THERE is a story that at the end of the war in Europe, Generals Dempsey, Horrocks and Ritchie were lunching together when the question arose of which was the best fighting battalion during the North-West Europe campaign. Each wrote the name of the unit he thought the best on the back of his menu, then turned it over to discover that all three had written “1st East Lancs”. Freddie Allen had commanded this battalion during the German Ardennes offensive and in the battle of the Reichswald, winning a DSO in each.

Fernley Frederick Edmund Allen was not a professional soldier but an insurance broker. He enrolled in a Territorial Army battalion of the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in 1937 and was commissioned before the outbreak of war. By 1941 he had become the adjutant, and as preparations for the landings in Normandy intensified he was transferred to 1st Battalion The Suffolk Regiment as second-in-command.

1st Suffolks were part of 8th Infantry Brigade, landing on Sword beach behind the 1st South Lancashires on the right and 2nd East Yorkshires on the left, in the first phase of the 3rd (British) Division’s allotted task of capturing Caen by last light on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

That this objective was not reached is attributed to lack of experience of the men of 8th Brigade, many of whom had not seen action before or not since Dunkirk, and lack of drive by the divisional commander. When in command himself, Allen never hesitated.

Command of 1st Suffolks first passed to him when the CO was wounded in a bitterly fought engagement with the 8th German Parachute Regiment providing the rearguard for the enemy’s withdrawal to Falaise in August 1944. In October, after the replacement CO was wounded by a mine, Allen again took over command and led the battalion in a day’s fighting which left three of its four rifle company commanders killed or wounded. The fighting advance continued without pause, but on November 7 the commanding officer wounded in June, Lieutenant-Colonel Dick Goodwin, reassumed command. The story goes that Allen was offered three battalions that had lost their COs, and he chose 1st East Lancashires in the 53rd Infantry Division.

When he took command on November 8, 1944, 1st East Lancashires had been fighting for five months and were preparing for their next battle — clearance of all German forces on the west bank of the Maas by the British XII Corps. This lasted until December 17, by when he and 1st East Lancashires had established complete mutual confidence.

Two days later, Field Marshal von Rundstedt launched his offensive through the hilly and wooded terrain of the Ardennes against the US 1st Army with the aim of throwing the Allied advance off balance and seizing the supply port of Antwerp. It took the Allies by surprise but was the last German offensive in the west.

Allen’s East Lancashires moved forward with 53rd Division to relieve an American battle group on the north flank of the German salient. They faced thickly wooded slopes with tracks, deep in snow, rising 400ft in a distance of 2,000 yards. A Squadron of 144th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps, formerly 8th Battalion East Lancashire Regiment, TA, was allocated to provide support with their Sherman tanks. The plan was for the British XXX Corps to attack in unison with the US 3rd Army attacking from the southern flank of the enemy salient. Allen’s first task was to take the high, forested area immediately in front of him. After dealing with the enemy’s self-propelled guns and skillfully sited machineguns beyond the first ridge, he achieved his objective by last light with the loss of four killed and 40 wounded.

It is a measure of Allen’s tactical skill that he was able to complete his mission against an experienced and resourceful enemy at such light loss. True, his soldiers were also battle-hardened by five months of combat, but the task before them was of the kind that often leads to severe losses in infantry.

Snow and bitter cold continued in the following days and thick mist clung to the high ground. The concluding phase of the battle was for the East Lancashires to capture the fortified village of Grimbiemont; but before that could be launched the enemy counterattacked in strength and with tanks onto the battalion on their left. Allen ordered intensive patrolling for that night and next day to establish the extent of the enemy’s new positions.

As the advance on Grimbiemont began in a howling blizzard on January 7, his tactical HQ was hit by a shell, killing the adjutant, intelligence sergeant and two signallers. His own radio operator’s set was sliced through by a shell fragment. Allen led the way forward and, with the Shermans supporting them, his men had cleared Grimbiemont by 14.30 and taken 30 prisoners. Speedy action was required from the stretcher-bearers with the wounded lying in the falling snow. Allen received his first DSO for his skilled and resolute handling of his battalion, but then he had to return his attention to the Reichswald.

Operations Veritable and Grenade were converging offensives to clear the enemy from ground between the Maas and the Rhine, preparatory to crossing the latter. The first zone of the enemy’s defence — the Siegfried Line — lay west of the Reichswald; beyond it, the Hochwald “layback” was being completed by the German defenders. Allen’s battalion had two tasks: first, as one of the two leading battalions to attack the Siegfried defences, to give right flank protection for 160 Brigade passing through, then, second, revert to their parent 158 Brigade for the advance through the forest. A deception plan was mounted to lead the enemy to expect an attack farther west, towards Utrecht. The advance began at 05.00 on February 8, 1945; seven days later 1st East Lancashires had achieved all their objectives, but at a loss of eight officers and 134 men killed or wounded.

Miraculously, Allen survived unwounded and received a Bar to his DSO. He continued in command until the end of hostilities in Europe, when he was appointed Military Governor of Brunswick, due to his fluent command of German.

On demobilisation in 1946, he returned to the insurance business. He was a founding partner of Stewart Smith & Company — now part of the Willis Group — and helped to build an international insurance business in Australia, Europe, North America and in the Middle East. He was a member of Lloyds until 1995.

He wife Dorothy, née Maltzahn, daughter of a German father and Scottish mother, whom he married in Berlin in 1936, predeceased him. He is survived by a son.

Lieutenant-Colonel F. F. E. Allen, DSO and Bar, wartime soldier and insurance executive, was born on December 30, 1912. He died on June 28, 2005, aged 92.