Richard McCreery
Encyclopedia
General Sir Richard Loudon McCreery GCB
, KBE
, DSO
, MC
(1 February 1898 – 18 October 1967), was a British career soldier, who was Chief of Staff to Field Marshal
Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis, at the time of the Second Battle of El Alamein
and later commanded the British Eighth Army in Northern Italy during 1944–45.
, known to his contemporaries as The Colossus of Roads, for his invention of the process of Macadamizing. John McAdam’s achievements are still commemorated today in the word ‘tarmac’.
Dick McCreery was educated at Eton College
and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Like many idealistic young men of his generation, McCreery exaggerated his age in order to enter the Army on the outbreak of the First World War.
in 1915, and served in France from 1915–17 and from August–November, 1918. He was wounded on active service, and received the Military Cross
in 1918.
from 1928 to 1929 and was appointed Brigade Major for 2nd Cavalry Bde in 1930 and Commanding Officer of his regiment in 1935.
The inter-war years saw McCreery’s greatest sporting achievements (see Equestrianism below). His outstanding skill as a horseman was achieved despite the loss of several toes and a hole in the riding muscle of his right leg, as a result of his wounding in the First World War, which left him with a pronounced limp for the rest of his life.
In 1928 McCreery married Lettice St. Maur, daughter of Major Lord Percy St. Maur (younger brother of the 15th Duke of Somerset
) and the Hon. Violet White.
The interwar years were not without tragedy for McCreery. In 1921 one of his younger brothers, Bob, was killed in Ireland by republican forces. He was serving in the British Army, but off-duty at the time. {See Anglo-Irish War}. McCreery’s youngest brother, Jack, who was a playwright with a play running in the West End, took his own life.
. McCreery was impressed by de Gaulle’s bearing during the latter’s direction of a counter-attack at Abbeville, and remained an admirer of the French General in later years. In December 1940 he was appointed General Officer Commanding
8th Armoured Division.
McCreery was an expert on the use of light armoured vehicles (such vehicles being the mechanised equivalent of the cavalry of which his regiment had been part). His next posting overseas during the Second World War was as Adviser, Armoured Fighting Vehicles, Middle East (March to August,1942), where he was General Sir Claude Auchinleck
's chief adviser on such matters. There followed spells working for General Harold Alexander first as Chief of General Staff, Middle East Command
in Cairo and then Chief of General Staff, 18th Army Group in Tunisia (1942–43). At Middle East Command Alexander was Eighth Army
Commander Bernard Montgomery’s immediate superior at the time of the Second Battle of Alamein, and McCreery had a role in the planning of that battle, in which armoured vehicles played such a significant part.
McCreery was given command of VIII Corps in the UK in July 1943 and then, following the Axis surrender in Tunisia, he was given command of X Corps
in August 1943 so as to take part in the Italian Campaign
. The Corps played a key role at the bitterly contested Salerno landings then fought its way reaching the River Garigliano at the end of 1943 to be involved in the Battle of Monte Cassino
and later the capture of Rome on 4 June 1944. In September 1943, McCreery was responsible for dealing with the Salerno Mutiny
.
McCreery was knighted in the field in July 1944 by King George VI
, at Palazza di Pera, Italy.
McCreery took over command of the Eighth Army from Lieutenant-General Sir Oliver Leese
on 31 December 1944. The spring offensive
which followed, conducted jointly by Eighth Army and U.S. Fifth Army, culminated in a 23-day battle which resulted in the surrender of nearly a million German soldiers.
The achievements of the Eighth Army in this last campaign are perhaps less well remembered than those during the Western Desert Campaign
under Montgomery. This is because they were overshadowed by the contemporaneous campaign in Northern France
following the Normandy landings which were the main focus of public attention at the time, and has similarly attracted more attention from subsequent historians.
Doherty sums up this, the final campaign of the Eighth Army as follows: ‘Sir Richard McCreery had managed one of the finest performances of a British army in the course of the war. He had done so through attention to detail, careful planning and a strategic flair that had few superiors.’
McCreery was the last commander of the British Eighth Army; in 1945 it was re-constituted as British Troops Austria
. He was also the only cavalryman to command it.
.) During his time in Austria his office was next to a room in Schönbrunn Palace
, just outside Vienna, which was known as the Napoleonzimmer, so commemorating a very different occupation. McCreery held this post from July 1945 to March 1946.
From 1946 to 1948, McCreery was General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, British Army of the Rhine
in Germany, succeeding Field Marshal Montgomery.
