1. Young Naval Officer
On June 25, 1900, Louis? Mountbatten was born into the royal family of Windsor, England, the fourth son of Prince Louis of Battenberg and Princess Victoria. His great-grandmother was Queen Victoria. His father was originally a member of the German royal family, but later renounced his German citizenship and joined the Royal Navy, where he served as Chief of Naval Staff and First Sea Lord.
The royal family's origins brought Mountbatten unimaginable opportunities, and this status also brought him a kind of natural resistance, and his every step of the promotion to invite all kinds of speculation and discussion. But Mountbatten always honored his royal blood, and he brought greater glory to the British royal family.
In September 1913, Mountbatten enrolled at Osborne Royal Naval School. In October of the following year, his father was forced to resign his commission within the British Navy after the outbreak of the First World War and the declaration of war between Britain and Germany, due to his German origins.
In late 1914, Mountbatten and his fellow sea cadets transferred to the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, due to the early graduation of its senior cadets for the war.
In July of 1916, Naval Candidate Mountbatten was ordered to report to Admiral Betty's flagship, the USS Lion. "HMS Lion was a first class ship in the Royal Navy at the time, and it was probably due to her royal background and the Navy's respect for Prince Louis that led to this very favorable assignment for Mountbatten, who was transferred to Admiral Beatty's flagship in February 1917 with George and Mountbatten.
In April 1917, the United States entered the war, and when the U.S. Navy joined the side of the Royal Navy, the German naval fleet was even more afraid to come out and challenge it. Still, Mountbatten did some hard work. in 1918, Mountbatten transferred to the K-6 submarine. The K-6s were inferior to modern submarines and to the rival German U-boats, but patrolling the North Sea was more exciting than serving on a dreadnought, and gave him a sense of being part of the war effort.
Soon after, Mountbatten was promoted to lieutenant and given command of the Royal Navy ship P-31, one of the fastest boats in the navy, which was designed to deal with German submarines and escort transports to France. Mountbatten fell in love with the dinghy, and when the captain was away, the 18-year-old took command of the entire boat.
A few months later, Mountbatten left his beloved ship and was ordered to enroll at Chester College, Cambridge, to take a college course. During his time there, he led the Cambridge team that beat the Oxford team as a member of the student union's debating committee, and gained a reputation as an eloquent speaker.
In his second year, March 1920, Mountbatten was promoted to captain and accompanied the Prince of Wales on his voyage. In seven months, Mountbatten accompanied the Prince of Wales to visit the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and many islands in the Pacific Ocean. Through this trip, Mountbatten not only became familiar with the places where he would later live and fight, but more importantly, he established a strong friendship with his royal cousin, the Prince of Wales, and took the opportunity of the trip to organize and shoot Britain's first military educational film.
In midsummer 1921, at a ball, Mountbatten met and fell in love with a wealthy young lady, Edwina? The couple married in July 1922 in Westminster.
Five months after their wedding, Mountbatten was ordered to serve on the dreadnought HMS Vengeance. With the signing of the Lausanne Convention and the resolution of the Turkish Crisis, Vengeance returned to Malta.
In July and August 1924, Mr. Mountbatten accompanied the Prince of Wales on a short visit to the U.S.A. In September, he was ordered to attend the Royal Naval Communications School in Portsmouth, where he was requested to take a course of study in long-distance liaison. 1925 saw him enrolled at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. After completing his studies, he served as a communications officer in the Mediterranean Fleet. 1931, he was appointed radio liaison officer for the Mediterranean Fleet. 1931, he was appointed radio liaison officer for the Mediterranean Fleet. 1932, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commander.
In 1934, Mountbatten took command of the newly constructed destroyer HMS Courageous. "Brave was designed for 36 knots, but he managed to get her up to 38.2 knots.
Shortly afterward, Courageous, along with the entire destroyer fleet, sailed to Singapore, where Mountbatten would captain the Westhardt. During this period, Mountbatten accomplished a major invention, an instrument to keep the fleet in formation, and in 1936, Mountbatten left the Westhardt to take up a post in the Admiralty. When Mountbatten left, instead of letting him go in a motorboat, six naval officers rowed to see him off in the traditional way that the Royal Navy shows respect and affection for its captains.
