John Dill

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John Dill (1941)

Sir John Greer Dill GCB CMG DSO (born December 25, 1881 in Lurgan , Armagh , Northern Ireland , † November 4, 1944 in Washington, DC ) was a British field marshal .

Life

Dill was born in Lurgan in 1881, the son of a local bank manager. Since he wanted to serve in the British Army, he attended Cheltenham College and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst . In 1901 he joined the 1st Battalion of the Leinster Regiment and was transferred to South Africa , where he fought in the Boer War.

After being promoted to captain in 1911 , he was studying at Staff College in Camberley when World War I broke out. He became the commander of the 25th Brigade in France , which he led at Neuve-Chapelle , the ridge of Alvers and Bois-Grenier. At the end of the war he was already a Brigadier General . Dill was wounded in the war and mentioned eight times in Despatches . After the war, Dill earned a reputation for being a gifted military instructor. The future Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke experienced Dill, who was two years his senior, as a trainer at Staff College and wrote in retrospect: “I know no other soldier in the whole of my career who inspired me with greater respect and admiration. An exceptionally clear and well-balanced brain, an infinite capacity for work, unbounded charm of personality, but above all an unflinchable [sic!] Straightness of character: these were the chief characteristics that made up one of the most remarkable soldiers of our country . ”He was transferred to India in 1929, where he was promoted to major general in 1930 before returning to Staff College for the third time as commandant and then serving in the War Department. From 1937 to 1939 he was commanding general of the Aldershot Command .

After France and Great Britain declared war on the German Reich on September 3, 1939, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was consolidated and relocated to France. Lieutenant General Lord Gort was appointed as their commander-in- chief while Dill was in command of the I. Corps . That was a setback in that dill was intended for the supreme command. He and the commander of the II Corps, General Alan Brooke , did not think much of the abilities of their junior superior and criticized the Allied campaign plan (Plan D), which intended to advance to Belgium in the event of a German attack.

On April 23, 1940, Dill was appointed Vice Chief of the Imperial General Staff (VCIGS), whose Chief General Edmund Ironside was. When the war in France escalated from May 10, 1940 (→ Western Campaign ), he first worked more closely with the new Prime Minister Winston Churchill . He advised him during briefings and accompanied him e.g. B. for consultations in Paris on May 16, 1940. From May 19, he stayed at the headquarters of Général Alphonse Georges and then on May 22 to be again for consultations with Churchill and the French government and Paris. During the critical days of the failure at Arras (→ Battle of Arras (1940) ) and the disaster of Dunkirk (→ Battle of Dunkirk ), Dill was able to convince with his military expertise. Churchill later wrote: “The prevailing opinion in cabinet and high military circles was that Sir John Dill's skills and strategic knowledge [...] should find their full expression in his appointment as our first military advisor. No one could doubt that his professional skills were in some respects superior to General Ironsides. ”On May 27, 1940, Dill replaced General Ironside as the new Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS).

However, as it turned out, Churchill and Dill didn't work well together. The General Staff had already warned of a British engagement in Greece in December 1940 and Dill had made this vehemently in February 1941. But Churchill had insisted on landing in Salonika . As a result, the British troops and the Royal Navy had suffered heavy losses without actually having achieved anything. In addition, in this context the forces in North Africa were weakened to such an extent that the German-Italian triumphal march to Tobruk was only possible. Historian Richard Overy later judged: "Dill had been a clear-sighted and energetic chief of staff, but admitted that he could no longer withstand the stress of dealing with Churchill." To get him out of the way, Churchill relocated him in December 1941 as his personal MP in Washington, DC , where Dill became chief of the British Joint Staff Mission and then the British senior representative to the Combined Chiefs of Staff .

He showed great sensitivity and a diplomatic military presence. In 1943 he attended the Québec Conference , the Casablanca Conference , the Tehran Conference and meetings in India , China and Brazil . He also briefly served the combined policy committee , which was set up by the American and British governments with the Quebec agreement to oversee the manufacture of an atomic bomb .

In the United States, he had great influence on the formation of the Chiefs of Staff Committees , which consisted of members from both countries, whose conflicts of interest often had to be appeased. Dill got on particularly well with General George C. Marshall , with whom he signed a major agreement with the influence of Franklin Delano Roosevelt , who called Dill "the most important figure in the remarkable accord which has been developed in the combined operations of our two countries " ( " the most interesting figure by the considerable consensus developed in our two countries' joint operations " ). Churchill also praised Dill's work in his memoirs: "Thanks to his relationships with General Marshall, Chief of Staff of the United States Army, he became an invaluable link between us and our allies." Dill also got on well with Ernest J. King , who was initially suspicious of the cooperation with the British, but was probably won over by Dill's charm for the cause.

John Dill died unexpectedly on November 4, 1944 in Washington DC and was the first non-American to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery .

honors and awards

literature

  • Alex Danchev : Very special relationship. Field-Marshal Sir John Dill and the Anglo-American alliance, 1941-44 . Brassey's Defense Publishing, London 1986, ISBN 0-08-031197-0 .

Web links

Commons : John Dill  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ David Fraser: Alanbrooke , Reading 1982, p. 84
  2. ↑ David Fraser: Alanbrooke , Reading 1982, pp. 138f
  3. ^ Winston S. Churchill: The Second World War , Bern / Munich / Vienna 1985, p. 297
  4. ^ Corelli Barnett: Wüstengenerale , Herrsching 1975, p. 61f
  5. ^ Richard Overy: The roots of victory - Why the Allies won the Second World War , Reineck near Hamburg 2002, p. 345
  6. ^ Winston S. Churchill: The Second World War , Bern / Munich / Vienna 1985, p. 278
  7. ^ Winston S. Churchill: Their Finest Hour: Vol 2: The Second World War. 1985, ISBN 978-0-395-41056-1 , P. 19
predecessor Office successor
Charles William Gwynn Commandant of Staff College Camberley
1931–1934 		Clement Armitage
William Bartholomew Director of Military Operations and Intelligence in the War Office
1934–1936 		Robert Haining
Edmund Ironside Chief of the Imperial General Staff
1940–1941 		Alan Brooke
personal data
SURNAME Dill, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dill, Sir John Greer (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British Field Marshal
DATE OF BIRTH December 25, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Lurgan , Armagh , Northern Ireland
DATE OF DEATH November 4, 1944
Place of death Washington, DC