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Man Of Valour: The Life Of Field-Marshal The Viscount Gort, VC, GCB, DSO, MVO, MC
285 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1972
12 people want to read
About the author
John Rupert Colville
37 books4 followersSir John Rupert Colville, CB, CVO, known as Jock Colville, was a British civil servant.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 7, 2017
Man of Valour: The Life of Field-Marshal The Viscount Gort, VC, GCB, DSO, MVO, MC by Sir John Colville is a solid assessment of an underappreciated figure in the Allied war effort of World War II. Colville writes like a typical English gentleman of his era – with a keen pen and a keener wit. He knew Viscount Gort well, but his biography, while knowledgeable and discerning, does not fall into hagiography.
Colville's best accounting covers the campaign in France in 1940. In the chaos following the Allied advance to the River Dyle (Plan D) and the subsequent German breakthrough to the Meuse, Gort quickly grasped the only three possible options as the BEF fell back: 1. A counterattack toward the Somme to hold the Scheldt or, at least, the frontier defenses. 2. The fall back of the northern forces on to their lines of communications to the Somme, thereby abandoning the Belgians. 3. A retreat to the Channel ports, and at the cost of leaving behind their heavy equipment, evacuation from the Continent. The situation quickly developed that only the third option was viable. Gort was prescient enough to tip off the War Office on May 19th to prepare for evacuation at Dunkirk. The success of Operation Dynamo, the Dunkirk withdrawal, was to a great extent a credit to Gort's leadership and the high standard of training he inculcated within the BEF. Colville credits Gort with six key decisions during the campaign which he presents in detail. He writes:
Gort's greatest strength may have been as a battlefield leader and not as a commander-in-chief. This was demonstrated best by his highly-decorated actions in World War I. He was tormented by what he perceived as his failures in France in 1940 and a career he described as “almost entirely spent in disappointing ventures with no honour or glory attached.” Military men throughout the Allied forces thought differently. Eisenhower wrote glowingly of Gort. George Patton, while visiting Gort in Malta, told him: “I have come because I wanted to see the bravest man in the British Army.” A post-war newspaper article included Gort, along with Wavell and Dowding, among the “Three Forgotten Architects of Victory.” It was not wrong.
Man of Valour: The Life of Field-Marshal The Viscount Gort, VC, GCB, DSO, MVO, MC earned a strong Four Stars from me. Readers interested in World War II in Europe or British military history will find it rewarding.
Colville's best accounting covers the campaign in France in 1940. In the chaos following the Allied advance to the River Dyle (Plan D) and the subsequent German breakthrough to the Meuse, Gort quickly grasped the only three possible options as the BEF fell back: 1. A counterattack toward the Somme to hold the Scheldt or, at least, the frontier defenses. 2. The fall back of the northern forces on to their lines of communications to the Somme, thereby abandoning the Belgians. 3. A retreat to the Channel ports, and at the cost of leaving behind their heavy equipment, evacuation from the Continent. The situation quickly developed that only the third option was viable. Gort was prescient enough to tip off the War Office on May 19th to prepare for evacuation at Dunkirk. The success of Operation Dynamo, the Dunkirk withdrawal, was to a great extent a credit to Gort's leadership and the high standard of training he inculcated within the BEF. Colville credits Gort with six key decisions during the campaign which he presents in detail. He writes:
It may be that each of these six decisions, individually as well as collectively, saved the BEF. One of them, the cancellation of the southwards offensive, certainly did. Gort took it alone. It was his moment of destiny, to which his whole previous career was the prologue. It was also a moment of destiny for Britain, ranking in history with the defeat of the Armada and the victory at Trafalgar.
Gort's greatest strength may have been as a battlefield leader and not as a commander-in-chief. This was demonstrated best by his highly-decorated actions in World War I. He was tormented by what he perceived as his failures in France in 1940 and a career he described as “almost entirely spent in disappointing ventures with no honour or glory attached.” Military men throughout the Allied forces thought differently. Eisenhower wrote glowingly of Gort. George Patton, while visiting Gort in Malta, told him: “I have come because I wanted to see the bravest man in the British Army.” A post-war newspaper article included Gort, along with Wavell and Dowding, among the “Three Forgotten Architects of Victory.” It was not wrong.
