Douglas Wimberley - World War II

World War II

The first year of the Second World War saw Wimberley take his battalion to France, as part of the 5th Brigade, 2nd Division, I Corps. In December 1939 Wimberley was made GSO1 and Chief Instructor at the Senior Officers' School at Sheerness, so missing the hostilities in France. In August 1940 he was promoted brigadier and in quick succession he commanded the 13th Brigade, the 152nd Seaforth and Cameron Brigade and as acting major-general, the 46th Division. In June 1941, after only a month at 46 Division, he took command of the 51st (Highland) Division at the specific request of his predecessor, Neil Ritchie, who had been his divisional commander when leading the Seaforth and Cameron Brigade and who was being posted to the Middle East.

The 51st (Highland) Division was a very different formation from that which he had been a part of in the previous war. Formerly, the division had been forged over successive battles in the trenches. The division which he now commanded was in reality the untried 9th (Highland) Division, the sister Territorial Force division to the 51st, which had been renumbered after the latter's surrender in France, June 1940. The division as it stood would not be able to fight as a unit, and Wimberley, now major-general made a successful effort to instill a sense of esprit de corps in the unit. He refused "sassenach" troops for his brigades and battalions whilst "poaching" Scottish troops from other units, and appealed to his men's Scottish patriotism by encouraging the wearing of their respective tartans as much as possible, for which he was dubbed "Tartan Tam". The only non-highland unit was 1/7 Middlesex Regiment because there was no machine gun battalion in the British Army which recruited exclusively in Scotland. At the same time training was not neglected. The results would manifest themselves in action.

In August 1942 the division arrived in Egypt to join the Eighth Army. It went into the line on 17 September as part of XXX Corps as the new Eighth Army commander Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery prepared for the offensive which would defeat the Axis forces in North Africa. In October and November the Division figured prominently in the "break-in" and "crumbling phase" of the Battle of Alamein and actions round Kidney Ridge. Before the battle Wimberley had briefed his COs with a model of the battlefield and instructed them to repeat their tasks as he had shown them, so as to ensure the unity of the division's battle plan.

Before and during the battle, Wimberley had become a familiar sight touring the divisional areas, an incongruous spectacle in his jeep with his knees nearly reaching head height. During the battle Wimberley's jeep was blown up by a mine, killing two of the occupants but only badly shaking Wimberley himself. He often paused to assist troops carrying out work or briefed individual privates so as to make them better understand the part which they were to play. Therefore, the casualties suffered by Eighth Army, amounting to nearly a quarter of the infantry force, caused Wimberley to comment "never again". Having observed in the closing stages of the battle an assault by his Highlanders which had gone in without an artillery barrage, he wrote:

The position was, as we had reported, strongly held, not a sign of our tanks was to be seen, but plenty of enemy ones...The Gordons made little progress, and lost a lot of men; I felt it had been sheer waste of life and was sick at heart

Known, trusted and respected by Eighth Army commander Montgomery, Wimberley fought his division across North Africa and into Tunisia fighting at Mareth, Medinine, Akarit and Enfidaville, and Adrano. In 1942 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his actions.

The pace of the pursuit of Erwin Rommel - the fear of another battle of attrition like Alamein - began to tell. In his unpublished memoirs, Wimberley wrote of the Battle of El Agheila:

The 14th December is a day I will never forget....As I motored forward I saw every 100 yards or so wounded men, mostly sappers who had become casualties on the mines. The black Macadam road wound through the soft sand of the desert, pitch black in the brilliant sunshine. At intervals all down the road, mile after mile, the enemy had spread shovel-fulls of sand, and under every sixth heap or so, a mine had been buried, a hole having been drilled in the tarmac for it. About every quarter of a mile along the road derelict vehicles had been pulled across it, to block it, and each vehicle was a mass of trip wires and booby traps....I was told the very corpses of our poor dead, which we lost out on patrol, were all booby trapped, when later the burial parties went out to clear the battlefield and bury them.... Never again, while I commanded the Highland Division, did we ever meet such a heavily mined area

To Wimberley was entrusted the task of taking Buerat and opening the way to Tripoli, before supplies ran out over a tenuous chain of communication, so fast had the Eighth Army advanced. Having opened the way to the city - the first major Axis prize to fall in the whole of the War so far - Wimberley's achievement went un-recognised by Montgomery, who accused him of "dilatoriness". Wimberley forgave all during the Battle of Medenine, however, when he wrote "I felt grateful, and thought, again, what a wonderful little commander I was serving under, in Monty."

In July 1943 Wimberley led the Highland Division during the Allied invasion of Sicily. The division was involved in heavy fighting until gradually being relieved in August by 78th Infantry Division. Despite the renowned fighting ability and reputation of the 51st, Montgomery decided after the Sicily in August 1943 that Wimberley, showing tiredness after two years in command, should be removed from divisional command. Whilst Montgomery judged him unsuitable for Corps command, he recommended Wimberley to his mentor and friend General Alan Brooke, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, for the position of Commandant at the Staff College, Camberley, a recommendation which was accepted. In December 1944 he was appointed Director of Infantry, his last appointment in the British Army which he held until his resignation in October 1946, when it became clear that with Montgomery having become CIGS, he would progress no higher in the army.