KILLED IN CRASH

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 2, 3 January 1945, Page 4

KILLED IN CRASH

BRITISH ADMIRAL

"DYNAMO" RAMSAY

DRITAIN, with her proud naval *-* record, has many fighting men of the sea who will be remembered for all time. Among these is AdmiralSir Bertram Ramsay, Allied Naval Commander-in-Chief for the inyas'ipm;, : of Europe, who, according to a. .cable; 1 message, has been killed in a plane crash while on his way to a conference with Allied chiefs in Belgium.

Admiral, Ramsay—"Dynamo Rarasay," as he was well known to most Britishers—was born in 1883, the son of Brigadier-General W. A. Ramsay. He entered the Royal Navy in 1898. Frcm 1915 to 1919 he was attached to the Dover Patrol, at one time commanding Admiral E. R. G. R. Evans' famous Broke, and incidentally gaining a knowledge of the Channel and the French coast which was to serve him and his country in good stead. After the Great War he accompanied Lord Jellicoe on his mission to India and the Dominions, visiting Australia and New Zealand in 1919. He was then given the command of H.M.S. Weymouth and later of theDanae. From 1927 to 1929 he served on the staff of the Royal Navy War College, after which he went to China and was Chief of Staff, China Station, until 1931. He served on the staff of the Imperial -Defence College from 1931 to 1933, then being appointed to the command of H.M.S. Royal Sovereign. In 1935 he was appointed Rear-Admiral and Chief of Staff of the Home Fleet. In 1938 he was posted to the retired list with the rank of Vice-Admiral. "The Dynamo Room" Soon after the outbreak of war, however, he was recalled and proved beyond doubt that admirals on the brink of the "sixties" are not necessarily inefficient die-hards. He became Flag Officer Commanding, Dover, establishing himself in that multi-telephoned monastic control chamber which became known as the "dynamo room." His was the task of planning the evacuation of Dunkirk, and his handling of that operation, when urgency was supreme and improvisation essential, showed that he was a sufficiently agile tactician to meet any sudden calls arising from mistakes or "muck-ups" flexibly and swiftly. , . , Prior to D day, H was for Dunkirk that Britishers chiefly knew him. They called him then "Dynamo Ramsay" after the codeword for the Dover Command, and dynamo, according to his personal staff, was a not inappropriate description for him.

Ramsay was snort and compact in stature; bird-like, quick and decisive in manner and action; neat and fastidious (although not in a pernickety way)' in dress, speech and habit; and equipped with an amazing memory and grasp of detail. He was in charge of the Allied landings in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and for his skilful planning and execution of operations Leading to the capture of Sicily he was created a K.B.E. His Greatest Task Then came the Admiral's greatest task. Not even General Eisenhower had a bigger initial responsibility than the 61-year-old Englishman. The success or failure in the early stages of the assault on the European ccast rested on his shoulders, on his ability and on that of his highly integrated Anglo-American command. The operation a success, Ramsay emerged as the world's greatest expert in the planning and organisation of large-scale amphibious operations. Dunkirk was revenged. Sir Bertram was promoted to the rank of Admiral last April, and in October he was awarded the (Russian) Order of Ushakov "for outstanding leadership in recent war operations." One of his latest tasks was the planning of the British naval and Commando landings on Walcheren and the other islands of the Scheldt Estuary. The crash which caused his death occurred in France.

The following statement was issued by the First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. A. V. Alexander, states a British official wireless message:— "The death of Admiral Ramsay is a very great loss to the Royal Navy and the Allied cause. When commanding at Dover he bore the chief responsibility for the evacuation of Dunkirk, and later in the Mediterranean was associated with the planning and command of every important combined operation from the landing in North Africa onwards. Finally, as Naval Commander-in-Chief under General Eisenhower, his planning and leadership in the great assault on the Continent last June crowned a war career which must indeed bring pride to his family as well as to the Service in which he spent his life."