87 Facts About Miles Dempsey

Miles Dempsey commanded the 13th Brigade in the Battle of France in 1940, and then spent the next two years training troops in England.

Miles Dempsey commanded the Eighth Army's XIII Corps in the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy in 1943.

Miles Dempsey commanded the Second Army during the Battle of Normandy and made rapid advances in the subsequent campaign in Northern France and Belgium.

Miles Dempsey retired from the Army in 1947, and was involved in horse racing.

Miles Dempsey bred and raced his own horses, and was chairman of the Racecourse Betting Control Board from 1947 to 1951.

Miles Christopher Dempsey was born in New Brighton, Wallasey, Cheshire, on 15 December 1896, the third and youngest son of Arthur Francis, a marine insurance broker, and his wife Margaret Maud De La Fosse, the daughter of Major-General Henry De La Fosse.

Miles Dempsey was the descendant of a clan in County Offaly and County Laois in Ireland.

When Miles Dempsey was six years old, his father killed himself, after which the family moved to Crawley in Sussex.

Miles Dempsey was educated at Shrewsbury School, entering there in 1911.

Miles Dempsey captained the first eleven cricket team in the 1914 season, when they did not lose a match.

Miles Dempsey was a school and house monitor, and played in the second eleven football team.

Miles Dempsey attended Officers' Training Corps camp at Rugeley, reaching the rank of sergeant by 1914.

Miles Dempsey graduated in February 1915 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Royal Berkshire Regiment.

Miles Dempsey served on the Western Front with the 1st Battalion, Royal Berkshires, from June 1916 onwards.

Miles Dempsey, serving as a platoon commander in D Company, first saw action during the Battle of Delville Wood in late July 1916, part of the larger Somme offensive.

Miles Dempsey was promoted to the acting rank of captain and assumed command of D Company, and later B Company.

Miles Dempsey was posted as a staff officer at II Corps headquarters, before returning to the 1st Royal Berkshires, this time in command of A Company.

Miles Dempsey returned to the battalion on 6 July, where, with the tide of the war having turned, the 1st Royal Berkshires took part in the Hundred Days Offensive until the war ended on with the armistice of 11 November 1918.

Miles Dempsey was mentioned in despatches on 8 November 1918, and awarded the Military Cross, which was gazetted in the King's Birthday Honours list on 3 June 1919.

On 16 February 1919, Miles Dempsey returned to the UK on leave.

In late 1921 it moved again, this time to Bareilly, India, and Miles Dempsey took over C Company.

Miles Dempsey went back to India later in the year before returning to England again in 1923, this time to take up an appointment at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.

Miles Dempsey remained in this post until 1927 when he returned to duties with his regiment.

Miles Dempsey took over B Company, and spent a large amount of his time travelling, mainly by bicycle, around Europe, visiting battlefields of old wars, as well as likely scenes of battle in any future conflicts.

In January 1930, Miles Dempsey was admitted to the Staff College, Camberley, graduating in December 1931.

Miles Dempsey excelled at equitation, beating Gott in the point-to-point competition.

Students worked in syndicates; Miles Dempsey's chose to study the August 1914 Battle of Gumbinnen.

Completion of the course at Camberley was normally followed by a staff posting to allow the graduate to practise his skills, and Miles Dempsey's first posting after Camberley was as a General Staff Officer Grade 3 on the staff of the Military Secretary, Major-General Sidney Clive.

Miles Dempsey was responsible for the careers and assignments of all officers below the rank of colonel, with access to their annual confidential reports.

Miles Dempsey, who was promoted to major on 22 September 1932, held this post until late January 1934, when he handed over to Horrocks upon receiving an appointment as brigade major of the 5th Infantry Brigade.

In October 1938 Miles Dempsey's battalion moved to Blackdown Army Camp in Surrey.

In November, Miles Dempsey was promoted to the acting rank of brigadier, and assumed command of the 13th Infantry Brigade in place of Brigadier Henry Willcox, who had been one of Miles Dempsey's instructors at the Staff College in the 1930s, and had been promoted.

Aged just 42, Miles Dempsey was one of the youngest brigadiers in the British Army.

Miles Dempsey's stay with the division, which had fought in France a year earlier, was not destined to be for long as, four months later, he assumed command of the 42nd Infantry Division, which was in the process of converting to an armoured division.

On 12 December 1942 Miles Dempsey was promoted to lieutenant-general and assumed command of XIII Corps, part of the Eighth Army in North Africa, at the request of Montgomery, the Eighth Army commander.

Miles Dempsey was employed in the planning of the Allied invasion of Sicily.

Miles Dempsey temporarily assumed the role of chief of staff of Force 545, the staff responsible for planning the Eighth Army's part in the operation, until Major-General Francis de Guingand, the Eighth Army chief of staff, could be spared to take over.

Miles Dempsey did not like the plan, which involved separate, dispersed landings.

Miles Dempsey wanted the Allied forces to land where they could support each other in the event of a strong and vigorous German response.

Miles Dempsey took his objections to Montgomery on 13 March 1943 and then to Gairdner five days later.

De Guingand discussed the plan with Miles Dempsey, agreed with Miles Dempsey's objections and prepared an appreciation for Montgomery.

Miles Dempsey was responsible for the 1st Airborne Division, to be dropped by parachute and glider just prior to the amphibious landings.

