William Boyle 12th Earl of Cork: Encyclopedia II - William Boyle 12th Earl of Cork - Narvik

William Boyle 12th Earl of Cork - Narvik

At short notice, on April 10, 1940, Lord Cork (as he now was) was summoned to the Admiralty and given command of a hastily assembled naval force with a mission to retake from the Germans the strategic port of Narvik in Norway. He did his best in difficult circumstances. Because of his senior rank, he was de facto commander of the whole expedition, military as well as naval. In time the Allied forces available for the landing at Narvik consisted of British, French, Polish and Norwegian soldiers and sailors. Cork received verbal instructions from Winston Churchill while driving with him to Parliament ( where Cork sat in the House of Lords) to "...act with all promptitude..." in order to "...turn the enemy out of Narvik...". He flew his flag from the cruiser, HMS Aurora.

Lord Cork was in favour of an immediate storming of Narvik using both military and naval forces, but the more cautious army commander, General P.J. Mackesy, insisted on an indirect approach. Narvik was eventually taken by the Allies, but events in France caused the government to order its evacuation in June, 1940.

Lord Cork was 66 and his front line service was over on his return. A position as flag officer commanding in the Shetlands began in July, 1940. He was busy trying to put together some sort of defence against a not so unlikely German invasion. He was there until November, when the danger of invasion had subsided. A brief mission to Gibraltar followed and then service in the Home Guard. He retired on his 68th birthday.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Narvik", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki