Bernard Cyril Freyberg

On the night of 24 April 1915 a young officer smeared himself with dark grease, slipped over the side of a cutter in the Gulf of Saros and swam two miles alone to the Turkish shore. He crawled up the beach, lit a line of flares to fake a landing that was never coming, drew Ottoman reserves away from the real beaches at Cape Helles, and swam back into the freezing dark. Eight months earlier he had been a dentist in Wellington.

By 1945 Bernard Cyril Freyberg held the Victoria Cross, the Distinguished Service Order with three Bars, knighthoods in three separate orders of chivalry, and decorations from France, Greece and the United States. He was wounded so many times that the count is still argued over.

From a Wellington dental practice to the Royal Naval Division

Freyberg was born in Richmond, Surrey on 21 March 1889 and taken to Wellington, New Zealand as a child of two. He qualified as a dentist, swam for the national championship, and in early 1914 sailed for North America looking for a war, finding a brief one in revolutionary Mexico. When Britain went to war that August he crossed the Atlantic, talked his way in to see Winston Churchill at the Admiralty, and took a commission in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. He joined the Hood Battalion and fought at Antwerp that October, the month under fire that puts the 1914 Star and its clasp on his bar.

Gallipoli and the first Distinguished Service Order

The Saros swim was his own idea and he made it alone. The London Gazette of 3 June 1915, issue 29180 page 5331, approved rewards "for gallantry and devotion to duty in connection with the operations at the Dardanelles (Mediterranean Expeditionary Force)" and named him a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order. It misprints him as "Lieutenant-Commander Bernard Cecil Freyberg", the first of three spellings the Gazette gave him. He fought on through Krithia and was wounded for the first time.

Beaucourt-sur-l'Ancre and the Victoria Cross

On 13 November 1916, on the Ancre, Freyberg led the Hood Battalion against the German positions at Beaucourt-sur-l'Ancre. He was hit four times in two days. His citation, gazetted 15 December 1916 in issue 29866 at page 12307, gives no place and no date, only what he did:

"For most conspicuous bravery and brilliant leading as a Battalion Commander. By his splendid personal gallantry he carried the initial attack straight through the enemy's front system of trenches ... He personally rallied and re-formed his men, including men from other units who had become intermixed ... During this advance he was twice wounded ... although unsupported in a very advanced position, he held his ground for the remainder of the day, and throughout the night, under heavy artillery and machine gun fire. When reinforced on the following morning, he organised the attack on a strongly fortified village ... capturing the village and five hundred prisoners. In this operation he was again wounded. Later in the afternoon, he was again wounded severely, but refused to leave the line till he had issued final instructions. The personality, valour and utter contempt of danger on the part of this single Officer enabled the lodgment in the most advanced objective of the Corps to be permanently held."

Gheluvelt, Lessines and two more Bars

Made temporary Brigadier-General on 21 April 1917 at twenty eight, he was the youngest general officer in the British Army. A shell at Polygon Wood nearly killed him that September. He returned in January 1918 to command the 88th Brigade.

The first Bar, gazetted 1 February 1919 in issue 31158 at page 1602, is for the Fifth Battle of Ypres: "The success of the operations of his brigade near Gheluvelt on the 28th September and the following days was largely owing to his inspiring example. Wherever the fighting was hardest he was always to be found encouraging and directing his troops."

The second is for the last morning of the war. Gazetted 8 March 1919 in issue 31219 at page 3224, its citation followed on 30 September 1919 in issue 31583 at page 12214: "For marked gallantry and initiative on 11th Nov., 1918, at Lessines. He personally led the cavalry, and though at the time he had only 9 men with him, he rushed the town, capturing 100 of the enemy and preventing the blowing up of the important road bridges over the Dendre." He took the bridges minutes before the Armistice. France added the Croix de Guerre with bronze palm.

A heart that failed its medical

He married Barbara McLaren in 1922, took a regular commission in the Grenadier Guards, and served at the War Office and Southern Command. He was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath on 1 January 1936, issue 34238 page 4, an honour later absorbed by his knighthood in the same order and so not shown separately on his bar. A routine board in 1937 then found a heart irregularity and retired him on half pay at forty eight.

Greece, Crete and the command of a nation's army

New Zealand wanted him back. On 22 November 1939 he was given command of the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force and the 2nd New Zealand Division under service number 4006, and held it longer than any other Allied divisional commander of the war. He fought a disciplined withdrawal through Greece in April 1941, then took charge of all Allied forces on Crete. Holding Ultra intelligence he could not act on openly, and braced for a seaborne landing that never came, he was slow to reinforce Maleme. The airfield fell and the island with it. His 1939-1945 Star covers both campaigns; no separate Crete star was ever struck.

The Western Desert and the salamander

He rebuilt the division in Egypt into the sharpest infantry formation in the Eighth Army. Encircled at Minqar Qaim in June 1942 and hit in the neck by shrapnel, he had his men bayonet their way out in the dark. He was back in time to lead the break-in force for Operation Supercharge at El Alamein, which moved Churchill to call him "the salamander of the British Empire". His Africa Star carries the silver numeral 8 of the Eighth Army clasp.

The honours followed the fighting. He was made a Knight Commander of the Military Division of the Order of the British Empire on 1 January 1942, issue 35399 page 8, and a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on 24 November 1942, issue 35794 page 5091, a list published "in recognition of the supreme gallantry and magnificent achievements of British and Dominion Troops and their Commanders in the present operations in the Middle East". Greece gave him its War Cross First Class, gazetted 7 April 1942 in issue 35519 at page 1595 under the heading "Decorations conferred by The King of the Hellenes" and the older title "The Military Cross 1st Class".

Cassino, the Senio and a third Bar

In February 1944 he took the improvised New Zealand Corps onto the Gustav Line and asked for the bombing of the abbey of Monte Cassino, convinced from front-line reports that German observers were directing fire from it. The monastery was levelled on 15 February 1944 and German paratroopers moved into the rubble, which they held better than they had held the building. It is the most contested decision of his career. He led the division through the Gothic Line and across the Senio, and entered Trieste in 1945 to take the German surrender.

His third Bar was gazetted 5 July 1945, issue 37161 page 3490, with nothing beyond the award itself: "The KING has been graciously pleased to approve the following award in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in Italy: Third Bar to the Distinguished Service Order." The United States made him a Commander of the Legion of Merit, gazetted 2 August 1945 in issue 37204 at page 3962. Greece meant to give him the Order of the Phoenix, and issue 36569 of 20 June 1944 said so, but the Gazette corrected itself on 8 February 1945 at page 804: "For Order of the Phoenix, Grand Commander ... Read Grand Commander of the Order of George I with Swords." He never held the Phoenix, and his bar carries George I with swords in its place.

Eight mentions, two oak leaves

The Gazette mentioned Freyberg in despatches eight times, five in the First World War and three in the Second. The rules in force before 1962 allow only one emblem on a ribbon however many mentions it stands for, which is why his bar shows exactly two bronze oak leaves, one on the Victory Medal and one on the War Medal 1939-1945.

Governor-General, and a wound that waited forty seven years

He gave up command of the 2NZEF in November 1945 and was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George on 29 January 1946, issue 37453 page 767, as "Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief Designate of New Zealand". He was admitted a Knight of the Most Venerable Order of St John the same New Year, issue 37417 page 203. He was Governor-General of New Zealand from 1946 until 1952, was created Baron Freyberg in 1951, and became Deputy Constable of Windsor Castle in 1953.

He died at Windsor on 4 July 1963, when an abdominal wound from the First World War finally gave way. The wound that killed him had been made nearly half a century earlier, on a battlefield he had refused to leave. He lies at St Martha-on-the-Hill above Guildford.