Brian Horrocks
[27][28] Horrocks' first task, along with a party of 13 British officers and 30 other ranks, was to guard a train delivering 27 carriages of shells to the White Army in Omsk, 3,000 miles (4,800 km) away on the Trans-Siberian Railway.[37] The British government negotiated a prisoner release, and Horrocks left Russia on 29 October, returning home on the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Delhi.His time was enjoyable for him, later writing: For us in the occupation forces life in Cologne was very pleasant, because, owing to the chronic inflation of the German mark, we always had plenty of money, a most unusual experience for me.British doctrine at the time retained heavy machine guns under the direct command of a corps or division, rather than as an organic part of subordinate formations.[65]On arriving in North Africa, Horrocks' corps was ordered to defend the Alam el Halfa ridge in northwestern Egypt from an expected attack by the Afrika Korps.Concerned that heavy casualties would jeopardise his planned El Alamein offensive, Montgomery instructed Horrocks to repel Erwin Rommel's forces "without getting unduly mauled in the process".When the Germans attacked on 30 August, they failed to lure the British tanks towards their 88 mm guns—a tactic that had previously been used with great success—and found themselves battered by both artillery and the Desert Air Force (DAF).[67] The battle ended with the Germans in control of Himeihat hill, but at a high cost, and the Allied forces unwilling to try to re-take it after a failed attack by the 2nd New Zealand Division.[68] The army's defensive success raised morale,[69] and Horrocks was praised by his subordinate, Brigadier Philip Roberts, for his "wonderful knack of inspiring confidence and enthusiasm wherever he goes".[77][78] Following the fall of Tripoli in January 1943, the remaining Axis forces retreated to defensive positions in Southern Tunisia, in front of the Mareth Line built by France before the war.[81] He led this corps in the final Allied offensive in Tunisia during April and May 1943, capturing Tunis and accepting the surrender of the remnants of Rommel's Army Group Africa.[84] In June 1943, after returning to command of X Corps, Horrocks sustained serious injuries during an air raid at Bizerte, while watching an amphibious rehearsal by the 46th Infantry Division for Operation Avalanche, the Salerno landings.[87][88] It was a year before Horrocks recovered sufficiently to tell Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), that he was "very anxious to be given another corps".Montgomery had been dissatisfied with the performance of the corps and its GOC, Gerard Bucknall, a fellow Middlesex Regiment officer, since the landings in Normandy two months earlier.Montgomery's 21st Army Group was by now operating 300 miles (480 km) from its ports—twice the distance logistical planners had accounted for—so XXX Corps was diverted towards Antwerp to secure its docks and harbour.[96] The pause allowed the Germans to regroup around the Scheldt River, and by the time the Allies resumed their advance, the First Paratroop Army (General Kurt Student) had arrived and set up strong defensive positions along the opposite side of the canal.In September, Montgomery, now a field marshal, made his planned ambitious thrust across the Rhine and into the German industrial heartland, codenamed Operation Market Garden, a priority for 21st Army Group.[100] Postwar analyses have been divided, some stressing a perceived lack of urgency on the part of Horrocks' men, while others note that German defences in the area were severely underestimated by First Allied Airborne Army intelligence.[101] Particularly important was the failure to identify the remnants of two SS Panzer divisions, which after Normandy had been sent to the Arnhem area for rest and refitting; intelligence had stated that only "a few infantry units and between 50 and 100 tanks" were in the Netherlands.[103] Counter-attacks by Army Group B under Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model kept Horrocks' units on the defensive, and delayed their advance by forcing the British to halt and secure their flank.The terrain over which Horrocks' men had to move was also unsuitable, restricting the vanguard (Major-General Allan Adair's Guards Armoured Division) to a single narrow raised highway through flat or flooded countryside.