In 1948–49, McCreery was the British Army Representative on the Military Staff Committee at the United Nations. During this time McCreery lived with his family on Long Island and commuted to an office on the 61st floor of the Empire State Building in New York. The agenda of the Committee at that time was to set up an independent fighting force for the United Nations, an aim which was never realised.
McCreery was made a full general in 1949.
. Next to riding McCreery’s great passion was gardening, and he continued to develop the garden originally laid out by his mother, Emilia McAdam.
McCreery regarded Montgomery as excessively cautious, and indeed some historians have suggested that Montgomery failed to press home his advantage after the Battle of Alamein to the extent that he might have done (see, for example, Corelli Barnett, The Desert Generals).
After his retirement from the Army in 1949, General McCreery did not play an active part in public life; however, at the time of the Suez crisis
in 1956 he was moved to write a personal letter of protest to his war-time acquaintance Harold Macmillan
, then a member of Sir Anthony Eden’s
cabinet, as he regarded the operation as dishonourable.
General Sir Richard McCreery died on 18 October 1967 aged 69. His memorial service was held in Westminster Abbey
.
He hunted all his life with the Blackmore Vale Hunt, of which he became joint Master of Foxhounds.
At the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II
in 1953 the State Coach was drawn by six grey horses, one of which was named McCreery, the others being named after five other World War II generals, a distinction which must have been particularly appreciated by McCreery in view of his lifelong association with horses.
McCreery’s steeplechasing accomplishments are commemorated in an annual race at Sandown Park, The Dick McCreery Hunters' Steeple Chase, run on the day of the Grand Military Gold Cup.
McCreery was clearly possessed of a high intelligence, which was not restricted in its operation by the early end of his formal academic education. Harold Macmillan
, later to become Prime Minister, characterised McCreery as a ‘very clever’ man in his wartime diaries. Following a meeting at Eighth Army Headquarters in Forli, Northern Italy, in April 1945, he wrote: ‘He [McCreery] has always struck me as one of the ablest of the military officers whom I have seen out here.’
in the early 1960s, but left in 1963 to become leader of the Committee to Defeat Revisionism, for Communist Unity
. He pre-deceased his father in 1965. His second son, Bob, inherited his passion for steeplechasing and became the champion amateur National Hunt jockey in the 1950s. His youngest son is the psychologist and author Charles McCreery
.
|-
|-
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
, KBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
, DSO
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
, MC
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
(1 February 1898 – 18 October 1967), was a British career soldier, who was Chief of Staff to Field Marshal
Field Marshal
Field Marshal is a military rank. Traditionally, it is the highest military rank in an army.-Etymology:The origin of the rank of field marshal dates to the early Middle Ages, originally meaning the keeper of the king's horses , from the time of the early Frankish kings.-Usage and hierarchical...
Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis, at the time of the Second Battle of El Alamein
Second Battle of El Alamein
The Second Battle of El Alamein marked a major turning point in the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. The battle took place over 20 days from 23 October – 11 November 1942. The First Battle of El Alamein had stalled the Axis advance. Thereafter, Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery...
and later commanded the British Eighth Army in Northern Italy during 1944–45.
Background and early life
Richard (Dick) Loudon McCreery was born on 1 February 1898, the eldest son of Walter A. McCreery of Bilton Park, Rugby. His mother was Emilia McAdam, a direct descendant of the Scottish engineer John Loudon McAdamJohn Loudon McAdam
John Loudon McAdam was a Scottish engineer and road-builder. He invented a new process, "macadamisation", for building roads with a smooth hard surface that would be more durable and less muddy than soil-based tracks....
, known to his contemporaries as The Colossus of Roads, for his invention of the process of Macadamizing. John McAdam’s achievements are still commemorated today in the word ‘tarmac’.
Dick McCreery was educated at Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Like many idealistic young men of his generation, McCreery exaggerated his age in order to enter the Army on the outbreak of the First World War.
Service in the First World War
McCreery joined the 12th Royal Lancers12th Royal Lancers
The 12th Royal Lancers was a cavalry regiment of the British Army. In 1960, it was amalgamated with 9th Queen's Royal Lancers, to form 9th/12th Royal Lancers .-History:...
in 1915, and served in France from 1915–17 and from August–November, 1918. He was wounded on active service, and received the Military Cross
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
in 1918.
