Douglas Gracey: Difference between revisions

{{short description|British Indian Army general}}

|allegiance    = {{flag|British India}}<br> {{flagicon|Dominion of Pakistan}} [[Dominion of Pakistan|Pakistan]]

|branch        = {{army|British India}} {{small|(1915-1947)}}<br>{{army|Pakistan}} {{small|(1947-1951)}}

|unit=[[Royal Munster Fusiliers]]<br>[[1 Gorkha Rifles|1st King George's Own Gurkha Rifles (The Malaun Regiment)]]

|commands=2nd Battalion [[3 Gorkha Rifles|3rd Queen Alexandra's Own Gurkha Rifles]]<br>[[17th Indian Infantry Brigade]]<br>[[20th Infantry Division (India)|20th Indian Infantry Division]]<br>[[Northern Command (India)|Northern Command, India]]<br>[[I Corps (India)|I Indian Corps]]<br>[[Pakistan Army]]

|battles=[[First World War]]<br>[[Second World War]]<br>[[War in Vietnam (1945–1946)]]<br>[[First Indo-Pakistani War]]

|awards= [[Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath]]<br>[[Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire]]<br>[[Commander of the Order of the British Empire]]<br>[[Military Cross]] & [[Medal bar|Bar]]<br/>[[Mentioned in Despatches]] (3)

Between the wars he became an instructor at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, in 1925, commanding one of the cadet companies.<ref>{{London Gazette| issue=33019| date=10 February 1925|page=992}}</ref> After this he attended the [[Command and Staff College|Staff College, Quetta]] from 1928 to 1929, and his fellow students included [[Colin Gubbins]], [[John Crocker]], [[Eric Goddard]], [[Lionel Howard Cox|Lionel Cox]] and [[Henry Lowrie Davies|Henry Davies]], among many others, who were destined to achieve [[general officer]] rank.<ref>Smart, p. 126</ref> In peacetime promotion came slowly and [[Brevet (military)|brevet]] ranks were used as an interim step to the next rank up for officers who performed well. In 1930 Gracey received promotion to brevet major.<ref>{{London Gazette| issue=33624| date=11 July 1930|page=4363}}</ref> In late 1931 he was appointed a GSO2 at [[India Command|GHQ India]]<ref>{{London Gazette| issue=33800| date=19 February 1932|page=1132}}</ref> and by the time this appointment finished in late 1935 he had received his promotion to major.<ref>{{London Gazette| issue=34241| date=10 January 1936|page=236}}</ref> In early 1937 he was given another GSO2 posting<ref>{{London Gazette| issue=34385| date=2 April 1937|page=2128}}</ref> at Western Command in [[India]].<ref name=lh>[http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/locreg/GRACEY.shtml Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives]</ref> Having waited so long to be raised from captain to major, his next advancements to brevet lieutenant-colonel and lieutenant-colonel came quite quickly, in January 1938<ref>{{London Gazette| issue=34470| date=4 January 1938|page=35}}</ref> and February 1939.<ref>{{London Gazette| issue=34618| date=21 April 1939|page=2666}}</ref>

At the start of the [[World War II|Second World War]] in September 1939 Gracey was [[Commanding officer|Commanding Officer]] (CO) of the 2nd Battalion, [[3 Gorkha Rifles|3rd Queen Alexandra's Own Gurkha Rifles]] on the [[North-West Frontier Province (1901–1955)|North West Frontier]] of India.<ref name=lh/> In March 1940, upon his promotion to full colonel, he became assistant commandant of the Staff College, Quetta, with the Commandant then being [[Philip Christison]], a British Army officer.<ref name=lh/> In May 1941 he was promoted brigadier and given command of the [[17th Indian Infantry Brigade]], which as part of the [[8th Infantry Division (India)|8th Indian Infantry Division]] was sent shortly thereafter to [[Basra]] in [[Iraq]] but took no significant part in the [[Anglo-Iraqi War]].<ref name=lh/> In June 1941 the brigade was ordered to northwest Iraq to the ''Bec du Canard'' region in northeast Syria, part of the [[Syria-Lebanon Campaign]]. After this Gracey and his brigade remained in Iraq as part of [[Iraqforce]] (subsequently ''Paiforce''), protecting the Middle East from a possible Axis thrust south from the [[Caucasus]]. For his service Gracey was made Officer of the [[Order of the British Empire]] (OBE)<ref>{{London Gazette| issue=35862| date=12 January 1943|page=319| supp=y}}</ref>

In April 1942 Gracey was promoted acting major-general<ref>{{London Gazette| issue=35628| date=10 July 1942|page=3054}}</ref> and given the task of forming and then commanding [[Indian 20th Infantry Division]].<ref name=lh/> The division concentrated in [[Ceylon]] for training and in August 1943 was sent to join [[British Fourteenth Army|Fourteenth Army]]'s [[Indian XV Corps]] in northeast India to take part in the [[Burma Campaign]].