At the time, the leadership of the Fleet Air Arm was at the center of a dispute between the services in Whitehall. The Admiralty wanted to take full leadership of the fleet air force, so they thought of Mountbatten, counting on his social skills and his prestigious connections to strengthen the Admiralty's hand in the race. The Admiralty appointed Mountbatten to be the Fleet Air Arm's staff officer in Whitehall, and Mountbatten did not disappoint the Navy - the Fleet Air Arm was under the full control of the Admiralty, except for the Coastal Reconnaissance Air Force and the Escort Air Force.
Monbarton's other vital contribution to the Royal Navy is less well known: in 1936, Nazi Germany was developing dive bombs, but the British had little in the way of countermeasures.
Through his connections in Germany, Austrian engineer Ganzda learned of the Germans' new dive bomb and found a way to deal with it. But no one in the British Admiralty was interested in it except Mountbatten. As a last resort, Mountbatten bought the invention in his personal name.
In April 1939, when Mountbatten's friend Admiral Bakerhouse joined the Admiralty, the Ganzda machine gun proved to be the best anti-aircraft weapon in the Navy.
2. Encountering German torpedoes
In 1937, Mountbatten was promoted to captain, and in early 1939, he was appointed captain of HMS Kelly, which he formally took over on August 23, 1939 as captain. "On August 23, 1939, Mountbatten officially took over HMS Kelly as her captain and hoisted the Royal Navy flag on board.
Mountbatten had long been convinced that the war in Europe would break out again. And, in Britain, Churchill was hardly noticed by anyone other than Mountbatten. Throughout the 1930s, Churchill was disliked and alienated by the leaders of all three political parties.
During September and October 1939, HMS Kelly fought brutal battles with German submarines, ****hitting nine of them, of which it was certain that one was sunk, while the destruction of several others was unknown.
Late in November, 1929, Kelly was ordered out to sea in search of a U-boat. Mountbatten suggested that the harbor might have been mined by the Germans, but his opinion was not taken seriously. As the Kelly was traveling at full speed towards a burning tanker, a mine struck a propeller and exploded.
While Kelly was being repaired, Mountbatten took his staff to the 5th Destroyer Flotilla's Calvin to continue the fight until February 1940, when Kelly's repairs were completed. "The restoration of the Kelly was completed in February 1940.
In May 1940, Kelly was ordered to sail with the cruiser Birmingham to search for German minelayers and a number of E-boats in North Sea waters close to the coast. "On the night of May 14, Kelly was torpedoed by the Germans.
On August 8, the Battle of Britain began. Although Kelly was undergoing repairs at this time and therefore did not experience this dark time in Britain, Mountbatten fought one of the most criticized sea battles of his life during this period.
In September, Mountbatten was given temporary command of the 5th Destroyer Group's Javelin and three other destroyers, which were stationed at Portsmouth, at the forefront of Britain's defenses. 5:40 p.m. on November 29, the Javelin was reported on the radar screen to be in the dark. At 5:40 on November 29, "Javelin" destroyer radar screen appeared five German warships, Mountbatten immediately led the "Javelin" and other three ships to meet the enemy at sea. About 900 yards from the enemy, Javelin fired a flurry of side gunfire, this time missing. Immediately after Mountbatten personally corrected the position, and organized another salvo, hit the German flagship. But just as Mountbatten ordered the torpedoes to be fired, two German torpedoes hit the Javelin, rendering it useless, and then the German ship released a smoke screen and withdrew from the battle.
After the battle, Mountbatten was blamed for all sorts of things, and it was especially hard on him. But the setback did not detract from his achievements, and on New Year's Day 1941, Mountbatten was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, the highest award for military bravery apart from the Victoria Cross.
On December 15, 1940, Kelly returned to the 5th Destroyer Flotilla, and in April 1941, the 5th Destroyer Flotilla left Portsmouth for the Mediterranean. "Kelly was based in a harbor only 100 miles from the Luftwaffe airfield on the Sittingley Peninsula.
