in Pamela Hicks, Vice-Admiral – the youngest since culminating many years later when one line: “I want you to turn the in May 1986. Horatio Nelson – and was also made he was head of Britain’s armed south coast of England into a (TOPFOTO) a General and Air Marshal, sitting forces. With America and the springboard of defence and a bastion in on all meetings with the Chiefs rest of the allied forces far from of attack.” However, his stint wasn’t of Staff. Previously, only the King prepared for a large-scale invasion, without its foibles. After a series of BELOW had the distinction of holding rank Combined Ops commandos staged successful small-scale operations – British, American. in all military branches. While a number of harassing raids against including the attack on St Nazaire and Chinese symbolic, that Mountbatten held small strategic targets. – Mountbatten and the Combined military and civil rank in all three services was fitting. More importantly they were used Ops commandos decided to embark leaders at the Co-operation among the services as a testing ground for military upon a larger-scale beach-front raid Cairo Conference, became his guiding military doctrine. unity and precision as well as a at Dieppe, using mostly Canadian November 1943. He called such a notion ‘the spirit of ‘workshop’ to develop the means troops. It was an unmitigated Lord Mountbatten the hive’, drawing inspiration from for large-scale beach invasions, disaster. Thousands dead, injured, is stood in the Maurice Maeterlinck’s study of how eventually culminating with or captured. Controversial to this back row, behind bees functioned interdependently, each Operations Torch and Overlord. day, Dieppe did show the foibles of a Winston Churchill. playing their role for the betterment of Combined Operations was charged beachfront landing, as Mountbatten (NARA) the colony. with devising the technical and spun it.

“While symbolic, that Mountbatten held TOP INNOVATORS ABOVE rank in all three services was fitting. That said, his ability to galvanise and King George innovate was lauded. Like Churchill, VI's visit to Co-operation among the services became his Mountbatten was a visionary, and no Mountbatten's guiding military doctrine. He called such a idea was too far-fetched. Combined Combined notion ‘the spirit of the hive'.” Ops became a laboratory of innovation Operations HQ, that bucked convention. Mountbatten, September 1942. who himself invented the Mountbatten Station Keeping Gear (described by the LEFT patent as “station keeping apparatus Roosevelt and for warships… that of maintaining a Churchill during ship which is proceeding with others the Casablanca in formation in its correct relative Conference of position with respect to the adjacent January 1943. ships”) was always keen on technology. Mountbatten In 1966 he was one of the few outside stands front row, the realm of the sciences to be inducted second right. into the Royal Society. (NARA) Enter the Yale zoologist, the communist molecular biologist and the bohemian inventor – respectively, Solly Zuckerman, J D Bernal and LEFT Geoffrey Pyke. They were brought Casablanca into Combined Ops by its new C-in-C Conference to apply scientific research toward the attendees. Seated, unprecedented military beach landing L to R: Adm Ernest that would become D-Day. They King USN, Winston brought a pioneering spirit and a tenor Churchill and of problem-solving. Pyke conceived Franklin Roosevelt. Project Plough, a snow-going force, Maj-Gen Hastings complete with vehicles (the M29 Ismay; Lord Louis Weasel being designed with the force Mountbatten, and in mind), which eventually evolved Field Marshal into the Canadian-American First Sir John Dill stand Special Service Force. None of his ideas behind them. were eschewed. There was Pykrete, (EVERETT named for the eponymous inventor, COLLECTION/ a reinforced ice blend (using sawdust) MARY EVANS) designed to be turned into supersized aircraft carriers made of ice. »

22 23 REPUTATIONS REPUTATIONS

on par with the likes of Generals LEFT MacArthur, Eisenhower and Lord Mountbatten, Wavell. Mountbatten would be in stood behind the Far East when the Allies crossed Winston Churchill, the Channel and stormed the beaches, at the Casablanca but his role was not forgotten. He Conference. would now be charged with applying (NARA) his penchant for innovation and military diplomacy toward revitalising a command overwhelmed by the Japanese. While he was in Asia, a cable arrived: “Today we visited the British and American armies on the soil of France. We sailed through vast fleets of ships with landing craft of many types pouring more men, vehicles and stores ashore. We saw clearly the manoeuvre in process of rapid development. We have shared our secrets in common that they could soon be sunk. Then Churchill more enthusiastic than ever.” and helped each other all we could. We Bernal used an inflatable swimming Mulberry was one of the most wish to tell you at this moment in your collar which he stretched across the important innovations of the war, but arduous campaign that we realise that BELOW bath. This absorbed the movement though he was integral in its planning, much of this remarkable technique, and Lord Mountbatten of the waves and the little paper Mountbatten would not be present therefore the success of the venture, (right, in black) ships survived. There was no doubt to see D-Day unfold. It was also at has its origin in developments effected watching a that Bernal’s demonstration together Quebec that Churchill and Roosevelt by you and your Staff of Combined landing exercise with his extremely able exposition of made Admiral Mountbatten, just 43, Operations. at Dundonald the subject helped tip the scales with Supreme Allied Commander, South Signed: Arnold, Marshall, King, Camp, Ayreshire, the Chiefs of Staff and made Mr East Asia Command. He was now Brooke, Smuts, Churchill.” Scotland.

Bernal busied himself with “We wish to tell you at this moment ABOVE preparations for the upcoming in your arduous campaign that we Mountbatten invasion and studied the gradient realise that much of this remarkable takes the salute of the beaches and mapped them in at a passing-out detail. Another stroke of Combined technique, and therefore the success parade of Ops genius was PLUTO (pipeline of the venture, has its origin in new officers under the ocean) one of the great developments effected by you” for the Royal scientific feats of the war which Armoured Corps. eventually supplied the front lines at Sandhurst, after the invasion of Normandy. (TOPFOTO) A small-scale raid is one thing, but a large incursion involves complicated RIGHT logistics and supply lines. Dieppe Mountbatten proved the difficulties in seizing an (centre) with enemy-controlled port, so Combined his staff, Ops went to work designing artificial April 1942. L to R: Gp Capt harbours. Codenamed Mulberry, A Willetts, R-Adm there would have been no D-Day H Horan, Maj-Gen without these moveable ports J Haydon, AVM designed by Mountbatten’s crack J Ross, Brig scientists. G Wildman- Mountbatten took his scientists Lushington, and to the conference at Quebec, where Cmdre R Ellis. Winston and FDR sat with Canadian (TOPFOTO) Premier Mackenzie King. “I called him in to give the Chiefs of Staff the RIGHT idea of an artificial harbour providing Adm Sir Bruce enough shelter for disembarking,” Fraser with Gen Mountbatten told the Royal Society, 'Joe' Stillwell adding: “We went into one of the big and Mountbatten, bathrooms where Bernal made little in Ceylon, 22 paper ships. First of all the paper Look out for part two, coming in September 1944. ships were put at one end of the bath your next issue of Britain at War. and an officer making waves showed

24 25