Collection MILLS-ROBERTS - MILLS-ROBERTS, Brig Derek (1908-1980)

Key Information

Reference code

MILLS-ROBERTS

Title

MILLS-ROBERTS, Brig Derek (1908-1980)

Date(s)

  • [1942-1981] (Creation)

Level of description

Collection

Extent

2 boxes or 0.02 cubic metres

Scope and content

Papers relating to his service with the Commandos, 1942-1945, dated [1942-1981]comprising:

papers on service with No.4 Commando, May-Dec 1942, principally on the Dieppe Raid, Aug 1942, including report by Mills-Roberts on training exercise on the Isle of Arran, 25-26 Jun 1942; reports on Orange Beach landing; report on destruction of 6 inch gun battery at Varangeville; detailed report 'Lessons Learned on Combined Operations'; and letters of congratulation on award of MC;

papers on service with No.6 Commando, Apr-May 1943, North Africa, including letters from General Dwight D Eisenhower and Maj-Gen Robert Laycock and letters of congratulation on award of DSO;

papers on service with 1st Special Service (Commando) Bde, Jun 1944 - May 1945 including: account of part taken by No 1 Special Service Brigade in Operation OVERLORD, 6 Jun - 26 Aug 1944; narrative by Mills Roberts on action from 16-21 Aug 1944; report of No 1 Special Service Bde operations around Dozule and L'Epine, 19-21 Aug 1944; report of operations by 1st Commando Bde east of the River Maas, 19 Jan - 1 Feb 1945; 'Five Rivers' - account of 1st Commando Bde in Germany, 1945, on the advance from the Meuse to the Baltic, crossing the Meuse, Rhine, Weser, Aller and Elbe; 'United We Stand' diary of L Cpl Cliff Morris, No 3 Troop, 6 Commando, detailed personal account of action from 6 Jun 1944 - 7 May 1945; papers relating to the arrest of FM Erhard Milch in 1945, dated 1946, 1969; maps of Ouistreham, St Aubin, Caen, Dozule;

papers on commando training, 1942-1950 including account of 6 Commando training by Mills-Roberts, 1943-1944;

manuscript of Clash by Night (William Kimber, London, 1956) and notes to Simon Christopher Joseph Fraser Lovat, 17th Lord Lovat, concerning Lovat's book March Past (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1978), dated 1977-1981;

photographs, 1942, 1944-1945, 1947, including German propaganda photographs of Dieppe Raid, 1942, and photographs relating to Commando service in World War Two, 1944-1945, dated 1944-1945, 1947, including Normandy, Jun 1944, and Germany, 1945.

System of arrangement

Arranged in the following sections: No 4 Commando; No 6 Commando; 1 Commando Bde; Milch; Commando training documents and other papers; Clash by night, and notes on book by Lovat; general correspondence and other papers; photographs; postcards.

General Information

Name of creator

(1908-1980)

Biographical history

Born in 1908; educated at Liverpool College and Oxford University; worked for his father's firm of solicitors, 1935; joined Supplementary Reserve of Officers, Irish Guards, 1936; joined 1 Bn, Irish Guards, 1939-1942, and served in Norway; transferred to special services No 4 Commando, 1942; took part in Dieppe Raid, Aug 1942; Lt Col, 1943; Commanding Officer, No 6 Commando, North Africa, 1943; Brig, 1944; commanded 1 Special Service Bde (later 1 Commando Bde), North West Europe, 1944-1945; accepted the surrender of FM Erhard Milch at Neustadt, May 1945; retired from Army, 1945; commanded 125 Infantry Bde, Territorial Army, 1947-1951; died in 1980

Custodial history

Presented to the Centre by the family in 1981.

Conditions governing access

Open, subject to signature of Reader's undertaking form, and appropriate provision of two forms of identification, to include one photographic ID.

Conditions governing reproduction

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied from open material for research purposes only.

Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, via the Archives.

Language of material

Script of material

Uploaded finding aid

Related materials

The papers of Col Thomas Graham Lindsay include a typescript account of operations carried out by1 Commando Bde and 7 Armoured Div, Holland, 1945, written by [Mills-Roberts in 1945] .

Related descriptions

Note

Compiled Apr 1997

Alternative identifier(s)

Genre access points

Rules and/or conventions used

Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000.

Script(s)

Accession area