Early in May, Kelly was ordered to attack German ships at Ben Watts. Under the cover of darkness, the Kelly crept up to the exit of the harbor breakwater and, with her guns positioned, sank most of the ships in the harbor with a few sudden bursts of fire, then withdrew before the German coast guard could respond.
On May 20, 1941, the Germans launched a coordinated attack on Crete by air and sea. on the evening of the 21st, Mountbatten led the Kelly with the 5th Destroyer Flotilla to meet the battle. on the morning of the 23rd, the Kelly was bombarded by a large number of German aircraft and was hit and sunk. In October 1941, Mountbatten was promoted to the rank of Commodore and took command of the British Amphibious Combined Forces. At this time, Mountbatten was just in his early 40s, and his rank was not high, so his sudden promotion to Whitehall was, obviously, unacceptable to the powers that be in Whitehall. It also took a lot out of Mountbatten.
On March 4, 1942, Mountbatten, who was supreme commander of the Joint Warfare Forces and also the fourth chief of staff in the Chiefs of Staff Committee, was given the ranks of vice admiral of the navy, lieutenant general of the army and lieutenant general of the air force, making him the first general in the history of the British army to receive the ranks of all three branches of the military at the same time.
In August 1942, Mountbatten commanded the Combined Forces in an attack on Dieppe, on the northern tip of France bordering the Pas-de-La-Manche, which was undoubtedly a military failure in terms of results. Of the 6,086 men who took part in the Dieppe operation, 3,623, or 59.5 percent, were wiped out, wounded, and missing***, as opposed to the pre-operation estimate of 10 to 20 percent. To make matters worse, the total number of Canadian officers and men who participated in the war*** was 4,865, while casualties and missing persons amounted to 3,367, or more than two-thirds of their total. For this defeat, Mountbatten publicly blamed no one at the time and later, nor did he evade his share of the blame.
3. Joining the Pacific Campaign
Operation Torch opened on Nov. 8, 1942, more than two months after the Battle of Dieppe. "Operation Torch called for British and American forces to land simultaneously in Algiers and Morocco. Mountbatten was a key person in the development of the plan, as he was considered the chief expert on landing operations. "Operation Torch was a great success, and within a few days British and American forces had taken control of strategic locations in Algeria and Morocco. The Battle of Sicily was fought on July 9 of the following year. The Allies massed troops on the east and west sides of the island of Malta. The beach defenses were quickly breached and destroyed, and the Italian forces defending the coast disintegrated almost without firing a shot.On the 11th, Mountbatten, along with Montgomery, then followed up with a force that stepped into Sicily.
Starting on August 14, 1943, British and American heads of state met in Quebec, Canada. After much heated debate, the talks resulted in the adoption of a strategic plan codenamed "Overlord," which provided for an Allied landing in Normandy on May 1 of the following year. In addition, a secondary campaign, code-named Anvil, was planned for landings near Toulon and Sai in the south of the French persuasion.
After the talks, on Aug. 31, Mountbatten assumed the post of Supreme Commander, Southeast Asia Theater, and was promoted to the rank of wartime admiral.
As Commander-in-Chief of the Southeast Asia theater, Mountbatten naturally wanted to build a career here, but Churchill tied his hands from a "Europe first" point of view. He felt alienated from the Prime Minister and was losing Churchill's wholehearted support. Although Operation Pirate ultimately failed to take place, Mountbatten was undeterred and began planning another operation, code-named Pig Hunt, which suited his manpower and material resources and aimed only at landing on the Mayu Peninsula in order to cut off the lines of communication between the Japanese forces in the realities. 1943 At the end of 1943, Whitehall informed Mountbatten that he was not allowed to use three of the five large tank landing craft at Bream, and on January 7, 1944, the Chiefs of Staff Committee ordered him to cancel all amphibious assaults in the Southeast Asian theater of operations and to transfer all landing equipment to Europe. Later, Mountbatten was even instructed to ship most of his 25-pounders and above to the European theater. His "Hog Hunt" program became the "Hogs of the Hunt".
