Admiral of the Fleet Mountbatten of Burma
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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: United Kingdom/British Empire propelling him into the centre Great-Grandmother Queen Victoria’s Service/branch: Royal Navy/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, Operation Overlord], 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 Malta when in 1934 he was plan the largest invasion in world Winston Churchill. 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 destroyer 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.