Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside

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Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside : biography

06 May 1880 – 22 September 1959

Polish historian Piotr Zychowicz in his 2012 book Pact Ribbentrop – Beck wrote that Ironside’s visit to Poland (July 17 – 21, 1939), reassured the British that Poland, with her weak armed forces, should not be regarded as a serious partner in the war with Germany. Zychowicz quotes Władysław Studnicki, who wrote: "After getting acquainted with technological condition of the Polish Army, Ironside realized that Poland was too weak to oppose the Germans, and during a conference with Marshall Edward Śmigły-Rydz, he demanded that Poland signs a treaty with the Soviet Union. In response, Śmigły-Rydz stated: "To hand Poland over to the Soviets? I had rather come to terms with Hitler". Then Ironside, fearful of this alternative, changed his standpoint. He emphasized that Poland would not be abandoned, and that the allies would provide her with concrete help."Zychowicz, pp. 262-263

Zychowicz also writes that during the July 1939 visit, Ironside used all means possible to make Poles oppose Germany: "During meetings with Polish officers and politicians, he told fantastic, absurd stories. Among others, he fabled that squadrons of the Royal Air Force would be sent to Poland, and that a British aircraft carrier would anchor at Gdynia (…) Furthermore, Ironside promised that half of British army units concentrated in Egypt would be transferred to Poland, via the Black Sea".Zychowicz, pp. 283-284 Zychowicz adds that Polish hosts should have "grabbed the British liar by the neck, and put him on the next train to Paris. Instead, Polish generals were proud to party with British commander in chief".Zychowicz, p. 285

Second World War

His appointment on 3 September 1939 as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (‘CIGS’) came as something of a surprise to Ironside; he had been led to believe he would be appointed as the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force, and indeed had already despatched his assistant to Aldershot to begin preparing his headquarters. The reorganisation was politically driven; Hore-Belisha had fallen out heavily with Gort during 1939, and the outbreak of war provided an excellent pretext for Gort to leave Whitehall. This left the post of CIGS vacant, and after heavy lobbying by Churchill, Ironside was chosen over Sir John Dill, the commander of home forces at Aldershot.Bond, p. 21

As CIGS, Ironside adopted a policy of rapidly building up a strong force in France, aiming to put some twenty divisions in the field. However, this force would be broadly defensive, acting to support the French army, and he aimed to influence the course of the war by forming a second strong force in the Middle East, which would be able to operate in peripheral operations in the Balkans.Bond, p. 22 He strongly supported the development of a close-support air force, preferably under Army command, but at the same time argued that when a German offensive began in the West, the RAF should throw its main strength into strategic bombing of the Ruhr rather than attacking the forward units.Bond, p. 23

Norway

His enthusiasm for peripheral operations led him to the plans for Allied intervention in Scandinavia; rather than the limited approach of simply mining Norwegian waters to stop Swedish iron-ore shipments to Germany, he argued for landing a strong force in northern Norway and physically occupying the orefields. If successful, this would allow the resupply of Finland – then fighting the Soviet Union, and aligned loosely with the Allied forces – as well as interdicting the ore supply, and could potentially force Germany to commit troops on a new and geographically unfavourable front. The plan was enthusiastically supported by both Ironside and Churchill, but opposed by many other officers, including Gort – who saw his forces in France being depleted of resources – and Newall, the Chief of the Air Staff.Bond, pp. 25-6

Planning continued through the winter, and by March 1940 the force, of around three divisions, was prepared to sail. On 12 March, however, Finland sued for peace, and the force had to be abandoned.Bond, p. 26