Lionel Vivian Bond

Infobox Military Person
name=Sir Lionel Vivian Bond
born =1884
placeofdeath=
died =1961


allegiance=British Army
serviceyears=
rank=Lieutenant-General
commands=Chief Engineer, Aldershot Command
Commanding Officer, Chatham Area
Commandant, Royal School of Military Engineering
Inspector of Royal Engineers, War Office
General Officer Commanding Malaya
unit=Royal Engineers
battles= Zakka Khel and Mohmand, India (1908)
Mesopotamia, World War I
World War II
awards=KBE,CB

Lieutenant-General Sir Lionel Vivian Bond, KBE,CB, (1884-1961) began his lifelong career as a Royal Engineers soldier in 1903. He first saw action in military operations in Zakka Khel and Mohmand expeditions, India in 1908. He also fought in Mesopotamia during World War I.Bond became General Officer Commanding Chatham Area, Commandant of School of Military Engineering and Inspector of Royal Engineers between 1935 and 1939. During World War II, He took over Sir William Dobbie as General Officer Commanding Malaya on July 1939, ending his term on 29 April 1941. He retired from active military soon after, and died in 1961.

Family

Son of Sir Major-General Francis George Bond (1856 -1930), and brother of Major-General Richard Lawrence Bond (1890-1979)

Defence of Singapore

Bond was aware that his predecessor, Sir William Dobbie had made an assessment on the war situation in Malaya, and was convinced with his findings that the Japanese would attempt to seize Singapore by attacking Malaya from the north through Siam. With only a small number of British force in his command, he knew he could not undertake the defence of the entire Malayan Peninsula. Thus in early 1939, Bond decided on the strategy of close defence of Southern Johore, and the Singapore island. [Kirby, Stanley Woodburn (1971) "Singapore: the chain of disaster". London: Cassell.]

Quotes

"The United States Fleet is the most powerful factor deterring the activity of an enemy of Britain in the Pacific area." [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,795183,00.html "Matsuoka Home With a Head", Time magazine, 5 May 1941] ]

Military career

1934 - 1935 Chief Engineer, Aldershot Command
1935 - 1938 Commanding Officer, Chatham Area
1938 - 1939 Commandant, Royal School of Military Engineering
1938 - 1939 Inspector of Royal Engineers, War Office
1939 - 1941 General Officer Commanding Malaya

Controversy

In 1922, Bond published a literary attack on Captain Liddell Hart's new theories on tank warfare, stigmatising them as "flapdoodle of the most misleading kind". [Lee, Cecil (1994) "Sunset of the Raj: fall of Singapore, 1942." Edinburgh: Pentland Press.] ['The tactical theories of Captain Liddell Hart (a criticism)' by Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel L V Bond, in "The Royal Engineers Journal", written in reply to article by Liddell Hart, entitled 'A study of the new French infantry regulations' in "The Royal Engineers Journal, 1922 May" - with papers relating to Liddell Hart's rely to criticisms, including proof copy of reply, published as 'Colonel Bond's criticisms (a reply) by Liddell Hart in "The Royal Engineers Journal, November 1922", and of 'Captain Liddell Hart and Lieut-Col Bond, a summary and a judgment' by Col John Frederick Charles Fuler in "The Royal Engineers Journal, March 1923".
:Source: Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives (ref. no: LIDDEL: 7/1922/9-20 1922-1924)]

References

Further reading

* " [http://www.defence.gov.au/army/lwsc/AbstractsOnline/AAJournal/2004_W/AAJ_Winter_2004_Coates.pdf#med Out-generalled, Outwitted, and Outfought] : Generals Percival and Bennett in Malaya, 1941–42" / Lieutenant General John Coates (Retd), Australian Army Journal, Vol II, No. 1 (Winter 2004). pp. 201-214.

* Mackaness, George (ed.) "Fresh Light On Bligh: being some unpublished correspondence of Captain William Bligh, R.N., and Lieutenant Francis Godolphin Bond, R.N., with Lieutenant Bond's manuscript notes made on the voyage of H.M.S. Providence, 1791-1795."
* [http://cityark.medway.gov.uk/query/results/?Mode=ShowImg&
|Typescript Letter from Major General L.V. Bond, Commandant, School of Military Engineering and Commanding Officer, Chatham Area and Depot, Royal Engineers, Area Headquarters, Kitchener Barracks, Dock Road, Chatham to Lieutenant Colonel W. Lawrence Gadd, Rosherville Court, Gravesend, approving request to photograph glacis and moat of Spur Battery, Fort Amherst, Chatham. 19 February 1938 p.51 (annexe)]

* Activities of Australian troops before the fall of Singapore. The visit of Senator H.S. Foll, Minister for Information and others to Singapore. The opening of the Anzac Club and general views of the club. Scenes of the Sultan of Selangor, Major-General H. Gordon Bennett, Major-General L.V. Bond, Air Chief Marshal Sir R. Brooke-Popham, the Australian Actress Betty Bryant, Mr J. Williams Acting Director of the Department of Information, Mr T.S. Gurr Associated Newspapers Ltd.(film)
Found in Australian War Memorial (ID No. F01157)
* [http://www.library.unsw.edu.au/~thesis/adt-ADFA/uploads/approved/adt-ADFA20031029.102545/public/08chapter7.pdf#med Chapter 7: Operations Mounted By North Western Area 1942 - 1945] (pp. 169 - 226), found in Joseph Wilson, David (2003) "The Eagle And The Albatross: Australian Aerial Maritime Operations 1921 - 1971." Thesis University College, Defence Force Academy, University of New South Wales, Australia.
* [http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2-3Doc-a4.html| Appreciation by the United Kingdom Chiefs of Staff on the Situation in the Far East, August 1940 — The Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs to the High Commissioner for the United Kingdom (Wellington)] , found in "Documents Relating to New Zealand's Participation in the Second World War 1939–45: Volume III". the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre, Victoria University of Wellington.