Reference code: GB99 KCLMA De Guingand
Title: DE GUINGAND, Maj Gen Sir Francis Wilfred (1900-1979)
Dates of creation of material: 1942-1946
Level of description: collection level
Extent: 0.02m3 or 2 boxes of papers
Papers of Gen Sir Francis Wilfred De Guingand, KBE, CB, DSO (1900-1979)
INTRODUCTION
Born in 1900; educated at Ampleforth School and Royal Military College, Sandhurst; joined West Yorkshire Regt, 1919; seconded to King's African Rifles,1926-1931; Officer Commanding Troops, Nyasaland, 1930-1931; Adjutant, 1 Battalion West Yorkshire Regt, 1932-1934; Staff College, Camberley, 1935-1936; Military Assistant to the Secretary of State for War, 1939-1940; Director of Military Intelligence, Middle East, 1942; Chief of Staff, 8 Army, 1942-1944; Chief of Staff, 21 Army Group, 1944-1945; retired pay, 1947; died in 1979.
Presented to the Centre by Maj Gen Sir Francis De Guingand in 1972.
The papers mostly relate to De Guingand's career from 1942 to 1946, as Chief of Staff to FM Bernard Law Montgomery in 8 Army and 21 Army Group. Papers relating to 8 Army consist of details on operations in Western Desert and Battle of El Alamein, North Africa, 1941-1942, in particular Operations LIGHTFOOT, SUPERCHARGE and GRAPESHOT, including maps, memoranda and plans. Papers relating to 21 Army Group concentrate on Operation OVERLORD, 1944 and mostly consist of notes of operations, Jun 1944-May 1945, but also include a report on Operation BLACKCOCK (an attack by 12 Corps at Roermond, Jan 1945) and operational reports, from 1945, on 79 Armoured Division, 21 Army Group and the Allied Expeditionary Force. Printed material includes personal messages from Montgomery, General Officer Commanding 8 Army, Nov 1942-Jan 1944 and Commander-in-Chief, 21 Army Group, Jun 1944-Aug 1945, and from US Gen Dwight David Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, SHAEF; handbooks and pamphlets written for 8 Army and 21 Army Group on military strategy, Dec 1942-Dec 1944, and limited circulation newspapers, including Eighth Army News, 1943 and 1945. The material in the collection on the surrender by German forces, May 1945, includes plans for the administration of enemy territory and troops. De Guingand's papers also include a collection of printed excerpts from German wireless messages, detailing German movements and intentions on the Eastern Front 1941-1943.
Arranged chronologically in sections reflecting military service with 8 Army and 21 Army Group; German wireless messages and printed material are grouped separately. A concordance has been provided to references given in previous catalogues.
Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form.
Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, attention of the College Archivist.
English.
Section 1/339 of the papers of Capt Sir Basil Liddell Hart consists of correspondence with De Guingand, 1946-1958; newspaper clippings in the Liddell Hart collection on British and Canadian wartime Commanders, including De Guingand are in LH section 15; correspondence between De Guingand and Liddell Hart relating to The Rommel papers, edited by Liddell Hart (Ref:LH 9/24/30); typescript copy of note on pill boxes in France, from Army Council meeting, 20 Nov 1939, by Maj Gen Francis Wilfred de Guingand (Ref: LH 15/4/11); the papers of Gen Sir Richard Nugent O'Connor include a letter from De Guingand discussing the role in the intervention in Greece in World War Two of FM Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell (Ref: O'Connor 4/4/6); the papers of FM Alan Francis Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke's, include correspondence with de Guingand, relating to the future organisation of the Control Commission (Ref: Alanbrooke 6/2/38).