Denys Whitehorn Reid

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Denys Whitehorn Reid
1897 - 1970
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch British Indian Army
Years of service 1915 - 1947
Rank Major-General
Commands held 3rd Battalion, 5th Mahratta Light Infantry (1940 to 1941)
Indian 29th Infantry Brigade (1941 to 1942)
Indian 10th Infantry Division (1944 to 1947)
Battles/wars East African Campaign
Western Desert Campaign
Italian Campaign
Awards CB (5 Jul 1945)
CBE (9 Sep 1942)
DSO ()
MC (26 July 1918)

Denys Whitehorn Reid CB, CBE, DSO, MC (born 1897; died 1970) was an officer in the British Army and the British Indian Army during World War I and World War II.

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[edit] World War I and inter-war years

Reid was commissioned into the Seaforth Highlanders in 1915 and fought with them during World War I. He was awarded the Military Cross in 1918 the citation for which read in the London Gazette:

For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He led his company with great dash in the face of machine-gun fire, and on entering, the outskirts of a village captured singlehanded fourteen enemy, and assisted in the taking of five machine guns. On the following day he consolidated and held a position with a mixed body of troops, short of officers and N.C.O.'s. He always set an example of coolness and courage and was to the fore in all the actions in which his battalion took part.

In 1919 Reid transferred to the British Indian Army attached to the 110th Mahratta Light Infantry which in the 1922 reorganisation became the 3rd battalion of the 5th Mahratta Light Infantry.

[edit] World War II

During the East African Campaign Lt.-Colonel Reid commanded the 3rd battalion of the 5th Mahratta Light Infantry, part of Indian 5th Infantry Division's 9th Infantry Brigade. Of particular note was the battalion's capture of the Pinnacle on the night of 15 March 1941 during the fighting at Keren. Compton Mackenzie in his book Eastern Epic, the authorised history of the Indian Army from the start of the war until the battle of Alamein, described it as[1]

...one of the outstanding small actions of the Second World War...Next morning [Frank] Messervy [commander of 9th Brigade] scrambled up Pinnacle to congratulate Reid and his Mahrattas and wondered how they had been able to scramble up with their equipment against fierce opposition, when he was finding it a pretty tough job without [either]...At the top, when he saw the victors, he was overcome by the splendour of their feat and his combative amber eyes filled with tears.

During the Western Desert Campaign, Brigadier Reid commanded the 29th Indian Brigade of the Indian 5th Infantry Division. On June 28 1942 he was captured while fighting the rearguard action at the Fuka Pass during the withdrawal to Alamein. He spent time as a prisoner of war in Italy eventually escaping in 1943 through the British 8th Army lines.

During the Italian Campaign, Major-General Reid commanded the 10th Indian Division on the Gothic Line and during the 1945 spring offensive.

He received the United States Commander, Legion of Merit in 1945.

[edit] Army Career

[edit] References

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Compton Mackenzie, p. 58