Sir John Crocker | |
|---|---|
 Crock in 1944 | |
| Nickname(s) | "Honest John" |
| Born | (1896-01-04)4 January 1896 Catford,Lewisham,London, England |
| Died | 9 March 1963(1963-03-09) (aged 67) London, England |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Service | British Army |
| Years of service | 1915–1919 1920–1953 |
| Rank | General |
| Service number | 10435 |
| Unit | Artists Rifles Machine Gun Corps Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own) Royal Tank Corps |
| Commands | Adjutant-General to the Forces (1950–53) Middle East Land Forces (1947–50) Southern Command (1945–47) I Corps (1943–45) IX Corps (1942–43) XI Corps (1942) 6th Armoured Division (1940–41) 3rd Armoured Brigade (1940) |
| Battles / wars | First World War Second World War Palestine Emergency |
| Awards | Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire Distinguished Service Order Military Cross Mentioned in Despatches (2) Grand Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau (Netherlands) |
| Other work | Vice-Chairman of theCommonwealth War Graves Commission Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex |
GeneralSir John Tredinnick Crocker,GCB, KBE, DSO, MC (4 January 1896 – 9 March 1963) was a seniorBritish Army officer who fought in bothworld wars. He served as both aprivate soldier and a junior officer in theFirst World War. During theSecond World War he served as a distinguished brigade, division and corps commander, where his most notable role was asGeneral Officer Commanding (GOC) ofI Corps during theD-Day landings on 6 June 1944, leading the corps throughout the subsequentcampaign in Western Europe untilVictory in Europe Day (VE-Day) just over eleven months later.
After the war was over Crocker becameCommander-in-Chief (C-in-C) ofMiddle East Land Forces andAdjutant-General to the Forces, the second most senior officer on theArmy Council. An outstanding soldier, Crocker was highly regarded by both his superiors, most notably Field MarshalThe Viscount Alanbrooke, and his subordinates, including the future Field MarshalLord Carver, but he remains relatively unknown.
As related in Delaney's book "Corps Commanders":
John Crocker was every bit the gentleman officer of his period, even if his upbringing was anything but typical. The son of Mary (Tredinnick) and Isaac Crocker, a secretary with the Champion Reef Gold Mining Company, John Crocker was born on 3 January 1896, one of five siblings who lived in a modest Exbury Road dwelling inCatford,Lewisham. Owing to a respiratory ailment, young John was too sickly to attend public school, so his mother, who had been widowed with five children since John was only four years old, somehow managed to send him instead to a retired parson for instruction. The parson was a voracious reader whose disciplined self-study and rectitude rubbed off on his pupil, as did a certain piety. Crocker remained a deeply religious man his entire life. Under the tutelage of his parson instructor, he also learned to think before speaking, to choose his words carefully, and never to lie. His tutor liked things done properly, something Crocker would always demand of his own charges. One subordinate would later comment that he possessed 'a most penetrative insight into character and behaviour. Anyone who tried to hoodwink him was on a forlorn and dangerous path.' Odd as it may have been, his unorthodox education served him well in his military career.[1][excessive quote]
Over a year after the outbreak of theFirst World War, which began in August 1914, Crocker enlisted into theBritish Army as aprivate soldier in theArtists Rifles, a training corps for potential officers, in November 1915.[1] He wascommissioned as atemporarysecond lieutenant into theMachine Gun Corps (MGC) on 26 January 1917.[2] He had a distinguished career in the war and in April and July 1918 was awarded, respectively, theMilitary Cross (MC) andDistinguished Service Order (DSO). After training at the Machine Gun School atGrantham,Lincolnshire, Crocker joined the 174th Machine Gun Company, part of the59th (2nd North Midland) Division, aTerritorial Force (TF) formation then serving in thetrenches of theWestern Front as part of theBritish Expeditionary Force (BEF). He fought with his company, which in early March 1918 became part of the 59th Machine Gun Battalion, in theBattle of Passchendaele (also known as the Third Battle of Ypres) in mid-1917 and in theGerman Army'sSpring Offensives of 1918. He was promoted to temporary rank oflieutenant on 26 July 1918.[3]
