Adrian Carton de Wiart

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Adrian Carton de Wiart bigraphy, stories - Recipient of the Victoria Cross

Adrian Carton de Wiart : biography

5 May 1880 – 5 June 1963

Lieutenant-General Sir Adrian Paul Ghislain Carton de Wiart VC, KBE, CB, CMG, DSO (5 May 1880 – 5 June 1963), was an English officer of Belgian and Irish descent. He fought in the Boer War, World War I, and World War II, was shot in the face, head, stomach, ankle, leg, hip and ear, survived a plane crash, tunneled out of a POW camp, and bit off his own fingers when a doctor wouldn’t amputate them. He later said "frankly I had enjoyed the war."

After returning home from World War II, he was sent to China as Winston Churchill’s personal representative. While en route he attended the Cairo Conference.

Carton de Wiart was thought to be a model for the character of Brigadier Ben Ritchie Hook in Evelyn Waugh’s trilogy Sword of Honour.The English author Christopher Sykes (1907–1986) Waugh’s biographer (in 1975), felt that the fire-eating officer in the Sword of Honour trilogy, Brigadier Ben Ritchie-Hook, "…bears a very strong resemblance to…" Lieutenant-General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart VC, a friend of the author’s father-in-law. Waugh was familiar with Carton de Wiart through the club to which he belonged.

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography described him so, "With his black eyepatch and empty sleeve, Carton de Wiart looked like an elegant pirate, and became a figure of legend."Williams, ODNB

World War II

The Polish campaign

Carton de Wiart met with the Polish commander-in-chief, Marshal of Poland Edward Rydz-Śmigły in late August 1939 and formed a rather low opinion of his capabilities. He strongly urged Rydz-Śmigły to pull Polish forces back beyond the Vistula River, but was unsuccessful. The other advice he offered, to have the seagoing units of the Polish fleet leave the Baltic Sea, was, after much argument, finally adopted. This fleet made a significant contribution to the Allied cause, especially the several modern destroyers and submarines.

As Polish resistance weakened, Carton de Wiart evacuated his mission from Warsaw along with the Polish government. Together with the Polish commander Rydz-Śmigły, Carton de Wiart made his way with the rest of the British Mission to the Romanian border with both the Germans and the Soviets in pursuit. His car convoy was attacked by the Luftwaffe on the road, and the wife of one of his aides was killed. He was in danger of arrest in Romania and got out by aircraft on 21 September with a false passport, just in time as the pro Allied Romanian prime minister, Armand Calinescu, was assassinated that day.

The Norwegian campaign

Recalled to a special appointment in the army in the autumn of 1939, Carton de Wiart reverted to his permanent army rank of Colonel. He was promoted to acting major-general in November After a brief stint in command of the 61st Division in the Midlands of England, Carton de Wiart was summoned in April 1940 to take charge of a hastily drawn together Anglo-French force to occupy a small town in middle Norway, Namsos. His orders were to take the city of Trondheim, some distance to the south, in conjunction with a naval attack and an advance from the south by troops landed at Åndalsnes.

He flew to Namsos to review the location before the troops arrived. When his Short Sunderland flying boat came in for a landing, it was attacked by a German fighter and his aide was wounded and had to be evacuated. After the French Alpine troops landed (without their transport mules and missing straps for their skis), the Luftwaffe bombed and destroyed the town of Namsos. The British landed without transport, skis or artillery. There was no air cover. The French stayed put in Namsos for the remainder of the short campaign.

Despite these handicaps, Carton de Wiart managed to move his forces over the mountains and down to Trondheim Fjord, where they were shelled by German destroyers. They had no artillery to challenge the German ships. It soon became apparent that the whole Norwegian campaign was fast becoming a failure. The naval attack on Trondheim, which was the reason for the Namsos landing, did not happen and his troops were exposed without guns, transport, air cover or skis in a foot and a half of snow. They were being attacked by German ski troops, machine gunned and bombed from the air and the German Navy was landing troops to his rear. He recommended withdrawal but was asked to hold his position for political reasons which he did.