Charles Foulkes (General, 1903)

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Charles Foulkes in May 1944

Charles Foulkes CC , CB , CBE , DSO , CD (* 3. January 1903 in Stockton-on-Tees , England ; † 12. September 1969 in Ottawa ) was a Canadian officer, most recently as General , who in World War II , the Commanded 2nd Canadian Division in Operation Overlord and the I Canadian Corps in the Italian campaign and in the Netherlands and was Chief of the Canadian General Staff from 1945 to 1951 and then Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee of the Canadian Armed Forces until 1960 .

Life

Little is known of Foulkes' early life. He grew up in Canada and attended the Royal Military College of Canada before joining the Permanent Force in 1923 . Assigned to the Royal Canadian Regiment , he spent the prewar period in a number of staff assignments before graduating from Staff College Camberley in 1937/38 . At the beginning of World War II, he had the rank of major .

During the Canadian mobilization in 1939, Foulkes was named Brigade Major of the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Canadian Division . In September 1940 he moved to the post of GSO1 (comparable to the German First General Staff Officer ) of the 3rd Canadian Division . He was given command of a Regina Rifles battalion in December 1941 and the 3rd Canadian Infantry Brigade in August of the following year . In April 1943 he became Brigadier, General Staff (Chief of Staff) of the First Canadian Army .

In January 1944, Foulkes was given command of the 2nd Canadian Division . With this division he landed on Juno beach in the first week of July and was involved in the final phase of the Battle of Caen (Operations Atlantic , Spring and Totalize ). After fighting in the Seine valley at the end of August, the division was responsible for the liberation of Dieppe and other canal ports such as Dunkirk in September before reaching Belgian territory and taking part in the battle of the Scheldt estuary . From the end of September until his replacement in November 1944, Foulkes also represented Guy Simonds as General Officer Commanding of the II Canadian Corps , when he led the First Canadian Army for the sick Henry Crerar .

In November 1944, Foulkes was transferred to Italy to replace Eedson Burns as commander of the I Canadian Corps . The corps was moved to north-western Europe in early 1945, unnoticed by the Germans, to take part in the operations to liberate the Netherlands . Among other things, it was involved in the fighting for Arnhem in mid-April and then crossed the IJssel for the final attack on the " Fortress Holland ". In his capacity as commander in chief of the corps, Foulkes accepted the surrender of the commander-in-chief of the German 25th Army , Colonel General Johannes Blaskowitz , in Wageningen instead of Crerar . After the total German surrender on May 8th, Foulkes took his headquarters in Hilversum .

After the dissolution of his corps on July 17, 1945, Foulkes returned to Canada, where he took over the post of Chief of Staff of the Canadian Army from John Carl Murchie in August . In the race for this post, Foulkes beat his former superior Simonds, who was an excellent field commander but had little sense of political issues. At the age of 42, he was the youngest Canadian chief of staff at the time. The tasks included the demobilization of the army and, later, the expansion of the army and the preparation for integration into the NATO alliance. Canada's involvement in the Korean War was also part of his work.

On February 1, 1951, Foulkes was appointed to the newly created office of Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee . As such, he was responsible for questions of coordination between the armed forces on strategic issues. He was also the Canadian representative on the NATO Military Committee . On January 26, 1954, he was promoted to full general. After his retirement in January 1960, he gave various lectures on military issues and was visiting professor of strategic studies at Carleton University in Ottawa from 1968 until his death .

literature

  • JL Granatstein: The Generals: The Canadian Army's Senior Commanders in the Second World War. University of Calgary Press, 2005.
  • Ders .: The Weight of Command: Voices of Canada's Second World War Generals and Those Who Knew Them. UBC Press, 2016.
  • Sean M. Maloney: General Charles Foulkes: A Primer on How to be CDS , in: Bernd Horn, Stephen John Harris (Eds.): Warrior Chiefs: Perspectives on Senior Canadian Military Leaders. Dundurn, 2001.

Web links

Commons : Charles Foulkes  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
personal data
SURNAME Foulkes, Charles
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian general
DATE OF BIRTH January 3, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Stockton-on-Tees , England
DATE OF DEATH September 12, 1969
Place of death Ottawa