The citation for his MC award, published in the officialLondon Gazette reads:
T./2nd Lt. John Tredinnick Crocker, M.G. Corps.For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty as section commander in a machine-gun battery. He stuck to his battery until it was blown up, and then, going forward to the barrage, he salved two guns and took them forward to support the infantry, where the situation was uncertain.[4]
The citation for the DSO reads:
T./2nd Lt. John Tredinnick Crocker, M.C., M.G.C.For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. When in charge of four machine guns he broke down two strong enemy attacks, holding on from 10a.m. till dusk, when infantry and reinforcements arrived. The following day he maintained his position till outflanked, when he stood up between two of his guns and directed their fire on the enemy, who were within 30 yards, then covered the withdrawal with bombs and rifle fire, killing many himself at close range. Took up a fresh position until almost surrounded again, when he again went out with bombs. His example throughout was magnificent.[5]
He continued to serve on the Western Front, fighting in theHundred Days Offensive, until the war came to an end on 11 November 1918 with the signing of theArmistice with Germany.[6]
After the war, Crocker left the army to train as asolicitor. However, he did not enjoy his new profession and returned to soldiering as aninfantry officer in theMiddlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own) in theRegular Army. His rank of lieutenant was confirmed on 16 December 1920 (with seniority backdated to 20 December 1919),[7] the same year of his marriage to Hilda Mitchell; they had a daughter, Roberta, in 1921 and a son, Wilfrid, in 1923. From 13 January 1922 Crocker was seconded to the Royal Tank Corps (later theRoyal Tank Regiment) to specialise in the then new field ofarmoured warfare.[8] His secondment became a permanent transfer in August 1923 (backdated to June 1919).[9]
He then went toIndia, where he attended theStaff College, Quetta from 1928 to 1929. Among his classmates there wereDouglas Gracey,Colin Gubbins,Henry Lowrie Davies, along withGeorge Alan Vasey of theAustralian Army andE. L. M. Burns of theCanadian Army, all of whom later becomegeneral officers. He was an excellent student there, with his superiors noting his "strong and independent character". He also earned a rare A-grade, which marked him as an "officer of exceptional merit and outstanding ability".[10] After graduating from Quetta, he then held a number of both field and staff posts includingbrigade major[11][12] toBrigadierPercy Hobart's1st Tank Brigade andGeneral Staff Officer Grade 1 (GSO1) toMajor-GeneralAlan Brooke when the latter was commanding theMobile Division (later the 1st Armoured Division).[13] Both Hobart and Brooke came to form the highest opinion of Crocker, with Brooke later stating:
For my own personal staff, I had John Crocker as my G.S.O.1. I cannot speak too highly, and it would have been impossible to have been better served than I was by him. Having been Brigade Major to Hobart when he commanded the Armoured Brigade, he already had an intimate knowledge of the handling of armour. I thought at first that he might be so much imbued with Hobart's doctrine that I might have difficulty in getting him to agree with my views, which were not always in tune with those of Hobart. On the contrary, I found him the most loyal supporter of the views and doctrine I wished adopted.[14]
He also had a period ofsecondment to theRoyal Tank School in India from September 1925.[15] He was promoted tocaptain in April 1929.[16]
Promotion in the inter-war army was slow, and Crocker's advancement was evidenced by a succession ofbrevet ranks: brevetmajor on 1 January 1935,[17] brevetlieutenant colonel on 1 July 1936[18] and brevetcolonel on 1 February 1938.[19] However, his permanent rank caught up when he was promoted to colonel on 6 August 1938 (with seniority backdated to 1 February 1938). By the time theSecond World War began in September 1939 he was a GSO1 staff officer inSouthern Command.
