Evening star., 1941-05-12
Gort in Crucial Spot
At GibruItur
SheIved After Dunkerque,
He's Still Accounted
Britoin's Bruvest
By Dre1D Middleton.
Associated Press Staf Writer.

counted Brttains bravest and most OBJ
stinate soldier, commands that outpost
of empire in the Western Mediterranean
in the hour of that empires greatest
danger.
Shelved by the imperial general staff
after the disastrous Flanders campaign
and the evacuation of Dunkerque, Gort
has spent almost a year as inspector
general of the British Army
Apologists claimed this was no dis
grace, for the inspector generals job,
training the new army, is an important
one. However, Gort, essentially a fight
ing soldier with no love for desk jobs,
disliked the post.
The man who led the British expedi-
tionary force in Flanders is throwback
to the old type general He does not
resemble in the least the scholarly, re-
served strategists who occupy most OF
the important positions in the British
Army.
Gort looks like a soldier. He is 6 feet
tall and weighs about 185 pounds He
has the traditional brush mustache,
| bright blue eyes, round, aggressive
! chin, bullet head. He keeps in shape
| by riding and walking, has an almost
fanatical love for yachting and fresh
| air.
Gort's reputation for bravery is al
most legendary
During the World War, which he
started as a captain and ended as a
major, he won the Military Cross, the
| Distinguished Service Order with two
bars and the Victoria Cross, the three
British awards for gallantry open to
| army officers.
The Victoria Cross was earned in Bel
| gium in the great German drive of
March, 1918. Then, as now, man of
great physical strength, Gort swan a
canal five times bearing with him on
each trip the body of wounded Tommy
Gort has the usual "old school tie"
background of British general. He was
the eldest son of the fifth Viscount Gort,
an Irish title running back to 1916, was
| educated at Harrow and Sandhurst He
went from Sandhurst to the Grenadier
Guards, one of the swank regiments of
the Guards Brigade, and then, when war
came, transferred to the artillery.
twenty-five years later, when a new
war began, Gort was placed in command
of the B. E. F.
From September. 1899, to May. 1910,
he was more of an engineer and drill
master than a general commanding an
army. Gort and his soldiers sWeated
nightly to reinforce the flimsy lines
along the Belgian border donated by the
French. Training of the army, half reg
ular and half territorial, went on steadily.
When the campaign in Flanders
opened on May 9. 1910, Gort was under
two French commanders, Gamelin and
the commander-in-chi of the French
northwestern army group, Gen. Georges.
There were many-British, French and
AmericanS-who assailed him last sum-
mer as a shortsighted and reckless COM
mander. The evidence seems to be
against this.
Gort's first fear when his army moved
smoothly into Belgium was his line of
communications. Georges assured him
repeatedly that all was well. When the
Belgians collapsed Gort was forced to
use his only reserve, the 5th and 18th
Divisions, to hold his lines while his
army moved slowly back to Dunkeroue.
These same divisions, directed by Gors
delivered the brief campaigns most tell
ing blow
Gen. Weygand, who had supplanted
Gamelin, planned maneuver to cut the
German pyramid through Northern
France.
The French were to advance north
ward from their lines along the Somme
River. The British were to strike south
ward from Arras. The two forces were
to join, and thus cut off some six Ger
man panzer divisions and seven motor
lied infantry divisions. 1t was a simple
plan, but because of the chaos existing
on both sides of the German lines there
appeared good chance of success.
The British under Gort exploited the
chance. On the morning of May % the
5th and 18th divisions led by an armored
brigade swept southwark from Arras.
They smashed through two German
infantry divisions and took $500 prison.
ers in the first three hours. BY night
fall the British, sweating and triuna-
phant, had reached the village of st.
Aubin, % miles south of Arras and more
than half way across the base of the gap.
Gort, an impatient and hasty man
when guns are firing, waited restlessly in
Arras, finally drove southwark behind
his men. There was no news of the
French. All through the long day the
British waited That night there still
was no news from the south.
BY midnight the Germans had brought
up guns and armored divisions and
counterattacked. The British held on
all through the next day brushing off
two German raids. Slowly Gort saw his
men encircled. On the night of the oath
he ghosted them through the only hole
left in the slowly Strengthening German
lines and got them back, weary but COM
paratively unshaken, to Arras.
Gort planned the same attack two
days later, but it never materialized.
The French in Flanders were 10th to aid
him in another drive south. There was
no word from Weygand. Gort had de-
cided to chance it alone when courier
brought word of the imminent Belgian
armistice, and he switched the two di-
visions northward to guard his lines of
communications.
A reporter with the B. E. F. had many
views of Gort, scrambling tirelessly about
his lines exchanging tart jokes with his