Probably the last post for 2016...
Major General Sir Percy Hobart. He is a much under-considered, and
under-appreciated general in the history of WW2. Partly because he
was a bit of a nutter, and partly because the limited action he did see
is hard to assess.
Nonetheless Hobart was one of the most important technical and
tactical developers of Allied armour techniques, and was responsible
for training the famed 7th Armoured Division (the Desert Rats) for
its early Blitzkreigs in North Africa (though he didn’t get to lead it
into battle); for training the outstanding 11th Armoured Division
– probably the best British armoured division of the D-Day to
Germany campaign (though he didn’t get to lead it into battle);
and developing and leading the extraordinary 79th armoured division
(Hobart’s Funnies) through that vital campaign. Liddell Hart said this
'hat trick' of the 3 best British armoured divisions of the war alone
made him incomparable, let alone his influence on armour overall.
Enjoy!