Douglas Graham (British Army officer)
Douglas Alexander Henry Graham, was a senior British Army officer who fought with distinction in both world wars. He is most notable during the Second World War for commanding the 153rd Brigade of the 51st Division in North Africa from 1942 to 1943, later being the General Officer Commanding of the 56th Infantry Division during the Salerno landings in Italy in September 1943 and the 50th Infantry Division during the Normandy landings in France in June 1944.
Early life and First World War
Douglas Graham was born in Brechin, Angus, Scotland, the youngest of three children, on 26 March 1893. He was the son of Mungo MacDougal Graham and Margaret Lyall Murray Graham, and after attending The Glasgow Academy and the University of Glasgow, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the 3rd Lowland Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, Territorial Force, on 26 September 1911, but he resigned his commission on 25 September 1912. After attending the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, he was granted a commission in the Regular Army, again with the rank of second lieutenant, on 17 September 1913, into the Cameronians, and was posted to the 1st Battalion of his regiment.The outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 saw Graham serving as a platoon commander in 'D' Company of the 1st Battalion, Cameronians, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Philip Robertson, which soon became part of the 19th Brigade, when it was sent to the Western Front as part of the British Expeditionary Force. Thus Graham's battalion were amongst the first British troops to arrive in France. After participating in the retreat from Mons, on 22 October 1914, during the early stages of the First Battle of Ypres, Graham was involved in an action that would lead to Rifleman Henry May, in Graham's platoon, the award of the Victoria Cross. Whilst in the La Boutillerie area of France, Lieutenant Graham was wounded in the leg. Rifleman May, ignoring orders from Graham to leave him, dragged him, under heavy fire, 300 yards to safety. After May arranged for a rescue party for his platoon commander, and after recovering from his wounds, Graham, promoted on 3 November 1914 to lieutenant, was promoted again to captain on 18 June 1916, returned to France and was appointed as a brigade major with the 182nd Brigade, part of the 61st Division, a Territorial Force formation, on 30 April 1917, remaining with the brigade during all of its major battles of the war until 7 June 1919. He was awarded the Military Cross in the 1918 New Year Honours. He finished the war having also been mentioned in despatches and awarded the French Croix de guerre.
Between the wars
The war came to an end on 11 November 1918 where, just under two weeks before, Graham's first son, Mungo Alan Douglas, was born on 29 October. Graham relinquished his appointment as brigade major on 8 June 1919, and returned to regimental duty on 11 January 1920.From 30 October 1921 he was seconded to the Indian Army as an assistant military secretary with Northern Command, India. He returned to the United Kingdom and attended the Staff College, Camberley from 1924 to 1925 where, among his many fellow students there were Noel Irwin, Daril Watson, Ivor Thomas, Clifford Malden, Cyril Durnford, Michael Creagh, Thomas Riddell-Webster, James Harter, Sydney Rigby Wason, Langley Browning, Frederick Hyland, Otto Lund, Rufus Laurie, Gerald Fitzgerald, Arthur Barstow, John Reeve, Vyvyan Pope, Robert Studdert, Noel Napier-Clavering, Reade Godwin-Austen, Gerald Brunskill, Archibald Nye, George Lammie, Noel Beresford-Peirse, Gerald Gartlan, Geoffrey Raikes, Humfrey Gale, Guy Robinson and Lionel Finch, along with John Northcott of the Australian Army and Ernest Sansom and Maurice Pope of the Canadian Army. All of these men would, like Graham, become general officers in the future. He was then appointed a staff officer with the 52nd Infantry Division, a Territorial Army formation, from 19 February 1928.
He was promoted to major on 16 December 1930, and from 31 December 1930 to 18 February 1932 he was Deputy Assistant Adjutant & Quarter-Master General, Lowland Area, Scottish Command. From 1 May 1932 to 30 April 1935 he was Officer Commanding the Cameronians regimental depot at Hamilton, South Lanarkshire. In June 1937 he had been promoted lieutenant colonel, and, shortly after the birth of his second son, John Murray Graham, on 7 June, was given command of the 2nd Battalion, Cameronians. The battalion was then stationed in Palestine on internal security duties during the Arab Revolt and returned to England in 1938, where it became part of Brigadier Henry Willcox's 13th Infantry Brigade, part of Major General Harold Franklyn's 5th Infantry Division at Catterick, Yorkshire.