Crocker was not to remain there long, however, as on 21 April 1940 he was promoted to the acting rank of brigadier and was appointed to command of the3rd Armoured Brigade in place ofVyvyan Pope. The brigade formed part of Major-GeneralRoger Evans's 1st Armoured Division (formerly the Mobile Division), then serving in England but preparing to move to France. Crocker's brigade was depleted as theBritish Expeditionary Force (BEF) was expelled from the continent during theBattle of France in May–June 1940. Landed atCherbourg as the rest of the BEFretreated to Dunkirk in late May, the division unsuccessfully attacked the Germanbridgeheads over theRiver Somme before returning to Cherbourg where the remnants (including the brigade's last 13 tanks) were evacuated. Crocker and his brigade were evacuated in mid-June, Crocker himself returning withLieutenant-GeneralJames Marshall-Cornwall on the last ship.[20][21]
Back in Britain, where he was to remain for almost three years before seeing action again, Crocker initially remained in command of the brigade, which had suffered especially heavy tank losses in France, and was then serving inSouth East England awaiting aGerman invasion and training to repel it. However, on 18 September 1940, he was promoted to the acting rank of Major-General[22] at the relatively young age of just forty-four, and becameGeneral Officer Commanding (GOC) of the newly created6th Armoured Division. Nine days later Crocker was made aCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services in France.[23] Crocker's new division, initially composed of the20th and26th Armoured Brigades, along with the6th Support Group and other supporting units, was formed in Southern Command and, under its perfectionist GOC, trained intensively, with Crocker ensuring that all ranks knew their jobs before moving on to large-scaleexercises.[24] The division was moved from Southern Command, where it trained throughout the winter of 1940, toEastern Command in late February 1941.[20]
Crocker continued training his division for the next several months. However, in mid-October 1941 Crocker, who had by now commanded his division for just over a year, relinquished command of the division to Major-GeneralHerbert Lumsden upon being selected to command the2nd Armoured Group in Home Forces. The Armoured Groups were the brainchild of Major-GeneralGiffard Martel, the Commander Royal Armoured Corps (CRAC), and were set up following his advice with the intention of commanding all the armoured formations in the United Kingdom.[20] His rank of major-general was made temporary on 22 October 1941.[15] The idea was short-lived and he was not to remain there long, as on 16 March 1942 Crocker was promoted to the acting rank of lieutenant-general[25] and was given command ofXI Corps, taking over from Lieutenant-GeneralNoel Irwin, who was being posted to commandIV Corps in theMediterranean theatre. Aged just forty-six, this made Crocker one of the youngest corps commanders in the British Army. It is quite probable that Alan Brooke, who still thought highly of Crocker and was nowChief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), secured for him his new appointment. Crocker's new command, which hadHarold Morgan's45th,Evelyn Barker's54th (East Anglian) andEric Miles's56th (London) Infantry Divisions, along with the21st Army Tank Brigade, under command, was based inEast Anglia, where it had responsibility for its defence in the event of an invasion, and was serving under Eastern Command.[20]
Again, Crocker's appointment was not destined to last long as, in September, he relinquished command of XI Corps over to Lieutenant-GeneralGerard Bucknall, and took command ofIX Corps District from Lieutenant-GeneralFrancis Nosworthy. The corps, withGordon MacMillan (later a distinguished divisional commander and full general) as its Brigadier General Staff (BGS), was then stationed inNorthern England underNorthern Command, with responsibility forDurham,Northumberland, and theNorth Riding of Yorkshire.[26] Crocker's rank of major-general was made permanent on 4 December 1942 (with seniority backdated to 16 November 1941).[27] On 16 March 1943 his rank of lieutenant-general was made temporary.[28] In September IX Corps District was mobilised to become a field force formation, was redesignated as IX Corps once again, and was assigned to the newly createdBritish First Army.[26] Commanded throughout its existence by Lieutenant-GeneralKenneth Anderson, the First Army was formed to be the parent formation for theAllied forces preparing to invadeFrench North Africa as part ofOperation Torch. Lieutenant-GeneralCharles Allfrey'sV Corps formed the other half of the British contingent of the First Army and saw bitter fighting in the early stages of theTunisian campaign towards the end of 1942 and in early 1943.[26]
