Bertram Ramsay
Sir Bertram Home Ramsay KCB KBE MVO (born January 20, 1883 in London , † January 2, 1945 with Toussus-le-Noble ) was a British admiral .
Ramsay, whose father was an officer in the British Indian Army, joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman in 1898 . After his training at the Royal Naval College on the Hulk HMS Britannia , he went in September 1899 as a midshipman on the HMS Crescent , the flagship of the North America and West India station. After serving in Somalia from 1903 to 1904, he was promoted to lieutenant .
During the First World War , Ramsay led units of the Dover patrol . A little later he was the naval adjutant to King George V and was promoted to rear admiral. In 1938 Ramsay retired from active service.
When the Second World War broke out , the Royal Navy reactivated Ramsay and gave him command of the port of Dover ( Vice Admiral Dover ). After the evacuation of Dunkirk in Operation Dynamo , in which he was involved, he was knighted and appointed temporary admiral.
Ramsay was also responsible for the organization of the Allied landings in Algiers on November 8, 1942 ( Operation Torch ) and the British attack fleet in the invasion of Sicily ( Operation Husky ), in which he commanded 795 ships and 713 landing craft .
In December 1943, the Allies designated Ramsay as naval commander for Operation Overlord ( Commander in Chief Allied Naval Expeditionary Force ). In the largest landing operation of all time, he controlled 2,730 ships (→ naval warfare during Operation Overlord ). After the successful invasion, Ramsay was given command of the northern French ports. His last action during the war was the attack on the Walcheren peninsula , which enabled the Allies to capture the important port of Antwerp .
Bertram Ramsay was killed near Toussus-le-Noble on January 2, 1945 when his plane crashed while taking off. In November 2002, the British erected a statue of Ramsay in front of Dover Castle near the site where the plans to evacuate Dunkirk had been carried out.
literature
- David Woodward: Ramsay at War. The Fighting Life of Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay. W. Kimber, London 1957.
- WS Chalmers: Full Cycle. The Biography of Admiral Sir Bertram Home Ramsay KCB KBE MVO. Hodder & Stoughton, London 1959.
Web links
- Literature by and about Bertram Ramsay in the catalog of the German National Library
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ramsay, Bertram |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Ramsay, Bertram Home |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British admiral |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 20, 1883 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 2, 1945 |
| Place of death | at Toussus-le-Noble |