Erik G:son Lewenhaupt, a captain in the British
parachute forces, jumped over Normandy on 6 June 1944. He later also took part
in the largest airborne operation in Western Europe as the commander of
air-landed armored vehicles. In this photograph he is in Denmark in May 1945.
Count Erik G:son [sic] Lewenhaupt’s life was full of
unbelievable twists. Having once been marked as a military washout he
eventually became an advisor to the creator of the Swedish Airborne Ranger
School. His extensive experience in war in both Europe and Asia is well
summarized in a remark by a British sergeant: “Find a war and you’ll find Erik
Lewenhaupt in it.”
One would have thought that Erik G:son Lewenhaupt was born
with a silver spoon in his mouth as the son of a count who was court hunting
master and owner of a castle (Aske Castle, outside Kungsängen). When he reached
thirty-four years of age, however, his assets amounted to zero. His family had
lived with expenses that could not be sustained.
Without any property to manage Lewenhaupt sought a military
career, a strong tradition in his family. He soon had to leave the army because
of a serious illness, so in Sweden there was no such future for him. The French
Foreign Legion remained.
Well on his way to one of the legion’s units in Algeria,
literally at the gate, he was not prepared to take the last step into the world
of la Légion. Vague information indicates that he could not immediately return
to Sweden without first serving on one side or the other in the Spanish Civil
War. There is no doubt, however, that he was in the Winter War from 1939 to
1940 along with two other Lewenhaupts—as a volunteer for Finland. Since he had
no real military training or competence he could only become a squad leader
with a transport company, but there he was appreciated because of his solid
knowledge and ability with vehicles.
It must have been the combination of his years at Oxford,
continued unemployment, and his Norwegian brothers-in-arms from Finland that
made him decide to join the war in Norway.
Lewenhaupt proved to be a natural leader in the forest
fighting around Kongsvinger. His composure and energy led to him being promoted
to captain in the Norwegian Army in just a few days. Like so many of the other
Swedes in southern Norway, he became tired of the chaos that prevailed there.
Together with fellow Swede Hans Thuring he requested and was granted a transfer
to a company from the Scots Guards on their way to the north, as a guide and
interpreter. It was with the Scots, literally at the Polar Circle, that
Lewenhaupt earned his first Military Cross, one of Great Britain’s highest
awards. Lewenhaupt got the company back to the battalion after they had been
cut off. On one occasion he alone covered the retreat of his company with a
machine gun. During one of the long hunger marches with the Scots Guards he was
requested to take over a British platoon and follow along to France.
On 5 June Lewenhaupt and his British unit stepped on board
the passenger ship Franconia, with the destination unknown. He knew that
Belgium had recently capitulated and that the situation in France was
precarious, but still chose to follow the British. The trip ended in Scotland
and they remained there for a while because France had by then fallen.
Lewenhaupt was reassigned to a newly established Norwegian training battalion.
As chief for a company of young Norwegian former whalers
Lewenhaupt became popular with his men, despite his emphasis on “spit and
polish.” Had he only been a caricature of an aristocratic guards officer his
popularity hardly would have been possible. It is noted in many Norwegian,
British as well as Swedish sources that Lewenhaupt possessed both charm and
brains and was considerate. This made a deep impression on almost everyone who
met him. The charm also conquered a Norwegian Red Cross nurse, Aase Kløvstad,
who married him in September 1940. On his own responsibility Lewenhaupt
released a fellow Swede from jail, Birger Sjöberg (later with SOE). This caused
a schism between Lewenhaupt and his Norwegian officer colleagues, which led to
Lewenhaupt leaving the Norwegian Army in June 1941.
In order to switch armies and once more lead British
soldiers, Erik Lewenhaupt had to start all over. Count Lewenhaupt became a
private soldier again, at the age of thirty-eight! After twelve months as a
private and noncommissioned officer in the First Airborne Division he became a
cadet at the War College in Southend-on-Sea. Thereafter the records indicate
that Lewenhaupt was “on loan” to the SOE and parachuted into Denmark. His task
was probably to get important Danes out of the country and to Britain.
The next, certain, information is that Lewenhaupt was made a
second lieutenant in the Royal Army Service Corps within the Sixth Airborne
Division. Two months later he was a captain again and his job to provide close
in defense for the 716th Independent Pathfinder Company, the guide company for
the division. The company mission after landing was to gather and distribute
all the equipment that belonged to the division. Lewenhaupt’s duty was partly
to provide security for the company so that it could carry out its mission and
partly to locate new bases.
On 5 June, the day before D-day, Lewenhaupt wrote to his
best friend, the Norwegian Lieutenant “Jojo” Dahl, “I have the finest soldiers
to be found, so I am certain that everything will go well and am proud that I
have been given this job. I nearly got tears in my eyes when I saw a Norwegian
flag, because as you know it is basically for that flag that I fight.”
Lewenhaupt’s plane, a lone C-47 Dakota took off at 2230
hours with twenty paratroopers, radar beacons, and lanterns with colored glass.
On 6 June at 0020 hours the aircraft was over Ranville in Normandy and the
green light in the aircraft turned on. Lewenhaupt fell through a net of
searchlight beams from German Flak units.
Two German machine guns were located in the area where
Lewenhaupt landed, he said, but one machine-gun team fled and “the other we
quickly rendered harmless.”
While Lewenhaupt’s platoon was busy clearing the area of
anything that might hinder a follow-up larger parachute landing they came under
fire again and a dozen men were hit immediately. At the same moment, however,
an Allied fighter aircraft arrived and the Germans were forced to leave. Thirty
minutes later Lewenhaupt witnessed the landing of seven parachute battalions
released over his area, well cleared and secured by his men.
