Gordon Bennett (General)

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Major General Gordon Bennett in Aleya , Syria , 1941

Henry Gordon Bennett , CB , CMG , DSO (born April 16, 1887 in Balwyn near Melbourne , † August 1, 1962 in Dural near Sydney ) was a lieutenant general in the Australian infantry .

Life

Gordon Bennett attended Balwyn State School and Hawthorn College, and then worked as an insurance clerk with the Australian Pension Fund. In 1908 he joined the militia and was assigned to the 5th Infantry Regiment. In 1912 Bennett was promoted to major.

First World War

Shortly after the outbreak of the First World War , Bennett switched to the AIF and from October 1914 led the 6th Battalion in Egypt as deputy commander.

In the early morning of April 25, 1915, Gordon Bennett landed with his men on the Gallipoli peninsula (→ Battle of Gallipoli ) and was wounded in the afternoon fighting on Pine Ridge . After being treated on a hospital ship, he returned to the front line at his own request, which earned him the reputation of an honorable and courageous leader. On May 8th, his soldiers were involved in the attacks on Turkish positions near Krithia , which ended in a disaster with high casualties. The next day, Bennet was promoted to lieutenant colonel as a brevet rank and took command of the 6th Battalion.

During his first missions on the Western Front in Europe, Gordon Bennett often switched between the duties of battalion or brigade commander. After his marriage to Bessie Buchanan in November 1916, he was promoted to brigadier general , again as a brevet, and in December was finally given command of the 3rd Brigade. At 29, Bennett was the youngest general in the Australian Army ever. Bennett was able to strengthen his reputation for being an outstanding front-line commander on further missions in Bullecourt , Passendale (→ Third Battle of Flanders ) and on the Hindenburg Line . He was controversial with his subordinates, however; he was considered a jealous, irritable and disgruntled person.

Interwar period

After the war, Bennett worked as a clothing manufacturer and accountant . In addition, he sat on the board of the reintegration authority and in 1928 became one of the three administrative commissioners of Sydney. Between 1931 and 1933 he was a member of the New South Wales Chamber of Employers. Bennett did not neglect his military career during this time either and in 1926 took command of the 2nd Division. However, he was very disappointed when he was not given a task force by the AIF after the start of the Second World War .

Second World War

Major General Gordon Bennett in Malaysia in February 1942

In September 1940 Bennett was finally given command of the 8th Division. The High Command of the AIF sent him with the division to the Malay Peninsula in 1941 to support the British units stationed there .

After the Japanese landed on the beaches of the peninsula in Thailand and Malaysia on December 8, 1941 , Gordon Bennet and his fellow British officers did not succeed in stopping their rapid advance south to Singapore . The surrender took place on February 15, 1942. Bennett handed over the division command to then leave the peninsula.

Some of his supporters welcomed Bennett's decision, but many said that he had given up too early on his newly acquired experience in fighting the Japanese army . Lieutenant General Gordon Bennett received no further active command in the further course of the war and had to finally bury his dream of becoming Commander in Chief of the Australian Army. In April 1942 he took over the III. Corps in Perth and was assigned to the officer reserve on May 9, 1944.

After the war

Gordon Bennett retired to the country after serving in the military and cultivated a farm near Sydney. He died on August 1, 1962 in Dural near Sydney.

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literature

  • AB Lodge, The Fall of General Gordon Bennett , George Allen & Unwin (Editors) Ltd, London; also Allen & Unwin, Sydney (first edition 1986); ISBN 0-86861-882-9

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