THE COVENANTER
O’Connor in Italy
Empire.
There appeared in The Times on 4 November
For this remarkable feat of arms the HAC was
2008 an article entitled:
awarded two Distinguished Service Orders,
five Military Crosses, three Distinguished
‘Britain’s oldest regiment hails a great Italian
Conduct Medals and 29 Military Medals.
victory 90 years on’.
And to show their appreciation of the British
contribution the Italian authorities awarded
It was accompanied by a photograph,
each member of the 2nd Battalion HAC a
reproduced here, of what looks like a punt
special medallion generally awarded only to
with a slight glengarry-clad figure in the
Italian units. O’Connor, who was awarded a
bows. The article goes on to tell of a parade
Bar to his DSO [and the Italian Silver Medal
for Valour], went on to distinguish himself
as a general in the Second World War in
which, ironically, he spent some time as a
prisoner of the Italians against whom he
fought in the Western Desert.
Readers of The Covenanter will know that
O’Connor became General Sir Richard
O’Connor KT GCB DSO* MC. In a
supplement which accompanied the 2005
issue there appeared a brief biographical
sketch of him [He] was described in his
obituary in the 1981 Covenanter as
‘unquestionably the Regiment’s most
distinguished soldier of his generation’. His
crowning achievement was his defeat of the
that day in Vittorio Veneto before the
Italian 14th Army in 1941. Who knows
President of Italy, Senor Giorgio Napolitano.
what else he might have achieved had he
It was, … ‘ a grateful acknowledgement by
not then spent the next three years as a
the Italian authorities of a remarkable British
prisoner of war.
contribution to Italy’s final victory over the
forces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in
He was born in 1889. After school at
the First World War’. The newspaper article
Wellington College he went to RMC
is based on another written for the journal
Sandhurst and from there he was
of the Honourable Artillery Company (HAC)
commissioned into the Regiment, joining
by their Archivist, Ms Justine Taylor.
the 2nd Battalion in 1909. (For this and for
much else which follows we are indebted
The Times goes on:
to his excellent biography, The Forgotten
Victor, by Lt Col Sir John Baynes. ) The
[It was] … a commemoration of the 90th
following ten years, formative for any young
anniversary of the Battle of Vittorio Veneto
man, were to shape him and his career. His
in 1918, and the HAC’s role in spearheading
obituary in The Times said (in part):
an assault across the River Piave in the hours
of darkness, while it was in full flood.
‘O’Connor’s record in the First World War
was remarkable. He was mentioned in
Under a heavy Austrian artillery barrage
despatches seven times, was awarded the
the HAC’s 2nd Battalion, led by Lieutenant
DSO and bar, the Military Cross, and the
Colonel Richard O’Connor, led a force of
Italian Silver Medal for bravery. … He was
Italians, Americans and British over the
25 years of age when the war broke out and
river compelling the garrison of the strategic
he was in the thick of the fighting on the
island of Papadopoli in the main channel
Western Front practically without a break.
to surrender. Thereafter the Italian and
As a company commander and adjutant he
Allied pursuit of the enemy continued for
became a legend in his own regiment. He
ten days, ending in the complete rout of
was Brigade Major of [two] Brigades; and he
the Austrians; an armistice came into effect
created a precedent when he commanded
on November 4, 1918. The upshot was the
the 1st Battalion of the Honourable Artillery
dismemberment of the Austro-Hungarian
Company … for it is a three centuries old
10
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