Inter-war years
McCreery was appointed Adjutant of his regiment in December 1921. He attended Staff College, CamberleyStaff College, Camberley
Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, was a staff college for the British Army from 1802 to 1997, with periods of closure during major wars. In 1997 it was merged into the new Joint Services Command and Staff College.-Origins:...
from 1928 to 1929 and was appointed Brigade Major for 2nd Cavalry Bde in 1930 and Commanding Officer of his regiment in 1935.
The inter-war years saw McCreery’s greatest sporting achievements (see Equestrianism below). His outstanding skill as a horseman was achieved despite the loss of several toes and a hole in the riding muscle of his right leg, as a result of his wounding in the First World War, which left him with a pronounced limp for the rest of his life.
In 1928 McCreery married Lettice St. Maur, daughter of Major Lord Percy St. Maur (younger brother of the 15th Duke of Somerset
Duke of Somerset
Duke of Somerset is a title in the peerage of England that has been created several times. Derived from Somerset, it is particularly associated with two families; the Beauforts who held the title from the creation of 1448 and the Seymours, from the creation of 1547 and in whose name the title is...
) and the Hon. Violet White.
The interwar years were not without tragedy for McCreery. In 1921 one of his younger brothers, Bob, was killed in Ireland by republican forces. He was serving in the British Army, but off-duty at the time. {See Anglo-Irish War}. McCreery’s youngest brother, Jack, who was a playwright with a play running in the West End, took his own life.
Second World War
In 1939–40, McCreery was involved in the Battle for France, towards the end of which he commanded the Second Armoured Brigade, which found itself fighting alongside General Charles de GaulleCharles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
. McCreery was impressed by de Gaulle’s bearing during the latter’s direction of a counter-attack at Abbeville, and remained an admirer of the French General in later years. In December 1940 he was appointed General Officer Commanding
General Officer Commanding
General Officer Commanding is the usual title given in the armies of Commonwealth nations to a general officer who holds a command appointment. Thus, a general might be the GOC II Corps or GOC 7th Armoured Division...
8th Armoured Division.
McCreery was an expert on the use of light armoured vehicles (such vehicles being the mechanised equivalent of the cavalry of which his regiment had been part). His next posting overseas during the Second World War was as Adviser, Armoured Fighting Vehicles, Middle East (March to August,1942), where he was General Sir Claude Auchinleck
Claude Auchinleck
Field Marshal Sir Claude John Eyre Auchinleck, GCB, GCIE, CSI, DSO, OBE , nicknamed "The Auk", was a British army commander during World War II. He was a career soldier who spent much of his military career in India, where he developed a love of the country and a lasting affinity for the soldiers...
's chief adviser on such matters. There followed spells working for General Harold Alexander first as Chief of General Staff, Middle East Command
Middle East Command
The Middle East Command was a British Army Command established prior to the Second World War in Egypt. Its primary role was to command British land forces and co-ordinate with the relevant naval and air commands to defend British interests in the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean region.The...
in Cairo and then Chief of General Staff, 18th Army Group in Tunisia (1942–43). At Middle East Command Alexander was Eighth Army
Eighth Army (United Kingdom)
The Eighth Army was one of the best-known formations of the British Army during World War II, fighting in the North African and Italian campaigns....
Commander Bernard Montgomery’s immediate superior at the time of the Second Battle of Alamein, and McCreery had a role in the planning of that battle, in which armoured vehicles played such a significant part.
McCreery was given command of VIII Corps in the UK in July 1943 and then, following the Axis surrender in Tunisia, he was given command of X Corps
X Corps (United Kingdom)
The X Corps was a British Army formation in the First World War and was later reformed in 1942 during the North African campaign of the Second World War as part of the Eighth Army.- First World War :...
in August 1943 so as to take part in the Italian Campaign
Italian Campaign (World War II)
The Italian Campaign of World War II was the name of Allied operations in and around Italy, from 1943 to the end of the war in Europe. Joint Allied Forces Headquarters AFHQ was operationally responsible for all Allied land forces in the Mediterranean theatre, and it planned and commanded the...
. The Corps played a key role at the bitterly contested Salerno landings then fought its way reaching the River Garigliano at the end of 1943 to be involved in the Battle of Monte Cassino
Battle of Monte Cassino
The Battle of Monte Cassino was a costly series of four battles during World War II, fought by the Allies against Germans and Italians with the intention of breaking through the Winter Line and seizing Rome.In the beginning of 1944, the western half of the Winter Line was being anchored by Germans...
and later the capture of Rome on 4 June 1944. In September 1943, McCreery was responsible for dealing with the Salerno Mutiny
Salerno Mutiny
The Salerno Mutiny was a mutiny by about 600 men of the British X Corps, who on September 16, 1943 refused assignment to new units as replacements during the Allied invasion of Italy....
