Aylmer Hunter-Weston
Sir Aylmer Gould Hunter-Weston KCB DSO (born September 23, 1864 - March 18, 1940 in Hunterston , Ayrshire , Scotland ) was a British general and Member of Parliament .
"Hunter Colorful" - as he was known in the army - led in the First World War first the 29th Division , then in 1915, the VIII Corps in the failed. Expedition to Gallipoli and then on the Western Front . He was one of the most famous generals in the British Army of his time and was considered particularly eccentric. Hunter-Weston is considered the prototype of the proverbial incompetent British "Donkey Generals" (German: 'Esel-Generale'). The incompetence of the British generals became particularly evident at the beginning of the First World War. Hunter-Weston advocated a broad daylight attack. This caused high losses among the troops, as the defenders could easily repel the attack from their well-developed positions.
Life
Aylmer Hunter-Weston joined the Royal Engineer Corps in 1884 and went through standard colonial assignments. He served first in India , where he was wounded, then on Kitchener's staff in the suppression of the Mahdi uprising in Sudan and took part in the Boer War (1899-1902).
After various general staff assignments, he became Assistant Director of Military Training in the War Department and the Order of the Bath in 1911 . After the outbreak of war he was given command of the 11th Infantry Brigade, which was deployed with the British Expeditionary Force in France.
When the preparations for the Anglo-French expedition to Gallipoli under the command of Sir Ian Hamilton began in the spring of 1915 , Major General Hunter-Weston was given command of the 29th Division established in January on March 10, 1915 . With its twelve battalions, this should bear the brunt of the attack on Gallipoli.
The landing at Cape Helles , the extreme western tip of the Gallipoli Peninsula , on April 25, 1915, ended in a bloodbath for the British soldiers for which Hunter-Weston, who failed to exploit successes already achieved, is blamed. The division did not reach its destination, the village of Krithia .
In the following months the British troops were further strengthened and Hunter-Weston was promoted to lieutenant general and commanding general of the VIII Corps formed on Gallipoli on May 24th .
In July 1915, Hunter-Weston was repatriated to Great Britain because of a sunstroke and nervous overexertion , where he was elected to the House of Commons for North Ayrshire in October 1916 .
In the meantime, however, Hunter-Weston had returned to his post as commander of the VIII Corps, which, since the unsuccessful operation at Gallipoli had since been broken off, was now in France. With this corps he took part in the Somme Offensive on July 1, 1916 . The corps did not achieve any of its goals, but it suffered by far the greatest losses.
Again, this failure is largely attributed to Hunter-Weston's incompetence, who prematurely exploded two mines, warning the Germans of the imminent infantry attack.
After his corps was disbanded in 1918, General Hunter-Weston left the army the following year and devoted himself only to his political career. He sat in the House of Commons for 27 years, until 1935.
Sir Aylmer Hunter-Weston died childless on March 18, 1940 at the age of 75 when he fell from a turret of his castle in Hunterston, Ayrshire. His widow died in 1954.
Web links
- First World War who's who
- Center for World War I Studies, Birmingham University ( August 5, 2009 memento on the Internet Archive )
- Royal Engineers and the Gallipoli Expedition (1915–16) ( Memento of July 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hunter-Weston, Aylmer |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Hunter-Weston, Sir Aylmer Gould |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British general |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 23, 1864 |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 18, 1940 |
| Place of death | Hunterston , Ayrshire , Scotland |