In early 1942, the Japanese Army in Burma had just completed a reorganization. In January 1944, the 28th Army was organized for the purpose of carrying out offensive operations in the southwestern coastal region. The commander of the army was Lt. Gen. Sakurai Omizo, with the 2nd, 54th and 55th divisions under his command. Of these three divisions, only the 2nd Division was rebuilt in the Philippines after being heavily damaged by the U.S. Army in the Guadalcanal campaign, while the 54th Division was a so-called "ad hoc division" that had been hastily formed in the country in the previous year.
The British 15th Army on the Rakhine front consisted of three divisions: the 5th British Division, the 7th British Indian Division and the 81st West Asia Division. The commander of the army was Lieutenant General Christison. In order to strengthen the command of this army, Mountbatten transferred several divisional commanders, among them, with the consent of London, the hero of the battle between the British and Italian armies at the Ethiopian fortress of Dologoro, Frank? Major General Messervy, transferred as commander of the 7th Anglo-Indian Division. The fighting in the Rakhine region had just subsided for more than 10 days when on March 8, nearly 100,000 fascist officers and men from three divisions and allotment units belonging to the Japanese 15th Army began to cross the Pro-Dun River into the territory of Bream, opening the curtain of the Battle of Imphal. When Lt. Gen. Mou Taguchi's advance troops crossed the Intun River to fight towards Imphal on March 8, Mountbatten was hospitalized due to an accident and suffered severe internal bleeding in his left eye. But the news from Imphal made him anxious. Against the advice of his doctors, he left the hospital and flew to Slim's command in Kamila.
Listening to Slim's report, Mountbatten withdrew the troops defending along the border west of the pro-dun river to the highlands near Imphal to organize the defense. According to a post-war war historian from the Japanese Defense Agency, "This policy struck at the heart of the Japanese army, and Lieutenant General Mutaguchi failed to see precisely that."
The Battle of Imphal, as it is usually called, included fierce fighting between the British and Japanese in the Kohima and Ukhrul areas north of Imphal, in addition to a series of battles around Imphal alone.On March 8, Lieutenant General Yukinori Sato led the 31st Division across the Kindun River on rafts and small boats one after the other. After resting in the area of Tondo and Homalin, it was divided into three columns to advance towards Kohima, attacking Ukhrul and capturing this major transportation route to Kohima.
Slim reported this critical situation to Mountbatten, who immediately drew troops from the 5th and 7th Anglo-Indian Divisions to reinforce them and ordered the 3rd Special Assault Brigade, which was under his jurisdiction, to make air support preparations. In addition, he ordered the 23rd "Drinking Dee", which was still stationed in Bream, to cover Lido, and ordered the 2nd British Division to come from the interior of India as soon as possible.
On May 13, the remaining Japanese positions on Jaill Hill were also occupied by British and Indian soldiers. Japanese Lt. Gen. Yukinori Sato led his troops in a retreat towards the supply dump. Upon receiving reports of signs of Japanese retreat on the Kohima front, Mountbatten ordered the 2nd British and 7th British-Indian Divisions to concentrate on Maio one after another, and then proceed to capture Ukhrul.
On June 22, the two groups, like the two jaws of a steel vice, clamped down on the Japanese at the 109th milestone on the Kohima road. After the blockade battle at Ukhrul, the 33rd Fang Brigade commander, 15th Army Commander Kawabe Masuzo, who was in direct command of the battle, submitted a report requesting the cessation of the "U" operation to the General Headquarters of the Confederate Army of Japan (CJCS), which had by now moved to Manila, and to Tokyo's main headquarters.
Souichi Miyauchi, Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Army, received Kawabe's report and immediately contacted Tokyo, and the Tokyo base camp agreed to the request after several consultations.
At midnight on July 2, General Nei issued an order to stop the operation of the USS Ou as Narumi Sakurazumei A 101, which was conveyed to the 15th Army by the Burma Army.
The Allied forces were able to stop the operation of the U.
Allied intelligence officers were informed of the full retreat order issued by the headquarters of the Confederate Army of Japan, immediately reported to the theater headquarters, Mountbatten immediately instructed Slim's 14th Army Group 7 divisions to start a full-scale pursuit operation. Although the Japanese 15th Army crossed the Proton River, it suffered heavy losses.
