by the Germans who carried out many brutal acts of reprisal against the populace.
The end of the War found Glyn Gilbert in Northern Germany where the 2 Lincolns has taken part in the capture of Bremen. A cease fire was ordered on the 5th. May, 1945. the 2 Lincolns, who were at Delmenhurst, were driven, two days later, to a village to the South of Osnabruck. It was there that they heard the end of the War in Europe declared on VE Day, the 8th. May. This was the first time that all of the Battalion's officers had been collected together in one place since they had arrieved on the Continent.
At least four of the Bermudians who had entered the Lincolns during the War would reach the rank of Major by 1945. In addition to Glyn and the late 'Toby' Smith of 2 Lincolns, there was John Brownlow Tucker, commanding "C" Company of the 1 Lincolns in Asia,and Patrick Lynn Purcell, who was detached from the 4 Lincolns at the end of the War, promoted to Major and made Press Chief of 1 Corps in the are of Northern Germany given over to British administration. Majors Tucker and Purcell had both come over from the BVRC to the Lincolns in the First Contingent of 1940,when all three had been Lieutenants.
Although many of the surviving Bermudian officers and men who had joined the Lincolnswould continue to serve for many months after the War while they waited for theirturn to be demobilzed, only Glyn gilbert would choose to make the Army his career.
The British Army could not simply be recalled with the defeat of the Axis powers. Many liberated European countries required the help of the Allied armies in rebuilding, and in restoring order and authority. Germany was divided between the major Allied armies, each of which became responsible for all functions of Government within its area of occupation. Even with the eventual return of authority to a West German government in Bonn, the armies of the Western Allies would have to leave a considerable portion of their strengths in Germany until the end of the Cold War, warding off a potential attack by their wartime Soviet ally.
The British Army had also to establish authority in the Far Eastern territories of its European Allies,where the surrender of Japan had left a vacuum that was being filled by nationalist movements. In the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia,) and French Indo-China (Vietnam,) the British Army suppressed Nationalist militants until the Imperial powers could be re-asserted. At the same time, Britain had to contend with growing violence and instability within her own Empire as many Nationalist movements, emboldened by the parts they had played in the War, began moving their countries toward independence.
Even while it was preparing for the Third World War, these various insurrections were to keep the British Army, and Glyn Gilbert, occupied for decades, battling militant movements in India, Kenya, South Arabia and many other places.
After the War, the 2 Lincolns were posted to the Suez Canal Zone, then to Palestine for two years, where a three-way conflict was brewing between Jewish and Arab militants and the British Government, which had administered what was left of the Territory under Mandate since taking it from the Ottoman Turks in the Great War, and seperating Trans-Jordan Palestine into a client state.
Perhaps the most notorious act of terrorism perpetrated in the lead-up to the recreation of the state of Israel was the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, where Glyn Gilbert was staying at the time*.
It was in Palestine that the 2 Lincolns were joined by Anthony Madeiros, one of the BVRC riflemen who had volunteered to join the Lincolns in 1944, before moving on to the Parachute Regiment. As part of 6 Airborne, Tony Madeiros had fought in the wider battle to reach and cross the Rhine, but had missed out on the drop behind German Lines, on the far side, due to a back injury. He had rejoined the Division to fight in Northern Europe and the Far East.
When his Parachute Battalion was disbanded after the War, Tony had returned to the Lincolnshire Regiment, being posted to 2 Lincolns where he and Glyn became life-long friends. After Palestine, Glyn was detached and posted to the School of Infantry as an instructor. He then attended Staff College, before being posted to the Ministry of Defence.
Glyn�s milirary career now took another redirection with his attachment to the 3rd. Battalion, The Parachute Regiment (3 Para).
Formed during the Second World War, the Parachute Regiment, like the other more irregular combat units of the British Army (and the Royal Marines of the Royal Navy), had entered a period through which its prospects for survival were perpetually under threat. The size of the Army had begun to be a reduced shortly after the War. This was a slow process, but one which was pushed as quickly as allowed by the shrinking demands placed on the British Army globally. This process of reducing the Army in response to diminishing obligations, and in line with newer budgetary restraints, continues, today, in the post-Cold War period.