[109] Thereafter progress was rapid, however, with Bremen–which "produced 6000 prisoners including two generals and one admiral"–being captured on 26 April, exposing the Sandbostel concentration camp, Stalag X-B.[109] Horrocks received two further mentions in despatches for his service in north-west Europe on 22 March[3] and 9 August 1945,[4] and was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 5 July.[119] Horrocks continued to serve in the armed forces after the war, initially as General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Western Command,[120] receiving substantive promotion to lieutenant-general in 1946, with seniority backdated to 29 December 1944.[121] He briefly commanded the British Army of the Rhine, until he fell ill in August 1948;[122] he was invalided out of the service early in January 1949 by the lingering effects of the wounds he had received in North Africa.[123] Promoted to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the King's Birthday Honours that year,[124] he served as Honorary Colonel of a Territorial Army unit of the Royal Artillery.In 1957, Horrocks had the unusual duty of ordering Vivien Leigh out of the House when she interrupted proceedings to plead that the St James's Theatre be saved from demolition.[132] After his television career ended, Horrocks served on the board of the housebuilding company Bovis, and continuing to write, contributing a column to The Sunday Times and editing a series of British Army regimental histories.Horrocks' portrait and signature appear on the box and his introduction to the game states: "In war no two battles are ever the same because the terrain is always different and it is this, more than anything else, which influences the composition of the different armies and the tactics employed by the rival Commanders".[136][137] The memorial service, held at Westminster Abbey on 26 February, was attended by Major-General Peter Gillett and Secretary of State for Defence Michael Heseltine, who represented the Queen and Prime Minister respectively.
XIII CorpsRanikhetFishbourneWest SussexBritish ArmyLieutenant-generalService numberMiddlesex RegimentBritish Army of the RhineWestern CommandXXX CorpsIX CorpsX CorpsXIII Corps9th Armoured Division44th (Home Counties) Infantry Division9th Infantry BrigadeFirst World WarRussian Civil WarAnglo Irish WarSecond World WarKnight Commander of the Order of the BathKnight Commander of the Order of the British EmpireDistinguished Service OrderMilitary CrossMentioned in DespatchesCommander of the Order of George IKnight Grand Officer of the Order of Orange-NassauGrand Officer of the Order of the Crown with PalmCroix de GuerreCommandeur of the Legion of HonourCommander of the Legion of MeritBlack RodOperation Market Gardentaken prisonermodern pentathlon1924 Paris OlympicsHouse of LordsbattalionBattle of FranceBernard MontgomeryNorth AfricaEuropeOliver LeeseMiles DempseyprivateGeneralDwight D. EisenhowerSupreme Allied CommanderColonelSir William HorrocksRoyal Army Medical CorpsBritish IndiaGibraltarMalta feverBow School, DurhamUppingham SchoolRutlandpublic schoolRoyal Military College, SandhurstOfficer Training Corpscommissionedsecond lieutenantline infantryBritish Expeditionary ForceBattle of MonsSouthamptoncompany commander19th Independent Brigadeother ranksBattle of ArmentièresMaisnilexpanding bullets1899 Hague Conventionprisoner of war campfront linelieutenantRussian languageHouse of CommonsNikita KhrushchevNikolai BulganinHolzminden prisoner-of-war campLondonAllied intervention in the Russian Civil WarVladivostokWhite ArmyKolchakCzechoslovak LegionRed ArmySiberiaTrans-Siberian RailwayManzhouliCossackYekaterinburgnon-commissioned officersGeorge HayesKrasnoyarsktyphusRoyal NavyHMS DelhiCologne1921 coal strikeIrelandAnglo-Irish WarSilesiainter-war yearsadjutant9th Battalion, Middlesex RegimentTerritorial ArmyStaff College, CamberleyStaff Captainbrigade major5th Infantry Brigadebrevetmajoritylieutenant colonelLocal Government BoardRiver ThamesGeneral Officer Commanding9th Armoured DivisionCovenanter3rd DivisionMajor-Generaldoctrineretreat to Dunkirkbrigadier