Sir Peter de la Billière

Biography

General Sir Peter de la Billière was Britain's most decorated living soldier and its foremost special operations expert when he was appointed to command British forces in the Gulf — a posting he learned of while on a fishing trip in Herefordshire. Having served in Korea, Malaya, Aden, Borneo, Oman, and the Falklands, de la Billière brought a rare combination of conventional command experience and deep special forces expertise. He was instrumental in shaping British contributions to the air and ground campaigns, and particularly in deploying SAS teams deep into western Iraq on SCUD-hunting missions that kept mobile Iraqi launchers from threatening Israel. His relationship with Schwarzkopf — initially tense — became one of the war's most effective command partnerships. De la Billière later wrote that he feared throughout the campaign that political pressure would end the war before the Republican Guard was destroyed — a fear that proved justified.

Key Battles