After the Second World War, the various �elites� were among the first units earmarked as excess-to-need. Some units had already outlived their usefulness, before the War�s end, when the fighting had moved away from the terrain in which lay their specialized fields - most-notably the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) of Western Desert fame. The Special Air Service Regiment (or it�s British components,) also formed to exploit opportunities unique to the campaign in the Western Desert, survived the War by adapting to new roles in other theatres, only to be disbanded at the end (a Territorial Army unit, the Artist�s Rifles, was converted to the SAS role in 1948, after the generals had reconsidered; deciding that it might be useful to keep a unit trained in that role, in preparation for a Third World War against the Soviet Bloc. A Regular Army SAS component was not re-established �til after the Malayan Emergency had given rise to a similar elite unit, the Malayan Scouts; demonstrating the applicability of �special� forces to a wider variety of conflicts than a total, but largelly conventional, war).
J. Anthony Marsh, the second Commanding Officer of the Bermuda Regiment served in the SAS from the Western Desert, in 1942, until the disbandment.
The Parachute Regiment was more fortunate than the more specialized �elites�, although there was some question as to the value of maintaining it in a �peace-time� army. There was also a larger question as to the continued viability of large-scale parachute operations in modern warfare, with its increasingly sophisiticated, and effective anti-aircraft weaponry, and highly-mechanised ground forces, within which powerful armoured units were increasingly the core. The ability of lightly armed, and unsupported parachutists to prevail against conventional ground forces, even for a short time, in this scenario was as doubtful as the Air Force�s ability to deliver them to the drop-zone. This had been sufficiently questionable, early in the War, for the Germans, whose daring use of airborne troops in the invasions of Belgium and the Netherlands had inspired the British Army to create its own airborne forces, to abandon large-scale airborne operations after the succesful, but almost Pyrrhic victory of the Luftwaffe�s paratroopers in the seizure of Crete in 1941. The Luftwaffe�s paratroopers had fought the rest of the War as infantry (the last action of 2 Lincoln during the War had been against the tough German paratroopers, and Waffen SS soldiers, during the battle for Bremen).
When Glyn first joined the Paras, the British Army was finding itself involved in a number of increasingly bitter conflicts that were flaring up in various Imperial possessions as often-heterogenuous populations moved towards self-determination. One such point of trouble was Cyprus, where the Greek population were pressing ahead with their plans for a Cyprus that was culturally and politically Greek, whatever the feelings of the ethnic-Turkish Cypriots. This had led to a bloody terrorist and guerilla campaign being waged by the ethnic-Greek EOKA, against both the ethnic-Turks and the British forces that sought to repress the violent elements on the island. Glyn joined 3 Para in the campaign against the EOKA which was ultimately successful, though Greek unwillingness to compromise would eventually provoke Turkey to invade an independent Cyprus and annex the Turkish enclave.
Returning to Britain in 1953, Gilbert was appointed Brigade Major of 44 Parachute Brigade (Territorial Army), only to return to the Lincolns to serve in the Malayan Emergency. He transferred to the Parachute Regiment permanently in 1958, taking command of 10 Para (a County of London, Territorial Army unit) in 1959, presumablyin the rank of Lieutenant Colonel - promotion having slowed considerably in the shrinking post-War Army, which would long have a surplus of War-tempered officers.
In 1962, Glyn Gilbert was appointed Regimental Colonel of the Parachute Regiment (the �Regiment�, in the modern Army, is a unit not normally tasked with a battlefield function. It is primarily an administrative arrangement, and Regimental Headquarters oversees recruitment and training, while, for operational deployments, it�s subordinate battalions are normally detached individually for contribution to the make up of Brigades). As regimental commander, Colonel Gilbert was �responsible for a number of innovations, the most significant being the establishment of the battle training course for NCOs at Brecon, which was eventually made mandatory throughout the Infantry.
During his tour, he also founded the Regimental Parachute Free Fall Team (the Red Devils**).�***
Glyn�s next promotion, to Brigadier General, saw him return to the Territorial Army�s part-time 44 Parachute Brigade, this time in command. This occurred �at a time when the TA was under review and the structure and role of the Brigade were under threat.� His efforts at achieving a high unit-efficiency were such that �his Brigade was the only one to come through unscathed.
After attending the Imperial Defence College, Gilbert became Commandant of the School of Infantry, Warminister, in 1967. �*** While there, he hosted HM the Queen in his own home when she visited the school.
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* �Fate and WW2 set Gen. Gilbert on a brass path�, The Royal Gazette, Tuesday, 2nd March, 1993. �Bermudians Abroad�, Pages 15 & 16.
** The Red Devils performed at an Airshow hosted by the US Naval Air Station Bermuda in 1983, parachuting from a Canadian Forces� Buffalo aeroplane)