Lewenhaupt’s group fought on 6 June “in the dikes, on back
streets, and in sewers.” and spent the first night in positions a little south
of Amfreville. The night was filled with close combat using bayonets.
A week after the invasion Lewenhaupt was driving deep into
enemy territory with his jeep on reconnaissance missions. Sergeant Jack Kelly
wrote about these trips, “I loved that guy [Lewenhaupt] especially when he
would come to my dugout at 0200 hours and say, ‘Jack, get a jeep, we’re going
on a recon’. I used to tell him that he would get us both killed, but he would
just laugh and ignore everything I said.”
On 19 June Lewenhaupt wrote from France to his best friend,
“Jojo” Dahl:
The Germans are unfortunately magnificent soldiers. We
know this from experience, because we have been kicked around pretty hard. Yet
we have been able to get through it all, and that is the main thing. We in the
Airborne are very popular with the Frenchmen and there is a great difference
when we pass through a town and when other troops do the same. For me
personally everything has gone excellently here and I have done one very
responsible job after the other…for the moment the Germans have their artillery
directed against this place so everything is shaking. Lost a man from my unit
at 2230 hours due to these incoming shells. It is interesting to see how little
people respond to all this now. The main thing for them is that they get their
food and cigarettes.
During the continuing combat in Normandy Lewenhaupt proved
he had an amazing ability to predict German movements, and because he depended
upon his intuition he frequently did not go “by the book” in his actions.
Another example of Lewenhaupt’s lively technical interests
are two small gadgets he constructed when he was in British service: a
combination inspection stick and pocket flashlight as well as a very short
casting rod not to catch fish but to trigger booby traps.
After three months of continuous combat the Sixth Airborne
Division reached the River Seine, and the division was withdrawn from the line
and sent back to England for reorganization and replacement of personnel.
During Hitler’s desperate Ardennes offensive in December
1944 Lewenhaupt led a successful operation to liberate prisoners. In March 1945
he participated in Operation VARSITY, the last large air-delivered deployment
in the war. Not fewer than 1,300 gliders were used and measures were taken to
ensure that they would not be spread out as they had been at Normandy and
Arnhem. The gliders were loaded with men, jeeps, artillery, and light armored
vehicles. The objective was to take the high ground dominating the German side
of the Rhine River, the last significant terrain barrier before the Ruhr
region, Germany’s industrial heartland. Lewenhaupt would lead a platoon of
air-delivered armored infantry vehicles. The weather was ideal, and the Germans
already were weak and demoralized. For the most part both the gliders and
paratroops landed as planned. A reconnaissance unit that did not land in time
was replaced by Lewenhaupt’s platoon.
VARSITY became the most successful Allied air landing during
the war. On its conclusion Montgomery ordered the Sixth Airborne Division to
use all possible means to get to Denmark before the approaching Russians. The
rivalry between the Western Allies and Stalin was becoming evident. On 30 March
Lewenhaupt and his reconnaissance unit, serving as the advance party for the
division, reached their objective, a bridge over the River Ems. Lewenhaupt came
directly upon a German unit that seemed to want to surrender, yet there were
some in that unit not willing to give up. These soldiers took Lewenhaupt by
surprise and took him prisoner. Even though the end of the war was near he
decided to escape and found the opportunity during an Allied air attack. The
escape was just about to succeed when he was captured again.
On 2 May Lewenhaupt wrote in his dairy: “1720 hours the first
tank arrived from the Eleventh Army (?). I am free. Much to do with the
disarming of the Germans.” After a proper welcome ceremony from his company at
their temporary mess facility he was transported to Copenhagen by air, probably
because of his language ability and previous experience of Denmark. On 5 May he
wrote, “Landed at Kastrup at 1605 hours. Easy job. Celebrated like crazy with
the Danes.” In a later letter he wrote that his detachment only had to fire
three shots in Denmark.
The War Office, the British war ministry, did not want to
release Lewenhaupt yet and ordered him to Burma, despite the fact that he still
was a Swedish citizen. He was part of the operation that liberated Singapore
and disarmed the Japanese. He was made a major in Indonesia and commander of
eighteen hundred men, and was given the mission to clear out and rebuild the
Semarang area. Lewenhaupt received the temporary rank of brigadier general and
was then assigned as head of the War College in Hong Kong with the rank of
lieutenant colonel.
After he had completed his maximum tour length in Asia of
three years he returned to Great Britain in 1948. He left the British Army with
the title of Honorary Major. Above a row of common British, Norwegian, and
Finnish medals Lewenhaupt held the King’s Medal for Courage in the Cause of Freedom
and two separate awards of the Military Cross.
After his return to Sweden he was appointed Ryttmästare
(cavalry captain) in the reserve and in 1951 he was attached as an advisor to
Nils-Ivar Carlborg when he was to start up the Airborne Ranger School in
Karlsborg. Carlborg wrote about that time:
It was with mixed feelings that I had to accept Army
Chief of Staff Viking Tamm’s suggestion to make use of Lewenhaupt. It was
probably not going to be that easy to be the boss, being only a captain and
having done only five parachute jumps, when my assistant had been a British
lieutenant colonel and moreover had done five jumps in combat. The apprehension
was not warranted, however. Erik knew who was the boss and was one hundred
percent loyal. He was able to teach me a lot in his quiet manner. The style
that we strove for right from the start was very British, and was to a great
extent inspired by Erik.
Nils-Ivar Carlborg was initially also skeptical about a lot
of the war stories told by Lewenhaupt, but in time he became convinced that the
Count had really experienced all those improbable episodes.
