Crucial points of the Battle of Britain?

Milosh · May 5, 2014

In August 1944, with the Battle of Normandy almost over, Leigh-Mallory was appointed Air Commander-in-Chief of South East Asia Command (SEAC). But before he could take up his post he and his wife were killed en route to Burma when Avro York MW126, in which they were flying, crashed in the French Alps, killing all on board. A court of inquiry found that the accident was a consequence of bad weather and might have been avoided if Leigh-Mallory had not insisted that the flight proceed in such poor conditions against the advice of his aircrew.

Xjrtaz · May 5, 2014

It does make you wonder! When I read Peter Delabiliers book he mentioned in there that he had to submit his cv for the post and he was up against an Air Marshal and a rear admiral.....all for a position commanding ground troops. How the frak do they work that one into the equation!

beitou · May 5, 2014

Xjrtaz said:
It does make you wonder! When I read Peter Delabiliers book he mentioned in there that he had to submit his cv for the post and he was up against an Air Marshal and a rear admiral.....all for a position commanding ground troops. How the frak do they work that one into the equation!

Because they were all the right sort of chaps, one of us, decent blokes, went to the right school and all that. Commanded troops on the ground, a mere detail.

parsifal · May 5, 2014

Kesselring was a LW comander, placed in command of a ground army in Italy. Did okay.

Mountbatten was an Admiral, placed as the overall commander of SEAC, a combined operations post, and one in which he excelled. He had such lumiaries as Stilwell and Chiang Kai Shek to deal with. No easy feat.

Mac ran a fiefdom in the SWPAC, in command of air, naval and ground assets. He was a US Army general, in charge of mostly foreign troops and assets. Whatever his criticisms, he was effective.

Area commanders were not a new concept. What was astounding and different, from the allied POV, was the Joiont Chiefs, which took Joint Operations to a whole new level. SHAEF was a product of that combined operations approach. it cut across national and service divisions very effectively. Not perfect....as the legendary rivalry between monty and Patton clearly shows, but it was a structure that worked, and enabled the best to be extracted out of people like Mallory

nuuumannn · May 5, 2014

How did he get the job? I would advance the theory that with a fore name of Trafford and a Double barreled family name that he was "just the right sort of chap" and "just the sort of fellow we are looking for"

Actually, Mallory, to use his correct name, dd not have a double barrelled sir name. His family name was Mallory. There was no hyphen between the Leigh, which was his middle name - his father's middle name also, and his family name. Pretentious sod. Shades of "von" Ribbentrop the wine salesman.

This is Mallory's older brother:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mallory

You'll notice that wiki has even hyphenated his name. As I mentioned before, interesting how both died on the side of a mountain.

stona · May 7, 2014

The hyphenation may have been an affectation but Leigh-Mallory's father did it and at least one son (Trafford our future Air Chief Marshal) was happy to carry it on. Why his elder brother chose not to, I know not. The name is invariably written this way in contemporary documents and sometimes abbreviated as L-M in minutes, capitalised and hyphenated.
Cheers
Steve

buffnut453 · May 7, 2014

Xjrtaz said:
It does make you wonder! When I read Peter Delabiliers book he mentioned in there that he had to submit his cv for the post and he was up against an Air Marshal and a rear admiral.....all for a position commanding ground troops. How the frak do they work that one into the equation!

Because he was Commander-in-Chief of British Forces in the Persian Gulf not just the Army forces. This was a Joint position and hence open to all 3 services.

pbehn · May 7, 2014

buffnut453 said:
Because he was Commander-in-Chief of British Forces in the Persian Gulf not just the Army forces. This was a Joint position and hence open to all 3 services.

His father was a captain in the Navy I believe. In some places his name is given as coeur de la Billiere, thats a name to conjour with, at the time of his appointment I read his ancestors came over with William Ist and have been in the military ever since.

buffnut453 · May 7, 2014

I was on a year-long course with Peter de la Billiere's nephew - didn't cash in on his famous surname and was a top bloke!

Crucial points of the Battle of Britain?

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