After the disastrous defeat of the Japanese army at the Battle of Imphal, the head of the Japanese army in Burma knew very well that, with the loss of Japan in the Pacific Theater in the battles of Saipan, Guam, and Tinian, at this time, "the strategic position of Burma, to the Main Camp, has lost the positive significance of the political-strategic guidance, and is nothing more than a defense wall to the west of the peninsula of Thailand, Malay, and Indochina. However, the value of defending Burma was not lost, for it held a position capable of stifling the Allied attempts to attack the head of the Malay Peninsula along the Bay of Bengal and the Anglo-Indian front in the direction of Singapore."
So, the newly appointed commander of the Japanese forces in Burma, Lieutenant General Kimura Hyotaro, in accordance with the instructions of the General Headquarters of the Southern Army, at the end of September 1944 to draw up the operational concept of the defense of Burma, against the Anglo-Indian forces in Mountbatten, the implementation of the "disk operation" and "completion of the war". The "Pan Battle" and the "Finish Battle" against the British and Indian forces at Mountbatten. The operation against the enemy who came to the front near Mandalay and south of that place under the Irrawaddy River was called the "disk operation"; the operation against the enemy who came to the front along the Indian Ocean coast was called the "completion of the war".
In late October, the Japanese intelligence agencies have detected that the Allied Forces will give up Mountbatten's "Drakkala" plan, and established the strategy of the land halberd into Burma, so, Lieutenant General Kimura immediately summoned the 15th Army, the 28th Army, the 33rd Army Chiefs of Staff and the Director of Operations to Rangoon, on the future of the Frontier Army to make the war concept, especially the "disk operation". In particular, they studied the main points of the "Pan Battle" guidelines.
Mountbatten formulated the "Capitol" plan - the British and Indian troops first forcibly crossed the river and established a bridgehead there, and then attacked Rangoon in the south.
On Nov. 10, the 33rd Army, under Gen. Stopford, completed its attack on the west bank of the river. An assault battalion of the Assam Regiment charged Mo Chit on the other side of the river and successfully ascended the east bank. The main body of the army's 20th Division then crossed the Pro-Dun River and captured Mole. Meanwhile, the 11th East African Division, supported by accurate RAF air strikes, fought its way up the shadowy Gabao Valley on the west bank of the Pro-Dun River towards Gariwa.
On Dec. 10, Indian engineers quickly built bridges over the Pro-Dun River, enabling the main divisions of the 14th Army Group to drive across to the other side.
Messevi's 4th Army consisted of the 19th Anglo-Indian and 17th Anglo-Indian Divisions, and later the 5th Anglo-Indian Division, which was under the group's authority, came under Messevi's command. Mountbatten's orders to Meservey were to cross the Pro-Dun River and then enter the Rippo Plains to fight a decisive battle against the Japanese 15th Army divisions stationed there, and to capture each of the important Japanese airfields in the Yeu-Rippo area. This battle was to be fought both fast and hard.
Messevi's troops crossed the Pro-Dun River and followed orders to strike east, and four days later they captured Bamau, north-west of Indo, and joined up with the British 36th Division, which had swung south from the north, and pressed on to the Ripple Plain.
But Lt. Gen. Kimura Hyotaro did not want to fight a duel on this wide plain. Mountbatten then worked out a new scheme with Slim - Stopford's 33rd Army was to press Mandalay from the north to capture the ford on the Irrawaddy; at this point, Messervy's three divisions were to move due south from Girimao, penetrate as quietly as possible straight into the Mischief River valley, and then push south-east from Gamgao to capture the Irrawaddy River near Bungo in the The aim was to cross the rear of the Japanese Guemandele troops, to establish a strategic barrier near Myintyra, thus blocking their retreat southward toward Rangoon and cutting off supplies from Rangoon, and ultimately to wipe out the Japanese 15th Army in the Mandalay-Tazawa-Yawbu
The new program began to be implemented. In a deep flanking encirclement operation, Messervy's forces clandestinely crossed the jungle-ridden Gangao Valley and made a surprise forced crossing of the Irrawaddy River at Pakokku, then used armored and airborne troops to wind up and push right up to a key Japanese base at Minjenjian to the southeast.
Many senior officers in command vehicles were still moving in and out of the fake army headquarters, leading Japanese spies to still think that Messervy and his army command were staying in Damu.
Everything was in place and about to move. But just then, 75 American transport planes were abruptly siphoned off to Yunnan, as the Chinese army faced a rampant Japanese attack in Guangxi. Mountbatten protested this to the American side, saying that all these planes had been loaded with supplies to be shipped to the advance troops, and that Messervy's long penetration to Minterra this time was based on airlifting supplies. But the protest did not work, and most of the planes were moved anyway. Now, Meservey had to venture a 700-kilometer march from Damu to Pakokku along a bumpy dirt road that was impassable in the rainy season. This dirt road was intended for the passage of the people's oxcarts, but now as many as three divisions of troops had to pass through, along with heavy tanks, artillery and other vehicles. Luckily, within 15 days, the engineering unit widened and reinforced two-thirds of the dirt road on an emergency basis, making it possible for the aforementioned heavy equipment to pass through with little difficulty.
However, it wasn't until around the end of January 1945 that Messervy's troops finally arrived in the Irrawaddy riverbank area, as American transport planes were abruptly siphoned off. This river was the main river in Burma, and although it was at its lowest level at the time, the open, loose sandbars formed another dangerous barrier. Despite the terrain being very unfavorable to the 41st, Messervy succeeded in sneaking across the river by feinting to cross the Color Raft.On March 1, Mountbatten was so exasperated to learn that Minthirah had not yet been taken that he asked Slim to fly to the front in person to take command. When Slim arrived on the scene, he concentrated his forces in the north of the city and launched an offensive that eventually captured Mintyra.
The troops under Mountbatten won at Minthirah and the next step was to capture Mandalay. In fact, just as Lt. Gen. Kimura Hyotaro was moving his troops to counterattack Min Tera, Mountbatten threw all the troops he could still muster into the outskirts of Mandalay and waited for an opportunity to take Mandalay. The next goal was to capture the city of Rangoon.
On March 20, the British completely occupied Mandalay.
While Mountbatten had opened the gates of Rangoon, the rainy season was approaching and Rangoon had to be captured quickly.
Messevi's 4th Army still lost the race against time to the rainy season. So on May 1, 1945, Mountbatten launched an amphibious landing plan for Rangoon. In fact, before that, Mountbatten had already considered the possibility that Messervy's forces would be blocked by the rainy season, so he took a division from Kristensen's 15th Army, which was based in the area from Chittagong to Rakhine, to carry out the amphibious landing mission, which was to be equipped with a medium-sized tank regiment and a parachute battalion, and urgently searched for a number of landing crafts to assemble and standby for the mission.
On May 1, hours before the British launched their amphibious landing, Mountbatten had the air force fly over Rangoon for reconnaissance and found that the Japanese had fled. Nevertheless, the landings went ahead, and on the 2nd they were combined into a single force that entered Rangoon unopposed, and on the morning of May 6, the advance guard of Messervy's 4th Army, which had come south from Bago, finally drove into Rangoon as well.
4. "Earl Mountbatten of Burma"
The next major step after the capture of Burma was to attack the Malay Peninsula and its Singapore. To this end, Mountbatten, a keen planner, came up with a battle plan called "Operation Zipper". He intended to implement it in July, but it was shelved due to the lack of ships, planes and troops allocated to him.
In mid-July, Mountbatten was called to Berlin by Churchill to attend the Potsdam Conference. The Potsdam Conference was to study the war against Japan, so Mountbatten was required to come on behalf of the Southeast Asian theater headquarters.
On Aug. 7, Mountbatten returned to theater headquarters in a large bomber. on Aug. 15, Japan announced its unconditional surrender. At the same time, he received orders from the Anglo-American Joint Chiefs of Staff to take over the entire southwestern Pacific area south of the Philippines, with the aim of enabling MacArthur's U.S. forces to break away from these areas to occupy Japan proper.
The following day, the British Chiefs of Staff Committee gave him a new task: (1) to reoccupy key territories in the recovered areas and to ensure effective control and disarmament of the surrendered Japanese forces; and (2) to endeavor to release British and Allied prisoners and others incarcerated by the Japanese at the earliest possible date.
Mountbatten sprang into action, ordering the immediate implementation of the "zipper" plan to advance to Malaya and Singapore with whatever forces might be available. At the same time, he instructed Lt. Gen. Walker to lead a mixed fleet of warships, including minesweepers, out to sea immediately, braving the storms of the rainy season, and to order other forces to move out immediately to Hong Kong and Saigon to receive the Japanese command.
A few days later, however, MacArthur gave Mountbatten a head start. By this time Mac had assumed the role of supreme head of Allied affairs against Japan, and he ordered Mountbatten to refrain from any military action until Aug. 31, when the surrender ceremony in Tokyo was officially held. The ceremony was postponed to Sept. 2 aboard the U.S.S. Missouri because of a typhoon that hit the Japanese islands.
Nevertheless, on September 9, Mountbatten ordered British troops to land at Port Dickson in Malaya and at Moribu near Port Klang. Unsurprisingly for Mountbatten, the Japanese forces here resisted, even though the Emperor of Japan had long ago announced their surrender.12 On the 12th, the official surrender ceremony of the Allied Command Southeast Asia (ACSE) was held in Singapore. Since the commander of the Japanese Southern Army, Field Marshal Uchisuichi, who had been informed of the ceremony's procedures in advance, could not endure the extra insult and claimed to be ill and did not go, General Itagaki attended the ceremony on his behalf.
Itagaki and several other Japanese generals, who wanted to go up to shake hands with Mountbatten, who was dressed in the straight, white uniform of an Imperial Navy admiral, were flatly refused.
To reward him for his service throughout the war, and especially for his command of the British and Indian forces in defeating the Japanese in Burma, he was made the "Earl of Mountbatten in Burma."
Toward the end of 1946, Mountbatten was preordained as Commander of the First Cruiser Group of the British Mediterranean Fleet. On January 6 of the following year, he was sent to the Senior Admiral's Course at the Naval College in Portsmouth to train for his new post.
Soon after, however, on February 1, 1947, Mountbatten was made Viceroy of the British Empire in India in London, and on March 22, Mountbatten arrived in Delhi with his wife. Two days later, the British and Indian authorities inaugurated the new viceroy, and on June 23, 1948, Mountbatten and his wife returned to London by plane. On the third day after his return, Mountbatten applied to the head of the Navy to return to the Navy. The First Lord of the Admiralty, John Cunningham, was the first to apply for his return to the Navy. Cunningham, after more than three months of agonizing consideration, decided in October to make Mountbatten commander of the 1st Cruiser Group of the Mediterranean Fleet.
In June 1950, Mountbatten was transferred out of the Mediterranean Fleet and returned to the Admiralty as Fourth Sea Lord.
In May 1952, Mountbatten was first appointed Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet. In February of the following year, he was promoted to full admiral, thus paving the way for Mountbatten to obtain his desired position step by step.
In March 1955, Mountbatten became First Sea Lord.
In 1956, Mountbatten ascended to the pinnacle of the Royal Navy - being promoted to the rank of Field Marshal.
On May 22, 1959, Prime Minister Macmillan formally appointed Mountbatten Chief of the Defense Staff and recommended that the term of this post would be extended from three to five years. In terms of status, the Chief of Defense Staff was just below the Secretary of State for Defense, but since the latter was a civilian and subject to partisan campaigning, the Chief of Defense Staff was in effect the full-time head of the entire British Army, Navy, and Air Force.
On February 20, 1960, Mountbatten's wife, Edwina, died at the age of 59 years.
On July 1, 1965, Mountbatten said goodbye to a 49-year career in the military and left the Ministry of Defense.
On August 27, 1979, Mountbatten was killed at the age of 79 when he was blown up on the yacht Shadow by terrorists from the Irish **** and Army.