|
|
|
|
|
Arthur Ernest PercivalLieutenant-General Arthur Ernest Percival December 26 1887 – January 31 1966. In 1942 he surrendered Singapore to the Japanese. Arthur Ernest Percival was born in Hertfordshire, and later attended Rugby School. He had been working as a clerk for a trading company inLondon when war broke out in 1914. He immediately enlisted as a private at the age of twenty-seven, and was soon promoted lieutenant and sent to France the following year with the 7th Bedfordshire Regiment. He served as a company commander on the Somme in 1916, leading his men on the attack on the Schwaben Redoubt, beyond the ruins of the village of Thiepval, an action for which he was awarded the Military Cross. After another year's grinding combat he had become battalion commander with the temporary rank of lieutenant colonel, and acted as brigade commander in the closing days of the final campaign in 1918. In April 1918 Percival's battalion cooperated closely with neighbouring Australian units, a useful experience given what life would later hold for him. Percival ended the war a highly decorated officer, described in reports as very efficient, beloved by his men, brave soldier. In 1919 Percival volunteered for service in north Russia and went as second-in-command of the 46th Royal Fusiliers. In 1920 he served as a company commander and later an intelligence officer with the Essex Regiment in Ireland fighting the IRA. Percival qualified for Staff College in 1923, where he was picked out for accelerated promotion. A staff job in Nigeria was followed by regimental service with the Cheshires in 1929, and in 1930 he was sent to attend the Royal Naval College at Greenwich. A year later Percival was appointed an instructor at the Staff College where he soon came to the attention of John Greer Dill, the Commandant. Dill regarded Percival as an outstanding instructor and staff officer and wrote that he has an outstanding ability, wide military knowledge, good judgement and is a very quick and accurate worker. Significantly, Dill noted, he has not altogether an impressive presence and one may therefore fail, at first meeting him, to appreciate his sterling worth. After a spell at the Imperial Defence College, Percival was sent to Malaya in 1936 as GSO1. As Malaya Commands chief staff officer, Percival travelled extensively in the colony and examined the possibilities of an overland attack on Singapore from the north. In 1939 when Dill was appointed to command I Corps in France in the BEF, Percival went with him. Percival later took command of the 44th Division following the evacuation from Dunkirk with the rank of major general. He remained with the command until April 1941 when Dill, by now CIGS, appointed him GOC Malaya in the temporary rank of lieutenant general. Dills patronage of Percival was based upon a clear assessment of Percivals worth as an effect and intelligent staff officer who was an indefatigable worker and who was utterly dedicated to his military profession. Percival took up his new appointment with little enthusiasm or confidence, writin in his postwar account: 'In going to Malaya I realised that there was the double danger either of being left in an inactive command for some years if war did not break out in the East or, if it did, of finding myself involved in a pretty sticky business with the inadequate forces...' Percival arrived in Malaya in May 1941 to find his freedom of manoeuvre to influence strategy, the operation deployment of his troops or attitudes of mind very limited. Radio communications were poor and the telephone system unreliable. Because of the shortage of aircraft Percival relied upon flying in small privately owned planes or used a car. He found himself acting both as GOC and as army commander with a completely inadequate staff. Percival's appreciation of the problems regarding the defence of the Malayan Peninsular he faced in 1941 was undoubtedly influenced by the study he carried out in 1937; at the very least, Percival's 1937 appreciation made him pessimistic in 1941 about his chances of succesfully repelling a Japanese attack. And then there were his difficulties, through no fault of his own, with the senior Lieutenant General Lewis "Piggy" Heath, commanding III Indian Corps, and the independent-minded Major General Gordon Bennet, commanding the 8th Australian Division. Heath was senior to Percival in age and experience and it cannot have been easy for him to serve as a subordinate. After the initial disasters Heath urged Percival to withdraw to a position in Johore rather than fighting a delaying battle further north. Percival lost confidence in Heath as a Corps Commander, but lacked the ruthlessness to replace him. Bennet was a soldier suffering from extreme paranoia who was a rasping, bitter, sarcastic man, given to expressing his views with great freedom. One of Australias bravest and most distinguished citizen soldiers of the First World War, he was prejudiced against regular officers, his own officers, regular or citizen, and disliked and distrusted the British. In fact, he was the last Australian officer who should have been appointed to such a sensitive command involving close cooperation with Commonwealth forces. Bennet found Percival unassuming, considerate and conciliatory, noting later that Percival was weak and hesitant though brainy'.
|
 |
|
| Copyright 2005-2009 OnPedia.com. All Rights Reserved |
|
|