Man of Valour: The Life of Field-Marshal The Viscount Gort, VC, GCB, DSO, MVO, MC earned a strong Four Stars from me. Readers interested in World War II in Europe or British military history will find it rewarding.
November 23, 2011
I bought this second hand as I had always knew Gort was "our man in France" during 1940, and that he had been decorated numerous times for his valour, gallantry and bravery: VC, DSO**, MC and Mentioned in Dispatches 8 (yes eight) times.
J.R Colville writes well of Lord Gort. He knew the man - having seen him at close hand during his time whilst serving Churchill - and so is well placed to provide Gort's life story.
And that story? Well it treads rather traditionally covering family and birth before a very brief mention of school. Then to Sandhurst and to his life's love the Grenadier Guards.
The coverage of Gort during the Great War is fair and balanced but for me a little light in places. Whilst his VC is covered well, as his distaste at being awarded his first DSO for services on the staff rather than in the field, there is no mention of how he came by his MC nor any of the MIDs. This is I suspect down to nothing more than the editing of a soldier's story with so much to write of that compression of these four years was required - however it left me wanting to know more of this period.
That period to, like so many others who went on to high and middle command in the following war, saw Gort influenced by the tactics and technologies employed coupled with personal experiences and the scale of loss.
The lead up to the Second World War is an interesting area of the book, and although the events are well known Colville is less than kind to Leslie Hore-Belisha, the War Minster, who Gort did not get in well with. Hore-Belisha seemingly played politics, ignored advice (some eminently sensible) from the military staffs, sought outside influences and looked for the personal gain over much else.
Gort will always be remembered as the commander of the failed (and flawed) BEF, but Colville shows that the brave soldier understood clearly the need for much preparation: re-equipment, training, inter-service cooperation, communications, command and control His suggestions and financial bids to make the force at least partially ready were stymied by politicians and the view that the RAF and RN should take the lion's share of investment (what there was of a small pot too).
And so to May 1940. Colville writes well of Gort, although throughout the book he offers critique and criticism, especially his wont to focus on detail and yet more detail.
The key point Colville shows is that Gort's high regard for the French is shaken and finally destroyed by their Staffs' planning & leadership and the army's military performance. Equally, the Belgians provided little comfort or currency in the campaign.
The warning of the BEF needing to leave via Dunkirjk, and its actual decision to evacuate was Gort's.
His decision to ignore orders for an attack to consolidate his forces and cover the withdrawal is a "winning" judgement. Had he not the British Army would have been lost to a plan that suggested French weight of force being thrust against German divisions supported by the BEF, when in actuality there were no French forces.
His career after Dunkirk is one of some regret and twilight with postings to Gibraltar, Malta and Palestine. But at each though he makes his mark: preparing a runway in Gib against orders that became key in the battles to follow; providing leadership during the siege of Malta; and his personal standing doing much to lessen the Arab/Israeli violence brewing in Palestine during his tenure.
Lord Gort was minded to not accept his appointment in 1944 to Field-Marshal until advised that it was the King's wish - he was convinced that others in high military command would take offence that a commander of a defeated army should be rewarded so. Some did and he was always himself conscious of this tag too.
But perhaps it is worth noting to episodes. Firstly that Patton came to Malta especially to see Gort saying he "wanted to see the bravest man in the British Army. Secondly, the Daily Mirror in 1945 running a story entitled "The Three Forgotten Architects of Victory: Gort, Dowding and Wavell".
I could not agree more.
J.R Colville writes well of Lord Gort. He knew the man - having seen him at close hand during his time whilst serving Churchill - and so is well placed to provide Gort's life story.
And that story? Well it treads rather traditionally covering family and birth before a very brief mention of school. Then to Sandhurst and to his life's love the Grenadier Guards.