.
McCreery was knighted in the field in July 1944 by King George VI
George VI of the United Kingdom
George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death...
, at Palazza di Pera, Italy.
McCreery took over command of the Eighth Army from Lieutenant-General Sir Oliver Leese
Oliver Leese
Lieutenant-General Sir Oliver William Hargreaves Leese, 3rd Baronet, KCB, CBE, DSO was a British general during World War II.-Early years:...
on 31 December 1944. The spring offensive
Spring 1945 offensive in Italy
The Spring 1945 offensive in Italy, codenamed Operation Grapeshot, was the Allied attack by Fifth United States Army and British 8th Army into the Lombardy Plain which started on 6 April 1945 and ended on 2 May with the surrender of German forces in Italy....
which followed, conducted jointly by Eighth Army and U.S. Fifth Army, culminated in a 23-day battle which resulted in the surrender of nearly a million German soldiers.
The achievements of the Eighth Army in this last campaign are perhaps less well remembered than those during the Western Desert Campaign
Western Desert Campaign
The Western Desert Campaign, also known as the Desert War, was the initial stage of the North African Campaign during the Second World War. The campaign was heavily influenced by the availability of supplies and transport. The ability of the Allied forces, operating from besieged Malta, to...
under Montgomery. This is because they were overshadowed by the contemporaneous campaign in Northern France
Western Front (World War II)
The Western Front of the European Theatre of World War II encompassed, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and West Germany. The Western Front was marked by two phases of large-scale ground combat operations...
following the Normandy landings which were the main focus of public attention at the time, and has similarly attracted more attention from subsequent historians.
Doherty sums up this, the final campaign of the Eighth Army as follows: ‘Sir Richard McCreery had managed one of the finest performances of a British army in the course of the war. He had done so through attention to detail, careful planning and a strategic flair that had few superiors.’
McCreery was the last commander of the British Eighth Army; in 1945 it was re-constituted as British Troops Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
. He was also the only cavalryman to command it.
Post-war years
In the immediate aftermath of the War McCreery was General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, British Forces of Occupation in Austria and British representative on the Allied Commission for Austria. He was thus responsible for running that part of the country under British occupation. (Austria, including Vienna, was divided up between the four Allied powers, in the manner portrayed in the celebrated film, The Third ManThe Third Man
The Third Man is a 1949 British film noir, directed by Carol Reed and starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, and Trevor Howard. Many critics rank it as a masterpiece, particularly remembered for its atmospheric cinematography, performances, and unique musical score...
.) During his time in Austria his office was next to a room in Schönbrunn Palace
Schönbrunn Palace
Schönbrunn Palace is a former imperial 1,441-room Rococo summer residence in Vienna, Austria. One of the most important cultural monuments in the country, since the 1960s it has been one of the major tourist attractions in Vienna...
, just outside Vienna, which was known as the Napoleonzimmer, so commemorating a very different occupation. McCreery held this post from July 1945 to March 1946.
From 1946 to 1948, McCreery was General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, British Army of the Rhine
British Army of the Rhine
There have been two formations named British Army of the Rhine . Both were originally occupation forces in Germany, one after the First World War, and the other after the Second World War.-1919–1929:...
in Germany, succeeding Field Marshal Montgomery.
In 1948–49, McCreery was the British Army Representative on the Military Staff Committee at the United Nations. During this time McCreery lived with his family on Long Island and commuted to an office on the 61st floor of the Empire State Building in New York. The agenda of the Committee at that time was to set up an independent fighting force for the United Nations, an aim which was never realised.
McCreery was made a full general in 1949.
Retirement
McCreery retired from the Army in December 1949. He lived the rest of his life at Stowell Hill in Somerset, a house built by his mother and designed by a pupil of the architect Edwin LutyensEdwin Lutyens
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, OM, KCIE, PRA, FRIBA was a British architect who is known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era...
. Next to riding McCreery’s great passion was gardening, and he continued to develop the garden originally laid out by his mother, Emilia McAdam.
McCreery regarded Montgomery as excessively cautious, and indeed some historians have suggested that Montgomery failed to press home his advantage after the Battle of Alamein to the extent that he might have done (see, for example, Corelli Barnett, The Desert Generals).
