ARMY CHIEFS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24127, 20 November 1941, Page 9

ARMY CHIEFS

IMPORTANT CHANGE BRITISH COMMAND SIR J. DILL HETIKES (Reed. 8.30 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 19 Important changes in the British High Command are announced to-day. General Sir Alan Brooke, Com-mander-in-Chief of the British Home Forces, becomes Chief of the Imperial General Staff, replacing General Sir John Dill, who retires with the rank of Field-Marshal and is appointed Governor of Bombay. The Vice-Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Pownall, also retires from his post, as he is needed for a very important position as yet unnamed. He is succeeded by Major-General A. E. Nye, General Sir Alan Brooke is succeeded as Commander-in-Chief' of the Home Forces by Lieutenant-General B. C. T. Paget, of the South-Eastern Command. Sir John Dill will relinquish his post on Christmas Day, when he will be 60 years of ago. The Daily Express suggests that Lieutenant-General Pownall may be sent to the Caucasus. Many Important Posts Sir Alan Brooke is 58 years old. He joined the Royal Field Artillery in 1902. After the last war he held many important staff posts, and was Director of Military Training at the War Office in 1936-37. Subsequently he commanded the Mobile Division and the AntiAircraft Corps. In 1939 he was appointed general officer commanding-in-chief, Anti-Aircraft Command, and relinquished this post the same year to become general officer commanding-in-chief, Southern Command. He commanded the Second Army Corps, British Expeditionary Force, in France. Sir Henry Pownall was Chief of the General Staff, British Expeditionary Force, in 1940, and later InspectorGeneral of the Home Guard. He was Military Deputy-Secretary of the Committee of Imperial Defence in 1936, commanded the School of Artillery, Larkhill, from 1936 to 1938, and then held the post of Director of Military Operations and Intelligence at the War Office until 1940. He is 54 years of age. "Ranker" to General Major-General Nye is 46. He was commissioned from the ranks in the last war and had reached the rank of acting-captain at the Armistice. He was general staff officer, third grade, at the Royal Air Force Co-operation School at Aldershot from 1926 to 1928, and went to the War Office in 1931 as G5.0.2, holding this appointment for 15 months. He was at the Staff College for over three years, and returned to the War Office in 1936. In 1937 he was given command of the Ist Battalion, Warwickshire Regiment. He was promoted major-general in 1940, when ho became Director of Staff Duties at the War Office. Commander in Norway Lieutenant-General Paget, who is 53, has been Chief of the General Staff, Home Forces, since last year. During the Norwegian campaign he was in command of the British forces at Namsos and won high praise for his conduct of the evacuation. He was formerly commandant at the Staff College, Camberley, and commanded the college in 1939-40. Sir John Dill, who is now 60 years of age, had been Chief of the Imperial General Staff since June, 1940. He held various staff appointments from 1926 until 1934, after which he spent two years at the War Office as Director of Military Operations and Intelligence. He commanded the British forces in Palestine in 1936-37, and was general officor commanding-in-chief, Aldershot Command, from 1937 until 1939. He commanded the First Army Corps in France, and was appointed Vice-Chief of the Imperial General Staff on April 27, 1940.