Brian Izzard wrote the first biography on the mastermind of the Dunkirk evacuation and D-Day landings: Admiral Bertram Ramsey.
Before then, very little was known about this extraordinary man. Today, that changes.
There were several British military leaders in World War 2 who were not averse to personal publicity. Montgomery and Mountbatten spring to mind. To a degree, vanity was a factor, but their confidence, or rather over confidence, can be excused because it often raised morale, not only among the men they led but also with the suffering civilian population at home. Even today, the names of Montgomery and Mountbatten resonate. And there remains, of course, the supreme master of leadership, Churchill.
Yet how many think of Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay?
Arguably, Ramsay deserves to rank alongside Churchill and Montgomery, as well as such figures as Eisenhower, Cunningham, Alanbrooke and Tedder. He made an outstanding contribution to victory in Europe.
Ramsay had been a rising star in the Royal Navy until 1935, that is. Promoted rear admiral, he had accepted the role of chief of staff to the newly appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet, Admiral Sir Roger Backhouse. It was not long before the workaholic Backhouse and the super-efficient Ramsay fell out. The dispute resulted in Ramsay being forced to retire from the navy.
Four great naval operations of World War 2 are largely down to Ramsay’s planning and vision. So why isn’t he better known?
With another world war looming, common sense saw Ramsay being called out of retirement. He was made the naval commander at Dover. In May 1940 the German blitzkrieg in France and in the Low Countries led to the collapse of the Allied armies. On 26 May, in his key position at Dover, Ramsay launched Operation Dynamo, the Dunkirk evacuation. The Admiralty’s most optimistic assessment was that up to 45,000 troops might be saved over two days. In fact, Ramsay kept Dynamo going until 4 June. He recorded that the evacuation saved 338,82 Allied servicemen. His destroyers brought back the highest number, 103,399, followed by merchant ships (74,380) and minesweepers (31,040). Britain still had an army, of sorts.
Ramsay went on to play a key naval role in the invasion of North Africa, Operation Torch, in November 1942, and in the assault on Sicily, Operation Husky, in July 1943. And he was responsible for the greatest armada in history, Operation Neptune, the Normandy offensive on 6 June 1944.
Four great naval operations of World War 2 are largely down to Ramsay’s planning and vision. So why isn’t he better known? There are two main reasons.
Unlike Montgomery, with whom he got on well, the admiral was not a showman. He disliked personal publicity. After the Dunkirk evacuation he received many letters and telegrams of congratulation, and he told his wife Margaret that ‘I really dread tomorrow’s post’. Newspaper interviews and photographs were dreaded also. Tragedy struck as Ramsay was close to seeing the victory that he had helped to shape. On 2 January 1945, he was killed in a mysterious plane crash near Versailles. So unlike other military leaders he did not write his memoirs. Whether he would have put pen to paper is another matter. He was looking forward to retirement and family life. He may well have decided he longer wished to play any part in public life.
Would another naval commander have been as successful as Ramsay with the Dunkirk evacuation? Possibly. But the Admiralty – and Churchill – had such low expectations that compromise would have been acceptable. Ramsay showed vision and determination, and he inspired the sailors who risked their lives.
With Torch and Husky, he gained valuable experience of amphibious operations, which paid off on 6 June 1944. Operation Neptune was a major success. Even Ramsay allowed himself to write: ‘It will certainly go down in history as a very great achievement and I have reason to be proud of being the head of it.’
He was a supreme naval commander who deserves much greater recognition.
Mastermind of Dunkirk and D-Day
By Brian Izzard
This is the first major biography of Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay in fifty years. Ramsay masterminded the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk in 1940. Initially, it was thought that 40,000 troops at most could be rescued. But Ramsay’s planning and determination led to some 330,000 being brought back to fight another day, although the Royal Navy and the Merchant Navy paid a high price in ships and men. Ramsay continued to play a crucial role in the conduct of the Second World War – the invasion of Sicily in 1943 was successful in large part due to his vision, and he had a key role in the planning and execution of the D-Day invasion – coordinating and commanding the 7,000 ships that delivered the invasion force onto the beaches of Normandy.
This biography book puts him and his work back centre-stage, arguing that Ramsay was the mastermind without whom the outcome of both Dunkirk and D-Day – and perhaps the entire war – could have been very different.
Brian Izzard was a Fleet Street journalist, feature writer and news sub-editor for many years, working latterly on the Daily Express and the Sunday Express. This is his fifth book.
Casemate UK | 9781612008387 | Hardback | March 2020 | £25.00
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Available at Casemate UK
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