After his retirement from the Army in 1949, General McCreery did not play an active part in public life; however, at the time of the Suez crisis
Suez Crisis
The Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, Suez War was an offensive war fought by France, the United Kingdom, and Israel against Egypt beginning on 29 October 1956. Less than a day after Israel invaded Egypt, Britain and France issued a joint ultimatum to Egypt and Israel,...
in 1956 he was moved to write a personal letter of protest to his war-time acquaintance Harold Macmillan
Harold Macmillan
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC was Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....
, then a member of Sir Anthony Eden’s
Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC was a British Conservative politician, who was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957...
cabinet, as he regarded the operation as dishonourable.
General Sir Richard McCreery died on 18 October 1967 aged 69. His memorial service was held in Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
.
Equestrianism
Appropriately for a man who was associated all his adult life with a cavalry regiment, McCreery was a highly accomplished horseman. He twice won the Grand Military Gold Cup at Sandown Park Racecourse (in 1923 and 1928), and represented the Army at polo. In 1924 he and his younger brother Captain Selby McCreery constituted 50 percent of the Army polo team that played against America. In retirement during the 1950s, Dick McCreery took up polo again for a time, playing at Windsor Great Park.He hunted all his life with the Blackmore Vale Hunt, of which he became joint Master of Foxhounds.
At the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
in 1953 the State Coach was drawn by six grey horses, one of which was named McCreery, the others being named after five other World War II generals, a distinction which must have been particularly appreciated by McCreery in view of his lifelong association with horses.
McCreery’s steeplechasing accomplishments are commemorated in an annual race at Sandown Park, The Dick McCreery Hunters' Steeple Chase, run on the day of the Grand Military Gold Cup.
Character and ability
In his character General McCreery was modest to the point of shyness. He was not comfortable in public speaking, but as Doherty puts it: 'Not a self-publicist in the manner of Montgomery, McCreery managed nonetheless to gain the confidence of his soldiers who trusted him in peace and war.' An overriding sense of duty might be said to have characterised his life and career.McCreery was clearly possessed of a high intelligence, which was not restricted in its operation by the early end of his formal academic education. Harold Macmillan
Harold Macmillan
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC was Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....
, later to become Prime Minister, characterised McCreery as a ‘very clever’ man in his wartime diaries. Following a meeting at Eighth Army Headquarters in Forli, Northern Italy, in April 1945, he wrote: ‘He [McCreery] has always struck me as one of the ablest of the military officers whom I have seen out here.’
Descendants
McCreery had four sons and one daughter. His eldest son, Michael, was a member of the Communist Party of Great BritainCommunist Party of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in Great Britain, although it never became a mass party like those in France and Italy. It existed from 1920 to 1991.-Formation:...
in the early 1960s, but left in 1963 to become leader of the Committee to Defeat Revisionism, for Communist Unity
Committee to Defeat Revisionism, for Communist Unity
Committee to Defeat Revisionism, for Communist Unity was a small British Marxist-Leninist group, that had left the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1963. CDRCU was led by Michael McCreery. CDRCU was sympathetic towards the Communist Party of China and the Party of Labour of Albania...
. He pre-deceased his father in 1965. His second son, Bob, inherited his passion for steeplechasing and became the champion amateur National Hunt jockey in the 1950s. His youngest son is the psychologist and author Charles McCreery
Charles McCreery
Charles Anthony Selby McCreery is a British psychologist and author, best known for his collaboration with Celia Green on work on hallucinatory states in normal people.- Biography :...
.
Honours and decorations
- Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath 1949 (KCB 5 August 1943, CB 18 February 1943)
- Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire 5 July 1945 (MBE 1926)
- Distinguished Service OrderDistinguished Service OrderThe Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
27 September 1940 - Military CrossMilitary CrossThe Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
1918 - Mentioned in DispatchesMentioned in DispatchesA soldier Mentioned in Despatches is one whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which is described the soldier's gallant or meritorious action in the face of the enemy.In a number of countries, a soldier's name must be mentioned in...
29 April 1941, 13 January 1944 - Officer, Legion of MeritLegion of MeritThe Legion of Merit is a military decoration of the United States armed forces that is awarded for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements...
(United States) 10 August 1943 - Grand Commander, Order of the Phoenix (Greece) 20 June 1944
- Distinguished Service Medal (United States)Distinguished Service Medal (United States)The Distinguished Service Medal is the highest non-valorous military and civilian decoration of the United States military which is issued for exceptionally meritorious service to the government of the United States in either a senior government service position or as a senior officer of the United...
2 August 1945
Footnotes
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External links
- Timeline of McCreery's WWII service. [generals.dk]