The coverage of Gort during the Great War is fair and balanced but for me a little light in places. Whilst his VC is covered well, as his distaste at being awarded his first DSO for services on the staff rather than in the field, there is no mention of how he came by his MC nor any of the MIDs. This is I suspect down to nothing more than the editing of a soldier's story with so much to write of that compression of these four years was required - however it left me wanting to know more of this period.
That period to, like so many others who went on to high and middle command in the following war, saw Gort influenced by the tactics and technologies employed coupled with personal experiences and the scale of loss.
The lead up to the Second World War is an interesting area of the book, and although the events are well known Colville is less than kind to Leslie Hore-Belisha, the War Minster, who Gort did not get in well with. Hore-Belisha seemingly played politics, ignored advice (some eminently sensible) from the military staffs, sought outside influences and looked for the personal gain over much else.
Gort will always be remembered as the commander of the failed (and flawed) BEF, but Colville shows that the brave soldier understood clearly the need for much preparation: re-equipment, training, inter-service cooperation, communications, command and control His suggestions and financial bids to make the force at least partially ready were stymied by politicians and the view that the RAF and RN should take the lion's share of investment (what there was of a small pot too).
And so to May 1940. Colville writes well of Gort, although throughout the book he offers critique and criticism, especially his wont to focus on detail and yet more detail.
The key point Colville shows is that Gort's high regard for the French is shaken and finally destroyed by their Staffs' planning & leadership and the army's military performance. Equally, the Belgians provided little comfort or currency in the campaign.
The warning of the BEF needing to leave via Dunkirjk, and its actual decision to evacuate was Gort's.
His decision to ignore orders for an attack to consolidate his forces and cover the withdrawal is a "winning" judgement. Had he not the British Army would have been lost to a plan that suggested French weight of force being thrust against German divisions supported by the BEF, when in actuality there were no French forces.
His career after Dunkirk is one of some regret and twilight with postings to Gibraltar, Malta and Palestine. But at each though he makes his mark: preparing a runway in Gib against orders that became key in the battles to follow; providing leadership during the siege of Malta; and his personal standing doing much to lessen the Arab/Israeli violence brewing in Palestine during his tenure.
Lord Gort was minded to not accept his appointment in 1944 to Field-Marshal until advised that it was the King's wish - he was convinced that others in high military command would take offence that a commander of a defeated army should be rewarded so. Some did and he was always himself conscious of this tag too.
But perhaps it is worth noting to episodes. Firstly that Patton came to Malta especially to see Gort saying he "wanted to see the bravest man in the British Army. Secondly, the Daily Mirror in 1945 running a story entitled "The Three Forgotten Architects of Victory: Gort, Dowding and Wavell".
I could not agree more.
March 29, 2021
A sympathetic treatment by one of Churchill's insiders of a man who took the tough decisions needed to save the BEF in France in 1940 and fell out of the limelight thereafter.
He served to the best of his abilities in difficult circumstances, doing better than could have been expected in demanding and thankless roles (as CIGS during Munich beforehand, later seeing out the siege of Malta and Palestine at end of war just as things flared up again).
A task not helped by having jealous and disparaging subordinates in Brooke and Dill as corps commanders, the former it would seem making sure Gort was eclipsed as much as possible from his perch as CIGS into the postwar period.
Cannot help feeling that a bit of shameless self promotion (pace Mountbatten and Montgomery) would have served him better than dutiful effacement, but such wasn't in the man and he never could overcome the limitations of his character.
He served to the best of his abilities in difficult circumstances, doing better than could have been expected in demanding and thankless roles (as CIGS during Munich beforehand, later seeing out the siege of Malta and Palestine at end of war just as things flared up again).
A task not helped by having jealous and disparaging subordinates in Brooke and Dill as corps commanders, the former it would seem making sure Gort was eclipsed as much as possible from his perch as CIGS into the postwar period.
Cannot help feeling that a bit of shameless self promotion (pace Mountbatten and Montgomery) would have served him better than dutiful effacement, but such wasn't in the man and he never could overcome the limitations of his character.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews