Dynamo Ramsay
Admiral Sir Bertram Home Ramsay, who joined the Royal Navy in 1898 as a 15-year-old cadet, perhaps improbably went on to mastermind four seminal naval operations in the European theater of World War II. As author Brian Izzard reveals, Ramsay by 1914 had formed the trenchant opinions that peacetime training had been defective, while gunnery officers were ignorant of fleet tactics and many admirals lacked up-to-date views on war. His bluntly stated views prompted a peer to observe, “You are not on a very good wicket for being offered any further appointment.”
Ramsay defied that expectation with his 1939 appointment as a flag officer at Dover. By early 1940 he recognized the imminent necessity of a large-scale evacuation of Allied troops from France, an operation that would require every available naval and merchant ship and a host of privately owned small craft. Operation Dynamo successfully rescued 338,000 soldiers from Dunkirk and was praised by Prime Minister Winston Churchill as a “miracle of deliverance.”
Ramsay was closely involved in the planning of the landings in North Africa (Operation Torch) in 1942 and Sicily (Operation Husky) in 1943, both of which succeeded in large part due to his vision. It was thus no surprise when the able and experienced
