We on this side of the pond never got to see this BBC documentary series where Lord Louis Mountbatten narrates his life story in twelve episodes until he was assassinated by the IRA. I always thought it ironic indeed that Mountbatten's talents for diplomacy were never put to use with the perennial Irish question in British and Irish politics.
Mountbatten, a member of the United Kingdom's royal family, he was Prince Phillip's uncle and a many times removed cousin of Queen Elizabeth was not happy simply being a jaded member of the royal family. He wanted to contribute and he used his royal connections to get into the inner war councils of his country. He was also trained in battle in both World Wars and one of the chapters tells of his experience losing the destroyer HMS Kelly in battle. He was no armchair admiral.
Probably his worst moment was while a member of the Inner Allied Council he pushed for the Dieppe raid where a lot of mostly Canadian troops were killed or taken prisoner. I'm still not clear what the objective was with that one.
He was more a diplomat in his position as the Theater Commander in the Southeast Asia Theater. He had to be dealing with the feuding American generals Claire Chenault and Joe Stilwell. Mountbatten would be lucky indeed to have as a good army ground commander General William Slim in Burma. He did have no bones about making that admission.
He was the last Governor-General of India and was charged by the Attlee Labour government to work out the arrangements for the British to leave India, former crown jewel of their Empire. In the end that included partition of India and Pakistan created out of it. He earned the respect of both sides.
He was also First Sea Lord during the Suez canal crisis and dryly admits that he thought the whole business was a disaster waiting to happen. A little zing into the then prime minister Anthony Eden who lost power and had to resign.
All in all a fine documentary mini-series. It's how Mountbatten saw himself and how he liked for others to see him. In any event I give him credit for wanting to lead a useful life.
