John Winthrop Hackett Junior

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Sir John Winthrop Hackett (born November 5, 1910 in Perth , † September 9, 1997 ) was a British officer, writer and university director.

education

Hackett was born in Perth as the son of the Australian politician John Winthrop Hackett, originally from Tipperary . After finishing school he went to Great Britain. There he first studied painting at the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London and then Classical Antiquities at the New College of the University of Oxford .

Military career until the end of World War II

After graduating, Hackett joined the British Army in 1933 , where he was a member of the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars .

In 1936 he was first sent to Palestine . From 1937 to 1941 he was a member of the Trans-Jordan Frontier Force . In total, he was mentioned three times in the war report by 1941 .

Hackett was wounded and awarded the Military Cross while participating in the Syrian-Lebanese campaign .

During the Africa campaign , Hackett was badly burned when his M3 Stuart tank was shot down during the battle for Sidi Rezegh airfield. For this commitment he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order . He then worked at the British headquarters in Cairo , where he was instrumental in establishing various special forces, including the Long Range Desert Group and the Special Air Service .

In 1943 Hackett was given command of the 4th British Paratrooper Brigade. This was followed by missions in Italy and in autumn 1944 during Operation Market Garden near Arnhem . After another serious wound, he was captured by Germany and taken to hospital. With the help of the Dutch resistance movement , however, he was able to escape and was kept hidden in Ede for several months . He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for the second time for his work at Arnhem .

After the Second World War

In 1947 Hackett returned to Palestine, where he took command of the Trans-Jordan Frontier Force , which was soon disbanded due to the British withdrawal from the region.

In 1954 he was first commander of the 20th Armored Brigade . Two years later, after a promotion to major general , he was given command of the 7th Panzer Division . In 1958 he took command of the Royal Military College of Science in Shrivenham. In 1961 Hackett was promoted to lieutenant general and became commanding general of the British Army in Northern Ireland. In 1963 he became deputy chief of staff. Two years later he took over command of the British Army of the Rhine and the Northern Army Group of NATO .

In 1968 Hackett wrote a letter to the editor , which appeared on February 6, in the Times , in which Hackett was critical of the inadequate strength of the conventional NATO forces in Europe (especially the British) and of the underestimated threat posed by the Warsaw Pact . Since he should not have done this as a British officer, he officially signed the letter as a NATO officer. The letter sparked heated controversy among the British public and ultimately led to Hackett's retirement.

Civil life

After retiring to civilian life, Hackett was a principal at King's College London from 1968 to 1975 .

Hackett authored numerous books on military subjects. His best-known work is the book Der Third World War: Hauptschauplatz Deutschland , published in 1978 (original title: The Third World War: August 1985 ). In it, Hackett retrospectively describes a fictional attack by Warsaw Pact troops on Western Europe in 1985, which, after a limited nuclear war, ends with a victory for NATO troops. The foreword to the German edition was written by the German general Johann Adolf Graf von Kielmansegg .

Works

literature

  • Roy Fullick: Shan Hackett. The pursuit of exactitude. Barnsley, 2003, ISBN 0-85052-975-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Macabre Warning. In: Der Spiegel. 44/1978.
  2. ↑ Johann Adolf Graf von Kielmansegg : Introduction to the German-language edition of The Third World War: Hauptschauplatz Deutschland by John Hackett

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hackett, John Winthrop Junior
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hackett, John Winthrop
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British officer and author
DATE OF BIRTH November 5, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Perth
DATE OF DEATH September 9, 1997