Shortly thereafter the division was moved to [[IV Corps (United Kingdom)|IV Corps]] based at [[Imphal]] on the India-Burma border. From early April to late July the division was in almost constant combat during the [[Battle of Imphal]], latterly as part of [[Indian XXXIII Corps]]. There was then a four-month period of rest and recuperation before the division was back in the front line with XXXIII Corps which launched an attack across the [[Chindwin river]] in December and thrust south. In February 1945 the division created a bridgehead across the [[Irrawaddy River|Irrawaddy]] and broke out in mid-March to cut the Japanese communications and supplies to the battles being fought at [[Mandalay]] and [[Meiktila]]. Fourteenth Army commander [[William Slim|Bill Slim]] was later to write about this action:{{quote|[The] break-out of the 20th Division was a spectacular achievement which only a magnificent division, magnificently led, could have staged after weeks of the heaviest defensive fighting.{{sfn|Slim|1972|pp=473–474}}}}Driving rapidly south the division captured [[Prome]] on 2 May, by which time the campaign was effectively over.<ref name="Mead183">Mead, p.183</ref>

In February 1945 Gracey had been appointed Commander of the order of the British Empire (CBE) for "gallant and distinguished services in Burma and on the Eastern Frontier of India"<ref>{{London Gazette| issue=36928| date=8 February 1945|page=792| supp=y}}</ref> and in May his rank of major-general was made permanent.<ref>{{London Gazette| issue=37082| date=15 May 1945|page=2559| supp=y}}</ref> In July 1945 was made Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB)<ref>{{London Gazette| issue=37161| date=3 July 1945|page=3491| supp=y}}</ref> and he was also gazetted as mentioned in despatches.<ref>{{London Gazette| issue=37184| date=17 July 1945|page=3753| supp=y}}</ref> There were further mentions in despatches for services in Burma in September 1945<ref>{{London Gazette| issue=37284| date=25 September 1945|page=4786| supp=y}}</ref> and May 1946.<ref>{{London Gazette| issue=37558| date=7 May 1946|page=2218| supp=y}}</ref>

Because of Gracey's close relationship with his men, afforded by his long service as commander, the 20th Division had a reputation as a happy and confident unit.<ref>Mead, p. 184</ref> Field Marshal Slim said of them:{{quote|I have never seen troops who carry their tails more vertically.{{sfn|Slim|1972|p=472}}}}

In September 1945, Gracey led 20,000 troops of the [[Indian 20th Infantry Division|20th Indian Division]] to occupy [[Saigon]].<ref name=lh/> During the [[Potsdam Conference]] in July 1945, the Allies had agreed on Britain taking control of [[Vietnam]] south of the [[16th parallel north|16th parallel]] (then part of [[French Indochina]]) from the Japanese occupiers. [[Ho Chi Minh]], the leader of the communist [[Viet Minh]], proclaimed Vietnamese independence from French rule and big pro-independence and anti-French demonstrations and strikes were held in Saigon. The French, anxious to retain their colony, persuaded Gracey's Commander in Chief, [[Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma|Lord Mountbatten]], to authorise Gracey to declare martial law. Fearing a communist takeover of Vietnam, Gracey decided to rearm French citizens who had remained in Saigon and allowed them to seize control of public buildings from the Viet Minh.  In October 1945, as fighting spread throughout the city, Gracey issued guns to the Japanese troops who had surrendered and used them to occupy the city. According to some socialist and communist commentaries, this controversial decision furthered Ho Ch Minh's cause of liberating Vietnam from foreign rule and precipitated the [[First Indochina War]].<ref>{{cite web | title=The Empire Strikes Back | url = http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/sr189/newsinger.htm | publisher = Socialist Review | date = September 1995}}</ref> Other authors such as Peter Dunn<ref>The First Vietnam War by Peter M. Dunn (published 1985)</ref> and Timothy Smith<ref>Vietnam and the Unravelling of Empire General Gracey in Asia 1942-1951 by T.O. Smith (published 2014)</ref> reach a different, more sympathetic conclusion - that his orders were essentially to maintain essential services and prevent the slaughter of the civilian population. Marston reviews the military position Gracey found himself in. French General [[Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque|Leclerc]] arrived in Saigon in October 1945 to assume authority but it was not until well into the first half of 1946 that enough French troops had arrived to allow Gracey to return with the bulk of his troops in March 1946 to India where the 20th Indian Division was disbanded.<ref name="Mead183"/>

When British India [[Partition of India|was partitioned]] in late 1947 Gracey became Chief of the General Staff and Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army before succeeding [[Frank Messervy]] as [[Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army]] in 1948.<ref name=lh/>

* Assistant Commandant of [[Command and Staff College|Staff College Quetta]], India - 1940 to 1941

* Chief General Staff, Pakistan - 1947 to 1948

*{{cite book| first=Timothy| last=Smith| title='Vietnam and the Unravelling of Empire General Gracey in Asia 1942-1951| location=London| publisher=Palgrave| year=2014}}

{{s-aft|after=Division disbanded}}