David Tyacke

David Noel Hugh Tyacke , CB, OBE (born November 18, 1915 in Germoe , Penzance , Cornwall , England , † February 10, 2010 in Winchester ) was a British major general .

Life

Military training and World War II

Tyacke came from a family of Germoe, Penzance, since the beginning of the 18th century in the local tin mining was active and was the son of Captain CNW Tyacke that as an officer of the Light Infantry - Regiment of the Duke of Cornwall (Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry ) fell during the First World War in 1918.

After finishing school at Malvern College , he completed military training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst . After completing this training, he joined in 1935 as a lieutenant like his father in the Light Infantry Regiment of the Duke of Cornwall (DLCI) and served before the Second World War in India , before he in October 1939 as an officer with the 2nd  Battalion DCLI in France was used . After the start of the western campaign in May 1940, he was transferred with the battalion towards Dunkirk , where he was rescued after a combat mission with a small group under his leadership in the nearby Bray-Dunes .

Tyacke then came as an officer to the staff of the Chindit units to carry out " Operation Thursday ", which was planned as an incursion by six British brigades behind the Japanese divisions .

David Tyacke was the last staff officer at the headquarters of the British Army Special Forces ("Chindits") in Sylhet who saw the unit commander, Major General Orde Wingate , alive before he was on a flight to "Broadway" and "White City" Bases of the 77th and 111th Infantry Brigades in the jungles of Burma behind the units of the Imperial Japanese Army were killed. He later described his impressions of how Wingate's aircraft was initially reported as overdue until the news of the commander's crash spread on March 24, 1944.

At the time of Major General Wingate's death, the first phase of the operation with three brigades had only begun. Following Wingate's death, Tyacke was a staff officer with the new commander of the Chindits, Brigadier General Walter Lentaigne , who changed the concept of "Operation Thursday" and instead put pressure on the 18th and 56th Divisions of the Japanese Army in support of the US-American China - Army in northern Burma under the command of Lieutenant General Joseph "Vinegar Joe" Stillwell . This was a loss-making mission, as new troops replaced and expanded the original three brigades, but there was no support from artillery or tanks . Most recently he served on the staff of the Chindits in Shaduzup in northern Burma at the side of Stillwell's staff until it was replaced by the 36th British Division.

Post-war period and promotion to major general

After the end of the Second World War he returned to Great Britain from India, where he was employed as an instructor at the Staff College in Camberley . He was then commander of the 1st DCLI Battalion in the Federal Republic of Germany and then commander of a brigade of the Territorial Army . He then became Director of Administrative Planning and then Deputy Director of Military Operations in the UK Department of Defense .

In 1966 he was promoted to major general and as such was appointed General Officer Commanding of the British Army in Singapore . At the time, Singapore was Britain's most important military base after massive unrest between Chinese and non-Chinese residents in the fall of 1964. After fierce ideological conflicts between the PAP government and the federation government in Kuala Lumpur, as well as fears on the Malaysian side that the unrest could spread beyond the city, Singapore became a federation with Malaya , Sabah and Sarawak on August 7, 1965 locked out. Two days later, on August 9, 1965, Singapore's sovereignty was the first to be recognized by Malaysia.

In 1970 he retired and was appointed controller of the Army's main charity (Army Benevolent Fund) and Deputy Colonel of the Somerset and Cornwall Light Infantry. He then held the honorary post of Colonel in the Light Infantry between 1972 and 1977 . Most recently he was a member of the Malvern College Council from 1978 to 1988.

He has received several awards for his services and was among other things Companion of the Order of the Bath and Officer of the Order of the British Empire .

Web links

• Major-General David Tyacke . In: The Times , March 9, 2010