Eric Bols joined the British Army in 1924 and saw service in a number of areas of the British Empire during the interwar period, including Hong Kong and Shanghai, as well as Malta.
27 Facts About Eric Bols
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2.
Eric Bols served as a Cadet Instructor at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst and attended courses at the Staff College, Camberley on promotion to captain.
3.
Eric Bols was then promoted again and commanded the 185th Infantry Brigade during the Allied advance through Western Europe, before taking over command of the 6th Airborne Division from Major General Richard Gale in late 1944.
4.
Eric Bols led the division in the Battle of the Bulge, as well as Operation Varsity, the airborne operation to cross the River Rhine, then led the division into northern Germany until the end of the conflict.
5.
Eric Bols was the officer who met face-to-face with the Soviets in Wismar, insisting on allied hold of the captured city, contrary to Yalta conference agreements.
6.
Eric Bols was born in Camberley, Surrey, on 8 June 1904.
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Eric Bols's father, Louis Jean Bols, was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and was the son of the Belgian Consul stationed in Quebec and later London, Louis Michel Guillaume Joseph Bols.
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Louis Eric Bols, who was a dual British and Belgian national, travelled around the world and mastered some foreign languages, before eventually meeting his wife and settling down.
9.
Eric Bols served as an officer in the British Army during the First World War, acting as the chief of staff for General Sir Edmund Allenby for the majority of the conflict.
10.
Eric Bols was born when his father was attending the Staff College, Camberley, and was educated in several institutions.
11.
Eric Bols was very proud of the Grenadier Guards and made people look up and not down, but with no personal arrogance.
12.
Eric Bols was promoted to lieutenant on 31 January 1926, and in 1927, Eric Bols was sent with the 1st Battalion, Devonshire Regiment to China, first being stationed in Hong Kong but later moving to Shanghai, his battalion being tasked with helping to keep the peace in the region.
13.
Eric Bols was promoted to captain from that date, transferring to the King's Regiment, there being no vacancies in the Devonshires.
14.
Eric Bols returned to regimental duty for a few months from 22 December 1936, having completed the staff course.
15.
Eric Bols went on to act as an instructor at the Staff College, Camberley, a General Staff Officer with the 51st Infantry Division, then commanded the 3rd Reconnaissance Regiment and acted as the colonel in charge of training for the Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group.
16.
Eric Bols was involved in planning for Operation Overlord as well as helping to train the soldiers who would participate in the invasion of Normandy, then scheduled for the spring of 1944.
17.
Eric Bols led the brigade during the final stages of the Battle for Caen, where it saw heavy fighting in Operation Charnwood, Operation Goodwood, and Operation Bluecoat and later in the Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine.
18.
Eric Bols was appointed a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order for his command of the brigade during the Battle of Overloon and the subsequent liberation of Overloon and Venray in the Netherlands; the recommendation for the award of the DSO makes particular mention of the achievement of the brigade in forcing the River Breek despite heavy resistance, poor weather and shortage of assault equipment.
19.
Not long afterwards, Eric Bols was unexpectedly offered the command of the 6th Airborne Division by Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery, commander of the 21st Army Group on the Western Front.
20.
Eric Bols took command shortly before Christmas of 1944, superseding the previous General Officer Commanding, Major General Richard Gale, who had raised the division in May 1943 and commanded it during Operation Tonga, the British airborne landings in Normandy some six months earlier.
21.
Eric Bols was granted the acting rank of major-general from 6 December 1944.
22.
Eric Bols then commanded the division as it participated in Operation Varsity, the Allied airborne assault over the Rhine, which the Allied armies has by now reached and were preparing to cross.
23.
On 5 July 1945 Eric Bols was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath.
24.
Eric Bols commanded the division whilst it conducted peace-keeping duties in Palestine during the Palestine Emergency.
25.
Eric Bols returned to England, where he attended the Imperial Defence College the following year, before returning to his division in December 1946, succeeding Major General James Cassels who had been in command in Bols's absence.
26.
In 1965, it was reported by The Times that the former Russian General and then Soviet Deputy Defence Minister Konstantin Rokossovsky argued in a journal article that Eric Bols had attempted to use the 6th Airborne Division to 'infiltrate' Russian lines.
27.
Eric Bols died at his home at Peppering Eye, near Battle in East Sussex on 14 June 1985 at the age of 81.