Second World War
Shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Graham led his battalion overseas to France, arriving there in mid-September as part of the British Expeditionary Force. Unlike in the First World War, there was no immediate action and the first few months of the "Phoney War" were, for the BEF, spent building defensive positions, such as trenches and pillboxes, in expectation of a repeat of the trench warfare of 1914–1918. However, the battalion, along with the rest of the brigade, were mainly spared these duties, although they were assigned the role of guard duties in the BEF's rear areas, with almost no time devoted to training. In late December the brigade, now commanded by Brigadier Miles Dempsey, was returned to the 5th Division when the division HQ arrived in France and, during the next few months, was involved in numerous training exercises.In early April 1940, however, Graham returned to Scotland and was given command of the 27th Infantry Brigade, part of the 9th Infantry Division, a second-line TA formation, with the acting rank of brigadier, and the substantive rank of colonel. In August 1940 Graham's brigade changed its designation to the 153rd Infantry Brigade when the 9th Division was reformed as the 51st Infantry Division after the original 51st Division was lost in June 1940 during the latter stages of the Battle of France. The new division's first General Officer Commanding was Major General Alan Cunningham, who was replaced in October by Major General Neil Ritchie, the latter being succeeded in June 1941 by Major General Douglas Wimberley, who, being a Cameron Highlander, was determined to keep the division commanded only by Highlanders. Graham, being an officer of a Lowland regiment, was the one exception, with Wimberley believing him to be highly competent and Graham retained his position. The next year was spent training, mainly in Scotland, in preparation for a move overseas.
North Africa
On 11 June 1942, shortly before the division left for North Africa, Graham was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in that year's King's Birthday Honours. Departing the United Kingdom three days later, on 13 August Graham's brigade arrived in Egypt, where the British Eighth Army, which the 51st Division was to form part of once fully trained and used to desert conditions, had just suffered a major reverse. Thus the division, only recently arrived in the theatre, missed the Battle of Alam el Halfa, but, after a period of training in desert warfare, was called forward to join the Eighth Army at El Alamein, on the orders of Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery, the new Eighth Army commander, in order to play its part in Montgomery's new offensive. The division was assigned initially to Lieutenant General Brian Horrocks's XIII Corps, before transferring to Lieutenant General Sir Oliver Leese's XXX Corps, which was to play a leading role in the forthcoming offensive.The offensive, the Second Battle of El Alamein, began on the evening of 23 October, and was supported by a huge artillery barrage. Graham's brigade, given an assault role, quickly took their objectives – of advancing through the Axis minefields to create a passage and enable the armour of Lieutenant General Herbert Lumsden's X Corps to pass through. The advance of Graham's brigade, after quickly overwhelming the defenders who were stunned from the massive artillery barrage, slowed against increasing resistance and the brigade's last objective could not be held, forcing a withdrawal. Consequently, the armour was unable to leave the minefields, and the 51st Division was forced onto the defensive. Montgomery, the army commander, then launched Operation Supercharge on 2 November, although Graham's brigade, given the role of maintaining pressure on the enemy, played a relatively minor role. On 14 January 1943 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his actions on 2 November 1942 at El Alamein.
Following Alamein the brigade had a rest for a few weeks, absorbing replacements after suffering heavy losses, with the division as a whole having sustained some 2,800 casualties, and then, with the rest of the Eighth Army pursuing the retreating Axis forces, seeing light action at El Agheila, followed by Buerat. Graham continued to command his brigade as it joined the campaign in Tunisia, where he was involved in actions leading up to Operation Pugilist, in particular an attack on outposts of the Mareth Line on the night of 16/17 March, where his brigade suffered heavy losses due to an anti-tank ditch at Wadi Zigzaou, along with his performance up to the capture of Sfax, which won him a bar to his DSO. The Battle of Wadi Akarit followed soon afterwards, but Graham's brigade was held in reserve and unused, although it later spearheaded the Eighth Army's advance to Enfidaville, reaching near there on 23 April. Soon afterwards the division, selected by Montgomery for participation in the Allied invasion of Sicily, was withdrawn from the front lines into reserve.
File:Field Marshal Messe surrenders to General Bernard Freyberg in Tunisia.jpg|thumb|right|Italian Field Marshal Giovanni Messe surrenders to Lieutenant-General Sir Bernard Freyberg in Tunisia on 13 May 1943, marking the final phase of the fighting in North Africa. Major-General Douglas Graham, the recently appointed GOC 56th Division, is stood near him, wearing a beret.
In early May 1943 Graham was selected by Montgomery to be the new GOC of the 56th Infantry Division, another TA formation, with the rank of acting major general, after the division's former GOC, Major General Eric Miles, was severely wounded. The division, with only the 167th and 169th Infantry Brigades and supporting divisional troops under command, had only recently arrived in Tunisia, after travelling some 3,200 miles from Iraq, and was assigned to X Corps, with Brigadier Lewis Lyne's 169th Brigade suffering heavy casualties in an attack on two hills, Points 141 and 130, on 28 April. On the night of 10 May the 167th Brigade was ordered to attack the Italian defenders on the hills north of Takrouna, which, although supported by artillery, failed, due to a combination of tenacious enemy resistance and very heavy shell and mortar fire, the defenders inflicting nearly 400 casualties upon the inexperienced brigade. However, the fighting in Tunisia ceased just three days later, with the surrender of some 238,000 Axis soldiers, many thousands surrendering to Graham's division alone.