Jock column
During the
The basis for the Jock column was a
Battle of Greece and in Crete, the mobility of the Jock column allowed the British to compensate for their equipment losses by deploying artillery where needed. On the defensive, Jock columns could effectively harass the enemy, or attack their rear areas, but the columns' decentralized nature made them ill-suited for stopping a major attack.[3]
However, once the British went on the offensive in mid-1941 with their Brevity and Battleaxe operations, "British doctrine had become weakened by the improvised over-use of Jock Columns". Rather than concentrating armor as Rommel tended to, the columns were further separating their tanks into groups which were more easily defeated. The splitting up of critical medium and heavy artillery made them less effective at covering assault troops, and "Royal Artillery commanders were critical of the lack of concentration of guns". [4]
See also
Footnotes
- ^ Mead 2007, p. 88.
- ^ Cox 1987, p. 205.
- ^ Bailey 1989, p. 170-172.
- ^ Dando 2014, p. 96.
References
- Bailey, Johnathan (1989). Field Artillery and Firepower. Taylor & Francis Group. ISBN 0-203-39582-4.
- ISBN 0-7183-0642-2.
- Mead, Richard (2007). Churchill's Lions: A biographical guide to the key British generals of World War II. Stroud: Spellmount. ISBN 978-1-86227-431-0.
- Dando, Neal (2014). The impact of terrain on British operations and doctrine in North Africa 1940-1943 (Thesis). Plymouth University.