This week sees the anniversary of one of the most contentious Victoria Cross awards in World War II. Geoffrey Keyes was a dashing young cavalry officer, turned Commando, whose father had been Admiral of the Fleet. During a poorly planned raid on a location known to have been used by General Rommel, Keyes was shot dead by his own soldiers. However, the publicity-seeking head of the Commando operation Robert Laycock wrote him up for his “magnificent leadership and outstanding gallantry” as well as setting “an example of supreme self-sacrifice and devotion to duty” and he was subsequently awarded Britain’s highest gallantry medal.
There is no doubt that Laycock’s citation was a fabrication because he did not see the attack for himself. In addition, the detail about the location on Keyes’s gravestone in Benghazi does not correspond with the memoirs of contemporaries, such as Vladimir Peniakoff; so why was this allowed to happen when so many other citations were turned down in the war?
Laycock provided a clue to the answer a few years later, when he wrote: “More than
once [David Stirling] would have won the highest military honour the sovereign
can bestow, were it not for the rule that a senior officer must be present to vouch
for the circumstances of the citation—and senior officers were never well placed to
witness Stirling’s raids behind the lines.”
There is a huge irony that while Laycock was with Keyes on the night of 16 November, Stirling was parachuting into Gazala on an early mission with his Special Air Service. Unfortunately, this operation to attack the new Messerschmitt 109F aircraft fared no better than Keyes’ effort. A low cloud base and high winds conspired to spoil the plan as many soldiers were dragged along the boulder-strewn ground and broke their backs. The dispersal of equipment and explosives over a wide area prevented the group from continuing and the surviving soldiers only just managed to reach their rendezvous with the Long Range Desert Group.
These operations foundered on the jagged rocks of poor preparation, inadequate training and inauspicious weather. However, their failure did not stop Laycock and Stirling, who learned hard lessons and continued to develop ideas for surprise attacks. Although there were more calamities, the strategic shock of these raids forced Rommel to increase the guards on his supply dumps and communication sites, which ultimately benefited Eighth Army.
I visited Keyes’ grave in the Benghazi Commonwealth War Cemetery in 2012 after a number of head-stones had been smashed by local militia in retaliation for events in Afghanistan. However, I was pleased to see that his memorial was untouched.
Rupert Wieloch 