Derek Mills-Roberts: Difference between revisions

▲[[Brigadier]] '''Derek Mills-Roberts''', [[Order of the British Empire|CBE]], [[Distinguished Service Order|DSO]] [[and bar]], [[Military Cross|MC]] (23 November 1908 – 1 October 1980) was a British [[commando]] who fought with the [[1st Special Service Brigade]] during [[World War II]]. In a quirk of military history, he became the only Allied soldier to strike a German Field Marshall with the latter's own [[Staff of office|staff-of-office]] – when Mills-Roberts beat [[Erhard Milch]] over the head with the just-surrendered marshal's baton.

▲Mills-Roberts began his military service in the [[No. 4 Commando|No.4 Commando Unit]]. His good friend, Lord Lovat was given command of the unit, while Derek served as Second in Command. On 3 March 1941, Mills-Roberts, in the No. 4 Commando Unit, launched a raid on the German-occupied [[Lofoten Islands]]. In the successful raid, the commandos destroyed a significant number of fish-oil factories, petrol dumps and 11 ships. They also seized encryption equipment and [[codebooks]]. In addition to the destruction of materials, the commandos captured 216 German troops, and 315 Norwegians chose to accompany the commandos back to Britain. In August 1942, Derek was involved in the disastrous [[Dieppe Raid]].<ref name="LG 2 October 1942" /> The raid, a small scale invasion mounted by Canadian [[infantry]] and British commandos against [[Adolf Hitler]]'s [[Atlantic Wall]], was a complete failure and the units involved suffered very heavily. Lovat and Mills-Roberts's involvement in the raid was to secure the opposing flanks of the landing area and to destroy coastal batteries. By October 1942, he was a [[Lieutenant (British Army and Royal Marines)|lieutenant]] ([[temporary rank|temporary]] [[Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)|captain]]) ([[acting (rank)|acting]] [[Major (United Kingdom)|major]]).<ref name="LG 2 October 1942" />

▲Later in the war, among other actions, he took part in the [[Bergen-Belsen concentration camp]]'s liberation. When ''[[Luftwaffe]]'' Field Marshal [[Erhard Milch]] was captured and surrendered his [[Baton (symbol)#Third Reich|command baton]] to Mills-Roberts, the latter vented his anger about the atrocities he had seen at Bergen-Belsen marching Milch around the camp and demanding to know his thoughts on the terrible sights witnessed. Milch's reply (who spoke English) was along the lines of 'these people are not human beings in the same way as you and I!' This infuriated Mills-Roberts who took Milch's Field Marshal's baton from under Milch's arm and broke it over his head. Mills-Roberts went to [[Bernard Montgomery|Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery]] the following day to apologise for losing his temper with a senior German officer and Montgomery put his hands over his head in mock protection jokingly saying 'I hear you've got a thing about Field Marshals' and nothing more was said. The broken pieces were retrieved by his batman and the remains were given to Mills-Robert's wife Jill who had the baton restored at Swayne Adeney Brigg in London but the replacement shaft was slightly longer than the original. In later years, Jill sold the baton at auction. Before the auction, an injunction was put on the sale by the Milch family who contested ownership saying that the baton was 'stolen' from Milch. A local magistrate in UK decided that the baton was legitimate war booty and the sale continued, the baton going to an American collector in Florida.{{fact|date=February 2019}} By June 1945, he was a [[Brigadier (United Kingdom)|brigadier]] (temporary).<ref name="LG 19 June 1945" />

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