Iven Giffard Mackay - Second World War

Second World War

At the outbreak of war in 1939, Mackay was ranked seventh on the army's seniority list. Following formation of a second infantry division for the Second Australian Imperial Force in 1940, Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Blamey was elevated to command of the newly created I Corps. Mackay was selected to command the 7th Division on the advice of General Sir Brudenell White but Cabinet, after consulting with Blamey, switched this appointment to the 6th Division. Mackay assumed command on 4 April 1940, receiving the serial number NX363, and sailed from Melbourne for the Middle East on the ocean liner RMS Strathaird on 15 April.

The troops nicknamed him "Mr Chips", after the title character of the best selling 1934 novel Goodbye, Mr. Chips and the subsequent 1939 film, a reference to his peacetime profession, but also to the impression he gave of being cool, reserved and strict. Some of his staff had reservations about him. Colonel Alan Vasey, his Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General, asserted that Mackay lacked the ruthlessness to remove Militia officers who were not performing well. Vasey fumed about "that bloody schoolteacher who wants to dot every 'i' and cross every 't'." Many regular officers were embittered by years of slow promotion followed by Prime Minister Robert Menzies ordering that commands in the 6th Division be given to Militia officers. Colonel Frank Berryman considered this "a damn insult to the professional soldier, calculated to split the Army down the centre. We were to be the hewers of wood and the drawers of water. We, the only people who really knew the job, were to assist these Militia fellows." But Berryman, who worked closely with Mackay as his chief of staff, held him in high regard. "For moral and physical courage," said Berryman, "few equalled him—none ever surpassed him. He was an educated and most knowledgeable soldier ... and extremely patient." His Commander, Royal Australian Artillery, a reservist, Brigadier Edmund Herring, considered Mackay "a most competent and able commander in North Africa and Greece, but a bit old ... Modest, dignified, shy and scholarly ... In action he never knew the meaning of fear..."