John Ormsby Evelyn Vandeleur
John Ormsby Evelyn "JOE" Vandeleur DSO (* 14. November 1903 in Nowshera , now Pakistan ; † 4. August 1988 in Maidenhead , UK ) was a British army officer , who primarily through its participation in the Operation Market Garden in World War II known has been.
Life
Vandeleur's family originally came from Kilrush (now Republic of Ireland ), where they lived as local landlords. He himself was born in Nowshera in what was then India , now Pakistan .
In 1924 he joined the Irish Guards as a lieutenant and became first lieutenant in 1926. In 1930 he was seconded to the Sudan Defense Force and promoted to captain in 1931. At the same time he returned to his regular regiment as adjutant of the 1st Battalion. After a job at the hand weapons school, he was seconded to Egypt from 1938 to 1939 to serve as a machine-gun instructor for the local army. In 1941 he was promoted to major and in 1943 to lieutenant colonel .
In 1944 he took over command of the 3rd armored battalion of the Irish Guards and captured the bridge over the Maas-Scheldt Canal in the Barrier district of Lommel (Belgium) with this on September 10, 1944 . His men named the bridge after its commander Joe's Bridge . It served shortly afterwards as the starting point of the ground offensive as part of Operation Market Garden, in which Vandeleurs Battalion was headed by Lieutenant General Brian Horrocks ' XXX. Corps formed. His cousin, Lieutenant Colonel Giles Vandeleur was in the same regiment as the commander of the 2nd Armored Battalion.
At the end of 1944 Vandeleur took command of the 129th Infantry Brigade, and in the summer of 1945 that of the 32nd Guard Infantry Brigade. In 1947 he became a colonel and in 1951 resigned from active service as a brigadier general .
His memoir "A Soldier's Story" was published in 1967. In 1977 he was involved in the filming of the events of Market Garden under the title The Arnhem Bridge as a consultant to director Richard Attenborough . He himself was portrayed in it by Michael Caine .
After the death of his first wife in 1948, he remarried in 1950. He died in Maidenhead, UK, in 1988 and was buried at Brookwood Cemetery .
Awards
- Palestine Medal 1936/39
- Distinguished Service Order (double award)
- Order of Orange-Nassau
Web links
- Army Record (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Vandeleur, John Ormsby Evelyn |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Vandeleur, JOE |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British Army Officer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 14, 1903 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Nowshera , today Pakistan |
| DATE OF DEATH | 4th August 1988 |
| Place of death | Maidenhead , UK |