Rear Admiral Richard L. Conolly of the U.S. Navy, pictured here on the right, alongside Major-General John Hawkesworth aboard USS Biscayne, 6 September 1943.
He remained in the British Army during the interwar period, holding various junior regimental and staff postings until attending the Staff College, Camberley between 1927 and 1928.[4][5]
Hawkesworth handed over command of the 12th Brigade on 18 June to Brigadier Daniel Beak, who had commanded a battalion in the brigade, and, in August, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)[12] and was also mentioned in despatches for his service in France and Belgium.[13] On 9 December 1940 Hawkesworth was promoted to the acting rank of major-general and was appointed Director of Military Training (DMT) at the War Office.[14] In this role he was responsible for general military training for other ranks at a time when the British Army was undergoing a rapid expansion.[11] His rank of major-general was made temporary on 9 December 1941,[15] and, on 25 December 1941, his rank was made permanent.[16]
In March 1942 Hawkesworth returned to the 4th Infantry Division and was appointed as its General Officer Commanding (GOC), succeeding Major-General John Swayne. Shortly after he assumed command a tank brigade (the 21st) was substituted for one of the three infantry brigades (the 11th) to create a "mixed" division and training began for overseas service.[17] In the New Years honours list of 1943 Hawkesworth was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB).[18]
The 4th Division, after suffering heavy losses in Tunisia, was rested for the Sicilian campaign but in late August Hawkesworth was ordered to hand over his division to Major-General Hayman Hayman-Joyce, and received new orders to take over as GOC of the 46th Infantry Division, a Territorial Army (TA) formation that had seen service in Tunisia alongside his 4th Division, after the division's former GOC, Major-General Harold Freeman-Attwood, was relieved of his command and arrested for a security violation.[17]
The 46th Division took part in the Allied invasion of Italy on 9 September as part of the British X Corps, under Lieutenant-General Sir Richard McCreery, then serving under Lieutenant GeneralMark W. Clark's US Fifth Army and, repelling numerous fierce counterattacks, suffered very heavy casualties (including Hawkesworth's senior brigade commander, Brigadier Manley James of the 128th (Hampshire) Brigade). After the capture of Naples in early October the division crossed the Volturno Line, with X Corps forming the left flank of the Fifth Army's advance to the Winter Line (also known as the Gustav Line). During the First Battle of Monte Cassino in January 1944 the division made an assault crossing of the Garigliano river. Lack of assault boats and heavy German resistance condemned it to failure, with heavy losses, mainly to the 128th (Hampshire) Brigade. The 46th Division's failure was to have serious repercussions for the US 36th (Texas) Division, to the right of the 46th, when it attempted to cross the Rapido River a few days later. After holding the line for the next few weeks, in March the division was relieved by Hawkesworth's old command, the 4th Division, and withdrawn to Egypt and Palestine to rest and refit, having sustained more than 5,000 casualties since landing at Salerno some six months prior.[20]
In early May 1944, Hawkesworth spent a month in temporary command of the British 1st Infantry Division in the Anzio beachhead when its GOC, Major General Ronald Penney, fell ill. Hawkesworth returned to the 46th Division in early June. By July the 46th was back in Italy, now up to strength (largely from anti-aircraft gunners who had been retrained as infantrymen), as part of Lieutenant-General Sir Oliver Leese's British Eighth Army's V Corps, under Lieutenant-General Charles Keightley, on the Adriatic coast. The division was involved in heavy fighting during Operation Olive, the Eighth Army's major assault on the Gothic Line defences in September and October.[20]
On 6 November 1944 Hawkesworth was promoted to the acting rank of lieutenant-general[21] and became GOC of X Corps in place of McCreery, who was moved up to take command of the Eighth Army. When the Axis forces withdrew from Greece, from October British troops under Lieutenant-General Ronald Scobie were sent there to maintain internal stability. In late 1944 Hawkesworth and his X Corps HQ were sent to help calm the Greek Civil War and to assume control of military operations so that Scobie could concentrate more on the highly complex and sensitive political aspects of the British involvement.[20]
By March 1945 Hawkesworth and his HQ had returned to Italy. X Corps was in a reserve role and not involved in the final offensive in April 1945, which led to the surrender of Axis forces in Italy in early May and the end of the war in Europe. By this time, however, it had become apparent that Hawkesworth was suffering from a serious heart condition. He died on the way home to Britain, when he suffered a heart attack while on board his troopship which lay at Gibraltar, on 3 June 1945 at the age of fifty-two. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 2 June 1945.[22]
For his services in Italy he was awarded a bar to his DSO and the United States Legion of Merit, Degree of Commander.[23] He had also been mentioned in despatches in August 1944 for his services in the Italian theatre.[24]
End note
He left his wife, Helen Jane, and an only son, also named John, who at the time was also serving with the 4th Battalion, Grenadier Guards in the North-West Europe Campaign. On 10 August, GeneralMark W. Clark, commander of the Allied15th Army Group, sent a tribute from his headquarters in Vienna mourning the "loss of a most highly-valued friendship to his many comrades-in-arms in the Mediterranean theatre…We shall not forget General Hawkesworth, and England has our eternal gratitude for producing men of his staunch integrity and character." The post-war British Army had been deprived of a popular and able commander.[25]
