In 1939 he took his only operational command, successfully leading Luftflotte 5 in Norway. He was promoted Field Marshal in 1940, and, following Udet’s suicide in 1941, became Director of Air Armament. Production and maintenance much improved under his control, but he became increasingly estranged from Goring, who refused to credit his realistic estimates of Allied aircraft production and failed to support him in controversy with Hitler over new aircraft types (notably the Messeschmitt Me 262 jet). He was sentenced to life imprisonment at Nuremberg but released in 1955. MS.
Milford Haven, Adm of the Fleet Lord (1843—1921). Br. As Prince Louis of Battenberg, he was First Sea Lord on the outbreak of war in
1914. Due to his decision, taken in the absence of the First Lord (Churchill), the Fleet was ready for action when war was declared. Prejudice against him due to his German birth led to his resignation soon afterwards. His second son became Adm of the Fleet Lord Mountbatten of Burma.
Military Armistice Commission.
Established “to supervise the implementation” of the armistice agreement which ended the Korean War. It was to be composed of five senior officers from either side and to meet “in the vicinity of Panmunjom”. Ten joint observer teams were to be established to assist the commission in supervising the provisions of the armistice “pertaining to the Demilitarized Zone and to the Han River Estuary”. Outside this area, the Military Armistice Commission could call upon the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission to investigate violations. It could also “make recommendations to the Commanders of the opposing sides with respect to amendments or additions” to the armistice agreement. The Military Armistice Commission has continued to meet at Panmunjom but in an atmosphere of mutual hostility and there have been many unresolved incidents in the Demilitarized Zone. CM.
Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV). Established in Saigon on February 8 1962 to provide a joint headquarters for the growing American advisory and support presence authorized by President Kennedy. In May 1964 it absorbed Military Assistance Advisory Group (maag), which had operated in Vietnam since 1950. A “subordinate unified command” reporting to c-in-r. Pacific (ciNCPAC), macv combined the functions of a field army headquarters, an advisory mission to the South Vietnamese government, and a military assistance team to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (arvn). Its commanders were Gen Paul D Harkins (February 1962-June 1964), Gen William Westmoreland (June 1964-July 1968), Gen Creighton Abrams (July 1968-June 1972), and Gen Frederick Weyand (June 1972-March 1973). macv formally departed Vietnam on March 29 1973. WST.
Military intelligence organizations. Security services are of long standing. Fouche and Metter-nich elaborated those of France and Austria early in the 19th century. So are decipher staffs, established by most European powers before 1900; likewise staffs to collect intelligence about warmaking capabilities. These collectors need to know the size, location and capacities of the navies, armies, air and missile forces, fixed defences, and armament industries of actual and potential enemies. To know an enemy’s order of battle is the ambition of every intelligence officer, for from it much can be deduced.
Every combatant unit and formation includes an intelligence element, varying from a junior officer and a few other ranks at battalion level to a score or more officers, with clerks and draughtsmen to support them, at ghq. Service directorates of intelligence arrange for their training and keep them supplied with data about enemy forces and equipment. Good commanders take care to consult their intelligence officers in good time, but not to be commanded by them. MF.
Military Service Acts (1916-18). In 1914 the British Army was manned by volunteers; Kitchener’s appeal for more men to furnish the “New Armies” was answered by hundreds of thousands. By mid-1915, however, increasing political pressures led Asquith’s government to pass the first Military Service Act (Jan 1916), calling up all unmarried men in age groups 18-41, and setting up tribunals to vet applications for exemption by “conscientious objectors”. In May, a second Act extended conscription to married men; the third Act, in 1918, raised the upper age limit to 50. Conscription probably destroyed the old Liberal Party; it exposed one-third of the adult male population to military service and, by driving women into war work, was instrumental in their enfranchisement. MH.
Milne, Field Marshal Lord (1866
1948). Br. A gunner since 1885, Milne commanded the artillery of the 4th Division in France and Flanders in 1914 and was appointed as the Second Army’s chief of staff the following February. He was then given the 27th Division in July 1915, taking it to Salonika where he became commander of XVI Corps in January 1916 and of the British Salonika Army as a whole in May that year. Milne experienced many difficulties in Salonika. His units, starved of reinforcements and wasted by disease, faced formidable Bulgarian defences on the Doiran front while Milne himself had to deal with a host of political problems arising from the multinational character of the Allied forces in the theatre. Nevertheless, as a result of the September 1918 offensive, the Bulgarians collapsed and Milne’s army marched on Turkey and occupied Constantinople, gigs 1926 tol933.PJS.
Milner, Viscount Alfred (18541925). Br. A lifelong believer in the need for British Imperial unity, Milner was High Commissioner in South Africa from 1897 to 1905. He became a member of Lloyd George’s War Cabinet in December 1916. He played a central role in the removal of Robertson from the post of GIGS in February 1918 and in March was the senior British representative at the Doullens Conference, when Foch was given the task of coordinating Allied operations on the Western Front. Milner was Secretary of State for War, April-December 1918. PJS.
World History