Together with his corps HQ, Crocker departed for North Africa in the spring of 1943, with his HQ becoming operational on 24 March 1943. He took under command his old 6th Armoured Division, now under Major-GeneralCharles Keightley, along with the46th Infantry Division, under Major-GeneralHarold Freeman-Attwood, and Major-GeneralRaymond Briggs's 1st Armoured Division, which had been transferred over from theBritish Eighth Army.[26] Crocker's first battle on 8 April was an attempt to cut off the retreatingItalian First Army, and he ordered Keightley's 6th Armoured Division to take the Fondouk Pass but he majorly underestimated the strength of the Italian defences there. Also under command for the operation was theU.S. 34th Infantry Division, underMajor GeneralCharles W. Ryder, which Crocker ordered to seize a key position to the right of the pass.[26] Elements ofPhilip Roberts's 26th Armoured Brigade, part of the 6th Armoured Division, cut across the Americans' line of attack and caused a considerable amount of confusion. In addition, Crocker's handling of his infantry was also thought to be somewhat poor. Although the British armour did eventually break through, the Italians had by now escaped the trap. Crocker was later very critical of the Americans, which caused upset atAllied Forces Headquarters (AFHQ) and infuriatingGeneralDwight D. Eisenhower, theSupreme Allied Commander in North Africa.[26]
The campaign continued on, with the Allies slowly tightening the noose over theAxis forces, who were still fighting harder than ever.[26] Crocker's IX Corps was involved in heavy fighting during the latter stages of the fighting, and managed to capture two key features, Selchet el Kourizia and Two Tree Hill, on 24 April, but despite this, IX Corps still failed to break through into theTunis Plain. On 27 April, Crocker was wounded in a training accident, during a demonstration of aPIAT (Projector, Infantry, Anti Tank) anti-tank weapon, shortly before the final battle for Tunis and saw no further action in North Africa.[26] A piece ofshrapnel had entered Crocker's upper chest. Command of IX Corps passed temporarily to Lieutenant-GeneralBrian Horrocks, who transferred over from the British Eighth Army'sX Corps. The war in North Africa came to an end soon afterwards, with the surrender of almost 250,000 Germans and Italians. Crocker was, nonetheless, appointed aCompanion of the Order of the Bath on 5 August 1943 for his command in Tunisia,[29] and GeneralSir Harold Alexander, commander of the Allied18th Army Group (which controlled both the British First and Eighth Armies), believed Crocker to have performed well throughout his relatively brief time in action.[26]
-_D-day_6_June_1944_B7753.jpg)
Crocker returned to England in May after his IX Corps HQ was disbanded and he remained temporarily unemployed. On his return to service in August he was, upon the recommendation of Alexander to Brooke, given command ofI Corps in early August.[30] Crocker took over from Lieutenant-General Gerard Bucknall, who had requested demotion to temporary major-general to command a division overseas.[26] I Corps was to form part of theBritish Second Army, then under his former army commander in North Africa, Lieutenant-General Sir Kenneth Anderson (but replaced in January 1944 by Lieutenant-GeneralMiles Dempsey), training forOperation Overlord, theAlliedinvasion of Northern France.[26]
Crocker was to aided throughout by his BGS,Philip Balfour. Despite Crocker's background inarmoured warfare, I Corps was predominantly an infantry formation. General SirBernard Montgomery, the Allied Land Forces Commander for D Day and the battle of Normandy21st Army Group, had confidence in Crocker's organisational skills and assigned I Corps the difficult task of capturing the city ofCaen. For the landings I Corps had under command the3rd Canadian Division, supported by the2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade, andBritish 3rd Division (Major-GeneralTom Rennie) supported by the27th Armoured Brigade, and the6th Airborne Division (Major-GeneralRichard Gale). OnD-Day, 6 June 1944, Crocker had a larger task than any other Allied corps commander: he had to control two landing beaches (Juno andSword) and anairborne assault. The fact that, in spite of inevitable mishaps, the landings went so well was a testimony to Crocker's planning.[26]
Caen did not fall on D-Day as planned, although a battalion of the British 3rd Division made a spirited attempt before being driven back by the21st Panzer Division. I Corps took part in the bloody two-monthBattle for Caen, includingOperation Charnwood, which still had the 3rd Canadian and 3rd British Divisions under command (the latter now under Major-GeneralLashmer Whistler after Rennie was injured), along with the59th (Staffordshire) Infantry Division (Major-GeneralLewis Lyne).[31] The operation began on 7 July and, after heavy fighting, had captured most of the Caen city centre, although the Germans still held the southern half.[31] Colonel Hermann-Eberhard Wildermuth, in charge of German operations, urged a civilian evacuation, yet only 10,000 left, as Crocker refused the proposal. The devastation that ensued was not on Wldermuth's troops but mostly on the civilian population after German troops were already on the periphery.[32]
The corps, losing the 3rd Division soon after and gaining the49th Division (Major-General Evelyn Barker) in exchange, came under command of theFirst Canadian Army (Lieutenant-GeneralHarry Crerar) in August 1944, I Corps drove forward to theRiver Seine and then took part in theClearing the Channel Coast.[31] The relationship between Crocker and Crerar was not always cordial, with the latter, shortly after taking Crocker's I Corps under command of the First Army, attempted to sack Crocker and replace him with either Lieutenant-GeneralsNeil Ritchie (GOCXII Corps) or Gerard Bucknall (GOCXXX Corps). However, Crerar was overruled by Montgomery, the 21st Army Group commander, although the relationship improved thereafter.[31][33]