Montgomery and Miles Dempsey attempted to capture Catania using paratroops and commandos.

Miles Dempsey suggested an amphibious operation but this was rejected by Montgomery in favour of switching the main axis of the Eighth Army's advance inland to the west of Mount Etna.

Miles Dempsey's performance had impressed neither Dempsey nor Montgomery and the latter was happy to replace him with another protege, Major-General Gerard Bucknall.

The 50th Division was earmarked to return to the UK and was replaced by the 1st Canadian Division, whom Miles Dempsey considered a friend.

In Sicily and Italy, Miles Dempsey gained a reputation for his expertise in combined operations.

Miles Dempsey was not Montgomery's first choice for the assignment; he had recommended that Leese take over the Second Army and Miles Dempsey be given the First Canadian Army.

Leese replaced Montgomery in command of the Eighth Army on Alexander's recommendation, and Miles Dempsey was given the Second Army on Montgomery's.

Montgomery believed that while Miles Dempsey lacked Leese's ruthlessness and drive, he was cleverer and a better tactician.

Miles Dempsey established his Second Army headquarters at Ashley Gardens in London on 26 January 1944.

Miles Dempsey came ashore that evening and established his tactical headquarters at Banville.

Miles Dempsey had a staff car and an Auster light aircraft, which he called his "whizzer", and used them to move about the battlefield.

Broadhurst found that Miles Dempsey had accepted that he had been wrong, and worked on forging the Army and RAF into a successful team.

Miles Dempsey seldom made a move without talking to Broadhurst, and the two gradually became friends.

Chilton and Miles Dempsey would meet every day, usually at Tac HQ.

Miles Dempsey convinced Montgomery to allow him to make an attempt at a breakthrough using three armoured divisions, assisted by heavy bombers dropping 7,000 long tons of bombs.

Miles Dempsey argued after the war that Goodwood had succeeded in many of its strategic aims although there was no breakthrough.

Miles Dempsey's tactics were based on combat experience in the desert and Italy, but they were not always as applicable or as effective in Normandy.

O'Connor had urged the adoption of armoured personnel carriers for the infantry, but Miles Dempsey had not agreed to this.

Miles Dempsey's use of aerial bombardment and artillery to neutralise the German defences was a sound tactic, but the German forces were disposed in greater depth than had been encountered hitherto and the bombardment did not reach far enough.

Miles Dempsey was shrewd, he never flapped, and consequently his second Army HQ was highly efficient and devoted to their Commander.

Miles Dempsey believed that it was unlikely to succeed and openly questioned Montgomery.

Montgomery's arguments were rooted in military strategy, which was his responsibility, whereas Miles Dempsey's were based in the operational level of war, which was his.

Miles Dempsey later wrote that the 82nd was "easily the best division on the Western front".

All things considered, Plunder was an exciting victory and one that Miles Dempsey, who had fought all the way from the dark days of Dunkirk, must personally have relished.

Miles Dempsey sent them to Montgomery, which led to the German surrender at Luneburg Heath the next day.

On 4 July 1945, Miles Dempsey was summoned to a meeting with Brooke, who informed Miles Dempsey that he was appointed to the command of the Fourteenth Army in the Far East.

Miles Dempsey was extremely critical of its poor planning, which he believed would have led to disaster under wartime conditions.

Miles Dempsey had to deal with the Indonesian War of Independence.

On 19 April 1946, Miles Dempsey was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Middle East.

Miles Dempsey advised Montgomery, who was now the CIGS, that if the government was not willing to commit the resources required, then it should contemplate withdrawal from Mandatory Palestine.

Miles Dempsey was made acting general in June 1946, which was made permanent on 14 October.

Miles Dempsey was appointed to the ceremonial post of aide-de-camp general to the King.

Miles Dempsey was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire in the 1956 New Year Honours.

Miles Dempsey was Colonel of the Royal Berkshire Regiment from 1946 to 1956, and held the ceremonial posts of Colonel Commandant of the Royal Military Police, from 1947 to 1957, and the Special Air Service from 1951 to 1960.

Miles Dempsey was Honorary Colonel of the Territorial Army's 21st SAS Regiment from 1948 to 1951.

Montgomery managed to have the Parachute Regiment made a permanent part of the Army, but it was Miles Dempsey's lobbying that achieved the same status for the SAS in May 1950.

In 1948, Miles Dempsey married Viola O'Reilly, the youngest daughter of Captain Percy O'Reilly of Colamber County Westmeath in Ireland, whom he called "Tuppeny".

Miles Dempsey was commissioned as a Deputy Lord Lieutenant in the county of Berkshire in 1950.

Miles Dempsey was Chairman of the Racecourse Betting Control Board from 1947 to 1951, and he bred and raced his own horses.

Miles Dempsey declined to write any memoirs about his military experiences, and ordered that his diaries be burned.

Miles Dempsey died at his home in Yattendon soon afterwards, on 5 June 1969.

Miles Dempsey asserted effective control over the Second Army without taking the limelight.

Miles Dempsey was described thus by military historian Carlo D'Este:.

Miles Dempsey was considered the Eighth Army's best expert in combined operations and, as he grew in experience, Montgomery soon recognized his potential for army command.

Miles Dempsey has remained a shadowy figure and a general almost completely unknown to the general public.