Lewis Lyne

Lewis Owen "Lou" Lyne CB DSO (born August 21, 1899 in Newport , Wales , † November 4, 1970 in Kersey , England ) was a British officer and Major General of the Army .

From 1944 he was mainly used as a commanding officer in Normandy and during the last fighting at the end of the Second World War in north-western Europe. From July to August 1945 he was the first in command of the British Sector of Berlin and, as such, one of the four allied city ​​commanders .

Early life

Lyne came from a soldier family and was born in Newport, Wales, the son of officer Charles Lyne. After completing his training, he wanted to volunteer for military service at the age of 19 during the First World War , but was initially rejected because of his age.

He therefore joined the Lancashire Fusiliers , a British infantry regiment, as a temporary second lieutenant on April 2, 1919 , and was only officially accepted into military service after the end of the war, on July 21, 1921. 

In the so-called interwar period , Lyne and his battalion were deployed in Ireland , Egypt , Gibraltar and China . On July 14, 1923, he was promoted to lieutenant .

After returning to England, he graduated from Staff College in Camberley from 1935 and was a staff officer in the War Department from 1938 until the outbreak of World War II . On October 16, 1935, Lyne was promoted to captain , on August 1, 1938 to major and on July 1, 1939, finally to lieutenant colonel .

Second World War

In August 1940 Lyne was given its first command of its own. As a commanding officer, he commanded the 9th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers, which as a military service battalion was largely composed of conscripts . In October his unit was assigned to another brigade and Lyne and his men were transferred to Scotland .

In late 1941 Lyne became a senior instructor at the Officers' School in Sheerness ; in July, he was promoted to colonel . His main task as a trainer was to prepare officers for future commands in battalions and regiments .

In March 1942 he was temporarily promoted to brigadier and given a new command. Lyne initially took over the 169th Infantry Brigade, which was under the command of Division Chief Major General Eric Miles.

Lynes Brigade was used in extremely difficult battles in several countries over the next two years . Lynes troops were initially stationed in Nacton and mobilized for deployment overseas from June.

As early as November 1942, Lynes' brigade was relocated to Kirkuk in Iraq and was entrusted with the task of preventing German troops from reaching the Caucasus . With the German defeat at Stalingrad in February 1943, however, the danger decreased, whereupon the 56th Division was able to concentrate again on training for offensive missions.

In March 1943, the division of the 8th Army was added, which then completed a 3,200-mile march from Kirkuk to the Tunisian Enfidaville . The march lasted a total of four weeks and went down as the longest in the history of the British Army . Immediately after their arrival, on the night of April 26, 1943, Lyne's brigade had its first direct contact with the enemy . The so-called Tunisian campaign lasted for another two weeks and ended on May 13, 1943. The division was then sent to Libya , where the Allies were preparing to invade Italy .

On July 3, 1943, Lewis Lyne was also formally promoted to brigadier and two weeks later awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for his outstanding service in the Middle East . Shortly afterwards the brigade reached Italy .

During the fighting alone, the 169th Brigade destroyed thirty-nine enemy aircraft on the ground, but Lyne and his men met with considerable resistance from the Germans, which resulted in considerable losses among the British. Finally, the soldiers were reinforced by the Royal Engineers , who were deployed as infantry .

Together with other associations, they tried to break through the mountain passes on the way to Naples . On September 27, 1943, Lynes Brigade was replaced by other units. The conquest of Naples finally took place only a few days later by the X Corps under the leadership of Lieutenant General Richard McCreery .

The next day the commanding general of the division, Major General Douglas Graham, was seriously injured in fighting and Lewis Lyne was entrusted as the senior brigade commander with the command. After Major General Gerald Templer was appointed as the new commanding officer on October 15, 1943, Lyne returned to the 169th Brigade.

Brigadier Lewis Lyne took part in the Gustav Line following the Battle of Monte Camino and was seriously wounded on November 13, 1943. It was only in December that the troops succeeded in taking Monte Camino and finally displacing the Germans. Lyne himself, who was only released from the hospital on January 8, 1944 , missed participation and returned to his brigade on January 21. In early March Lyne and his men were finally replaced by the 13th Brigade.

Lewis Lyne, now an experienced battlefield commander, was ordered back to England and appointed commanding general of the 59th Infantry Division. On March 29, 1944, he was also promoted to major general.

Lyne and his division took part in the Allied invasion of Normandy and thus belonged to the troops of Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery . Lyne and his men arrived in Normandy in late June 1944, three weeks after the D-Day landings on June 6th.

Lyne was also involved on July 8, 1944 in the "Charnwood" operation during the attack on Caen , which resulted in more than 1200 casualties . In mid-July, the division fought in the second battle for Odon and was then involved with other units in Operation "Bluecoat" and in the fighting on the Orne .

With the end of the fighting in Normandy, the British troops had also reached their limits of resilience. Although Sir Bernard Montgomery and Miles Dempsey were army commanders and army commanders, respectively, of Lyne and the 59th Division, it was the youngest division of the British deployed in France . Therefore it was decided to disband the division commanded by Lyne.

Lewis Lyne then took command of the 50th Infantry Division until it was disbanded in November. From November 22, 1944, he commanded the 7th Panzer Division and took part in the successful "Blackcock" operation in mid-January 1945 .

A few weeks later Lyne took part in the crossing of the Rhine as part of Operation Plunder . He set foot on German soil on March 27, 1945 and was promoted to major general two days later. His division marched into Germany , first reached the city limits of Bremen and only a week later crossed the Weser . Lyne eventually led his men through the famous Siegfried Line to Hamburg .

A short time later the war in Europe was over.

Post War and Death

Although largely unknown, Lewis Lyne was considered an extremely capable and experienced battlefield commander, who received great respect from both his superiors, especially Montgomery and Dempsey, as well as subordinates.

On July 5, 1945, on the recommendation of Montgomery, Lewis Lyne became the first in command of the British Sector of Berlin and thus one of the four Allied city commanders. As such, he led the victory parade through Berlin on July 21, 1945.

On August 30th, he was recalled and replaced by Major General Eric Nares . Lyne himself moved to the War Department as chief of staff . He was the British city commander with the shortest tenure at just 56 days.

After serving as a commanding general in Egypt , Lyne's health deteriorated. Finally, in 1949, when he was only 49 years old, he was retired for health reasons.

Lewis Lyne was unmarried and dedicated his entire life to the military. He died in November 1970 in Kersey (Suffolk) at the age of 71.

Awards

• Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB)
• Distinguished Service Order (DSO)
• Mentioned in dispatches (2 x)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Supplement: 31324, Page: 5603. In: The London Gazette. May 2, 1919, accessed January 6, 2018 . 
2. ↑ Issue: 34210, Page: 6633. In: The London Gazette. October 22, 1935, accessed January 6, 2018 . 
3. ^ The commanders of the British sector of Berlin. GSU History website, December 26, 2019, accessed December 26, 2019 (German). 
4. ^ Robert Corbett: Berlin and the British Ally 1945-1990 . Ed .: Robert Corbett.