Percy Hobart
Sir Percy Hobart | |
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First World War
Second World War
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Awards |
Early life
Hobart was born in
In his youth, Hobart studied history, painting, literature and church architecture. He was educated at Temple Grove School and
Attending the Staff College, Camberley, in 1920, in 1923, foreseeing the predominance of tank warfare, Hobart volunteered to be transferred to the Royal Tank Corps. While there, he gained the nickname "Hobo", and was greatly influenced by the writings of B. H. Liddell Hart on armoured warfare. He was appointed as an instructor at the Staff College, Quetta, in 1923[3] where he served until 1927. In November 1928, Hobart married Dorothea Field, the daughter of Colonel C. Field, Royal Marines. They had one daughter.[4] His sister, Elizabeth, married Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.
In 1934, Hobart became brigadier of the first permanent armoured brigade in Britain and Inspector, Royal Tank Corps. He had to fight for resources for his command because the British Army was still dominated by conservative cavalry officers. German General Heinz Guderian kept abreast of Hobart's writings using, at his own expense, someone to translate all of Hobart's articles being published in Britain.[5]
In 1937, Hobart was made Deputy Director of Staff Duties (Armoured Fighting Vehicles) and later Director of Military Training. He was promoted to major general. In 1938, Hobart was sent to form and train "Mobile Force (Egypt)" although a local general resisted his efforts. While sometimes referred to as the "Mobile Farce" by critics, Mobile Force (Egypt) survived and later became the 7th Armoured Division, famous as the "Desert Rats".[citation needed]
Second World War
General
Hobart's detractors tried again to have him removed, this time on medical grounds but Churchill rebuffed them. He was relatively old (57) for active command and he had been ill. Once again, Hobart was assigned to raise and train a fresh armoured division, this time the 79th Armoured Division.
79th Armoured Division
The
In March 1943, Hobart's 79th Armoured was about to be disbanded, due to lack of resources, but the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), General Sir Alan Brooke, in a "happy brainwave", invited Hobart to convert his division into a unit of specialised armour. Hobart was reputedly suspicious at first and conferred with Liddell Hart before accepting, with the assurance that it would be an operational unit with a combat role. The unit was renamed the "79th (Experimental) Armoured Division Royal Engineers". Unit insignia was a black bull's head with flaring nostrils superimposed over a yellow triangle; this was carried proudly on every vehicle. Hobart's brother-in-law, General Sir Bernard Montgomery,[8] informed the American general Dwight D. Eisenhower of his need to build specialised tanks.[citation needed]
Under Hobart's leadership, the 79th assembled units of modified tank designs collectively nicknamed "
The vehicles of the 79th did not deploy as units together but were attached to other units. By the end of the war the 79th had almost seven thousand vehicles. The 79th Armoured Division was disbanded on 20 August 1945.
Hobart returned to retirement in 1946 and died in 1957 in Farnham, Surrey.
A barracks in Detmold, Germany, was named after him. Hobart Barracks has since been handed back to the German government and no longer functions as a barracks.
Awards and decorations
In 1943, Hobart was made a
Footnotes
- ^ a b Houterman & Koppes
- ^ "Clifton College Register" Muirhead, J. A. O. p. 227: Bristol; J. W. Arrowsmith for Old Cliftonian Society; April, 1948
- ^ "No. 32870". The London Gazette. 12 October 1923. p. 6881.
- ^ British Army Officers 1939–1945 – H; Retrieved 10 April 2014.
- ^ France 1940 – Blitzkrieg in the West by Alan Shepperd, pp. 10, 11
- ^ Keegan, J (ed.): Churchill's Generals, p. 247
- ISBN 978-0-141-02926-9 – via Archive Foundation.)
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: CS1 maint: date and year (link - ISBN 1841766690p. 22
- ^ Letter, OR 2, HQ 21st Army Group, Brig. Otway Herbert to War Office, 16 February 1944, as quoted in Peter Caddick-Adams, “Sand and Steel” 2019, p. 221. Caddick-Adams, Peter. Sand and Steel; A New History of D-Day. Penguin Random House, 2019. ISBN 9781784753481.
References
- Borthwick, J. T.; Montgomery, Field Marshal (1945). The story of 79th Armoured Division October 1942 – June 1945. Hamburg: 79th Armoured Division. OCLC 66120749.
- "Hobart biographical notes". Afrikacorps.org website. Allies & Afrikakorps North African / Mediterranean Campaign Research Group. Archived from the original on 8 March 2008. Retrieved 24 January 2008.
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: External link in
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- Houterman, Hans; Koppes, Jeroen. "World War II unit histories & officers website". Retrieved 24 January 2008.
- Macksey, Kenneth (1991). Keegan, John (ed.). Churchill's Generals. London: ISBN 0-304-36712-5.
- Caddick-Adams, Peter. Sand and Steel; A New History of D-Day. Penguin Random House, 2019. ISBN 9781784753481.
Further reading
- Delaforce, Patrick (1998). Churchill's Secret Weapons – The Story of Hobart's Funnies. Robert Hale. ISBN 0-7090-6237-0.
- Smart, Nick (2005). Biographical Dictionary of British Generals of the Second World War. ISBN 1844150496.
External links
- Royal Engineers Museum Royal Engineers biographies (Percy Hobart)
- British Army Officers 1939–1945
- Generals of World War II
- Historical Warfare Major General Hobart