McCreery, Richard Loudon (1898–1967)

British soldier. After service in World War I and in France (1940), the Middle East (1942), and Tunisia (1943), he commanded the 8th Army in Italy 1944–45. The destruction of the ‘Gothic Line’ by his and the US 5th Armies in 1945 led to the German surrender in Italy.

During 1945 he commanded the British Forces of Occupation in Austria, and was the British representative on the Allied Commission for Austria. He commanded the British Army of Occupation of the Rhine 1946–48. He relinquished that post to become British representative on the UN Military Staff Committee 1948–49.