Alfred Dudley Ward

By the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Ward was serving as a GSO2 in the Directorate of Military Intelligence at the War Office in London.[17] In May 1940 Ward was appointed as an instructor at the Staff College, Camberley, before returning to the War Office a year later. In late 1941 he was selected for command and was posted to lead the 43rd (Wessex) Reconnaissance Regiment (43 Recce), previously the 5th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment, initially the reconnaissance unit of the 48th (South Midland) Infantry Division, a Territorial Army (TA) formation, and then, from November 1941, of the 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division, another TA unit. The division, then commanded by Major General Charles Allfrey succeeded in March 1942 by Major General Ivor Thomas, was serving in Kent under XII Corps, then commanded byLieutenant General James Gammell, itself serving under South-Eastern Command, under Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery. Under Montgomery numerous large-scale exercises became the order of the day, most notable among them Exercise Tiger in May 1942.[18]

Ward remained with 43 Recce until July 1942 when he became Brigadier General Staff (BGS) XII Corps, still under Gammell but commanded from November by Lieutenant General Montagu Stopford. XII Corps was stationed in Kent where it formed part of South-Eastern Command. Throughout the rest of 1942 and into 1943, the corps, with the 3rd, 43rd (Wessex), 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Divisions under command, participated in numerous large-scale exercises, most notably in Exercise Spartan in March 1943, the largest military exercise held in the United Kingdom. Stopford appears to have formed a high opinion of Ward, as he recommended him for command in the field, which saw him depart for the Mediterranean in September 1943.[18]

In late September 1943 Ward exchanged jobs with Brigadier Roy Urquhart to take command of the 231st Brigade Group while Urquhart became BGS XII Corps, which had seen recent action in the Allied invasion of Sicily. However, within a week of arriving he was ordered to exchange jobs once more, and assumed command of the 17th Infantry Brigade which, strangely, Stopford, his corps commander in England, had commanded in France in 1940. The brigade was one of three which formed part of Major General Gerard Bucknall's 5th Infantry Division, which he led in the early stages of the Italian campaign.[18]

The brigade saw action during the Eighth Army's advance from Foggia, notably on the Moro River in late 1943, before the 5th Division, initially under Lieutenant General Charles Allfrey's V Corps, was, due to a lack of progress on the Eighth Army's front, switched to Italy's western seabord, on the left flank of Lieutenant General Sir Richard McCreery's British X Corps, which itself formed the left wing of the US Fifth Army on the Winter Line (also known as the Gustav Line) in early January 1944.[18] Ward's brigade, as part of the First Battle of Monte Cassino, conducted an amphibious crossing of the Garigliano river in mid-January and was involved in heavy fighting until the end of the month.[19]

In early March the 5th Division, now under Major General Philip Gregson-Ellis, was relieved by elements of the newly-arrived US 88th Division and moved to the Anzio beachhead to relieve the exhausted British 56th Division, which had fought alongside the 5th Division during First Cassino, with Ward's brigade relieving the 56th Division's 168th Brigade on 9 March. Ward's 17th Brigade, now on the defensive, was involved in further heavy fighting in "The Wadis" on the beachheads' left flank. Conditions at Anzio became more alike to the trench warfare of the First World War.[19] Ward was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in April 1944.[20]

Given the acting rank of major general, unusual for someone still under the age of forty,[13] Ward became the General Officer Commanding of the 4th Infantry Division, one of the four pre-war Regular Army divisions, in April 1944.[8] This made Ward, at the time, one of the youngest division commanders in the British Army (only George Roberts and Richard Hull were younger). The division, composed of the 10th, 12th and 28th Infantry Brigades along with supporting divisional troops, had only recently arrived in Italy from Egypt, where it had been refitting since the end of the Tunisian campaign in mid-May 1943 and had to be rapidly prepared and brought to peak fitness.

The division, serving as part of Lieutenant General Sidney Kirkman's XIII Corps, was assigned a major role in the forthcoming offensive that was intended to break the Gustav Line, together with the 8th Indian Infantry Division, that of creating bridgeheads across the Gari (wrongly referred to as the Rapido in contemporary sources)[21] in the Fourth and final Battle of Monte Cassino the following month, where Captain Richard Wakeford of the 2/4th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment, of the 28th Brigade, was awarded the division's first and only Victoria Cross of the war. After successfully completing its task, the division, after suffering heavy casualties, was rested until late June when it rejoined the front line on the Trasimene Line.[19]

In August the division, now serving as part of Lieutenant General Charles Keightley's V Corps (later transferring to I Canadian Corps), found itself once more on the Adriatic coast taking part in Operation Olive, the Eighth Army's attack on the Gothic Line.[19] In December 1944, with progress in Italy having slowed due to the severe winter weather, combined with strong German resistance, the division expected to be sent to the Middle East to rest and refit, but was instead moved to Greece, where it was involved in fighting against Communist partisans opposed to the new provisional government.[22] By mid-January order was restored and in April 1945 Ward handed over command of the 4th Division to Major General Colin Callander, where he became chief of staff to Lieutenant General Ronald Scobie, the British commander in Greece.[22]

For his services in Italy Ward was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in April 1945,[23] and a Companion of the Order of the Bath in July of the same year.[24] He also received the Legion of Merit (Degree of Commander) from the United States for his service to the Allied cause.[25]