Scapegoats by Michael Scott

Author:Michael Scott [Scott, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2015-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Jackie Smyth had been beaten by the Japanese, broken to full colonel by Wavell and was now severely ill. Then, on 7 April 1944, his eldest son John was killed leading his company at Kohima. It would have finished lesser men. However, he pulled himself up with drive and fortitude, supported by his wife, Frances. He became a military correspondent for the Kemsley Newspapers and, towards the end of the war, took up political life. In 1950, he was elected to Parliament. As an MP he was in an influential position to give great help to the Far Eastern Prisoners of War Federation (10,000 British prisoners had died in Japanese captivity) about which, not surprisingly, he felt very strongly. Returning to the back benches after a ministerial appointment, he served some twenty-one years in politics and was rewarded with a baronetcy. Writing and his interest in many ex-Service matters, particularly the Victoria Cross and George Cross Association, of which he was founder and chairman, later president, dominated the rest of his life. He died on 26 April 1983, in his own words a happy man: ‘I remain as I began—an incurable optimist.’

However, deep down he never forgave Wavell and Hutton, as he wrote in his memoir, Milestones: ‘I suddenly began to see that a scapegoat would be required for the Burma disaster and it would be very convenient for General Wavell and Hutton if I could be made out to be the villain of the piece and removed from the scene altogether.’

Another divisional commander who suffered from vague orders and inadequate superior command was Lieutenant General Sir Charles Warren, the casualty of the Battle of Spion Kop in 1900.

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