When severe British manpower shortages prompted the disbandment of two infantry divisions (the 59th (Staffordshire) and50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division) in late 1944, I Corps HQ was withdrawn from the front line to take over the administration of the 21st Army Group's rear areas in Germany as it advanced across the river Rhine (Operation Plunder) in March 1945. Crocker was knighted as aKnight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in October 1944 for his performance in the Normandy invasion and its aftermath.[34] In June 1945, with thewar in Europe over, Crocker returned to the United Kingdom to take overSouthern Command from Lieutenant-GeneralSidney Kirkman, who took over I Corps from Crocker.[35] For his services in Northwest Europe he was twice mentioned in despatches, on 9 August 1945 and again on 8 November.[36][37]
Crocker's son, Wilfrid, a cavalry officer serving with the5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards, then equipped withCromwell tanks and part of the7th Armoured Division, was killed in action on 20 October 1944 fighting in the battle for's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands.[38][39]
He remained for two years as GOC-in-C of Southern Command,[40] until in 1947 he moved on to beCommander-in-Chief (C-in-C)Middle East Land Forces in succession to Lieutenant-General Sir Miles Dempsey during the final stages of thePalestine Emergency.[40] He was advanced toKnight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the1947 Birthday Honours.[41] In 1950 Crocker's long military career culminated in his appointment asAdjutant-General to the Forces.[42]
Created aKnight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) on 10 June 1948,[43] Crocker retired from the army on 29 September 1953. His permanent rank had been advanced to Lieutenant-General in October 1945,[44] and he was promoted to the rank of fullGeneral on 6 March 1947.[45] In addition to the British honours he had received, Crocker was also honoured by the Netherlands government in 1947 for his service in North West Europe in the form of being appointed aGrand Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau with Swords.[46]
In 1948 Montgomery recommended Crocker to be his successor as CIGS, but thePrime Minister,Clement Attlee, appointed the better-known and more senior GeneralSir William Slim, who had commanded theFourteenth Army in theBurma Campaign during the war, much to Montgomery's annoyance.[47] Crocker's most important postwar contribution was to write the training manuals that laid down the British Army's doctrine of armoured warfare through the years of theCold War.[48] Crocker held a number of honorary appointments throughout the postwar years, includingAide de Camp to the King (1948 to 1951), Colonel Commandant of the Royal Tank Regiment (1949),[49] and Honorary Colonel of the Royal Armoured Corps (1949).[50]
After retiring he became vice-chairman of theImperial War Graves Commission andLord Lieutenant of Middlesex, a position he held from 1961 until his death on 9 March 1963 at the relatively young age of sixty-seven.[51] He was also a Member of theRoyal Patriotic Fund Corporation.[52]
Douglas E. Delaney writes that
John Crocker was not much of a talker and he was a lousy self-promoter because of it. Yet he was one of the most important British soldiers of the Second World War, commanding a corps in North Africa and subsequently being assigned 'the most ambitious, the most difficult, and the most important task' of any Allied corps commander during Operation Overlord. His influence was not limited to the period of the war either. He was intimately involved with the development of the British armoured forces during the 1920s and 1930s, and after the war he oversaw the production of the doctrine and training publications that would guide the British Army for much of theCold War. He also served as Commander-in-Chief Middle East Land Forces, and he finished his career as Adjutant-General to the Forces. Field Marshal Montgomery would have preferred it if Crocker had retired as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), but in 1949 Prime MinisterClement Attlee chose SirWilliam Slim instead. By almost any standard, Crocker had a very successful army career".[53][excessive quote]
| Military offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| New command | GOC 6th Armoured Division 1940–1941 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | GOC XI Corps March–September 1942 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | GOC IX Corps 1942–1943 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | GOC I Corps 1943–1945 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | GOC-in-C Southern Command 1945–1947 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | C-in-C Middle East Land Forces 1947–1950 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Adjutant General 1950–1953 | Succeeded by |
| Honorary titles | ||
| Preceded by | Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex 1961–1963 | Succeeded by |