spb/wp30_uqo

1{2  "document_id": "lb_hotpotqa_203709148e7052e14bf493f95037458b606b42f2fff54c79",3  "family": "public_hotpotqa",4  "split": "dev",5  "text": "Passage 1:\nJames Hill (British Army officer)\nBrigadier Stanley James Ledger Hill,  (14 March 1911 – 16 March 2006) was a British Army officer, who served as commander of the 3rd Parachute Brigade, part of the 6th Airborne Division, during the Second World War.\nBorn in Bath, Somerset, in 1911, Hill was educated at Marlborough College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst before joining the British Army in 1931 and being commissioned into the Royal Fusiliers. He commanded a platoon for a short period, and was then attached to the command post of Field Marshal Lord Gort during the Battle of France in May 1940, where he oversaw the evacuation of Brussels as well as the beach at De Panne during the evacuation of Dunkirk. After a brief period of time in the Irish Free State, he volunteered for parachute training and joined the 1st Parachute Battalion, and was its commanding officer when its parent formation, the 1st Parachute Brigade, was deployed to North Africa.\nHill commanded the battalion during its first airborne operation in North Africa, dropping near the towns of Souk el-Arba and Béja, in Tunisia. It secured Beja and then sent out patrols to harass German troops, ambushing a convoy and inflicting numerous German casualties, and defended a bridge at Medjez el Bab, although it was eventually forced to retreat. Hill was wounded during an attack by the battalion on Gue Hill, in which he attempted to capture three Italian tanks using his revolver; the crews of two were successfully subdued without incident, but the third opened fire and hit Hill in the chest several times. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and the French Legion of Honour for his service in North Africa and then evacuated back to England. There he took command of the 3rd Parachute Brigade in the newly formed 6th Airborne Division, and jumped with the brigade during Operation Tonga, the British airborne landings in Normandy on the night of 5/6 June 1944. After nearly being killed on D-Day, by an aircraft strafing his position, Hill commanded the brigade throughout the rest of the time it was in Normandy, once leading a counter-attack during a German assault, later being awarded the first Bar to his DSO.\nAfter advancing to the Seine, the 6th Airborne Division was withdrawn to England in September 1944, but briefly served in the Ardennes in December during the Battle of the Bulge. Hill then commanded 3rd Parachute Brigade during Operation Varsity, the Allied airborne assault over the River Rhine, where he was nearly killed by a glider containing his own personal Jeep. He then commandeered a motorcycle and rode alongside the brigade as the 6th Airborne Division advanced from the Rhine to the River Elbe, at the end of which he was awarded a second Bar to his DSO as well as the American Silver Star. After the war, he was briefly military governor of Copenhagen, for which he was awarded the King Haakon VII Liberty Cross, and also raised and commanded the 4th Parachute Brigade (Territorial Army). Retiring from the British Army in 1949, he became involved in a number of charities and businesses. James Hill died on 16 March 2006, aged 95.\n\nEarly life\nHill was born on 14 March 1911, in Bath, Somerset, the son of Major General Walter Hill. He was educated at Marlborough College, where he was the head of the college's Officer Training Corps, and then attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst; there he won the Sword of Honour and became captain of athletics. He joined the British Army in 1931, being commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant into the Royal Fusiliers (City of London regiment), the regiment which his father commanded. He ran the regimental athletic and boxing associations during his service with the regiment, and in 1936 transferred to the Supplementary Reserve in order to marry his first wife, Denys Gunter-Jones. For the next three years he worked as part of his family's ferry company.\n\nSecond World War\nWhen the Second World War began in September 1939, Hill was recalled to his regiment and given command of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Fusiliers' advance party when the battalion left for France during the same month. The battalion was assigned to the 12th Infantry Brigade, part of the 4th Infantry Division. He then commanded a platoon for several months, when the battalion was stationed along the Maginot Line, before being promoted to the rank of Captain in January 1940 and joining the staff at Allied Headquarters. The Battle of France began in May 1940, by which time Hill was attached to the command post of Field Marshal Lord Gort; during this period he was involved in planning the evacuation of the civilian population of Brussels, and also carried Gort's dispatches to Calais ordering the withdrawal of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). At the end of the campaign, he took command of the evacuation of the beach at La Panne, and was on the last destroyer to leave Dunkirk. For these actions, he was awarded the Military Cross. On his return to Britain, he was promoted to Major and travelled to Dublin in the Irish Free State, where he planned for the evacuation of British citizens from the city should German forces land there. When this task was completed, he volunteered for the fledgling Parachute Regiment, part of the British Army's growing airborne forces, and undertook parachute training; when the 1st Parachute Battalion was formed on 15 August 1941, he was appointed as its second-in-command.The battalion was part of 1st Parachute Brigade, which by mid-1942 had been expanded into 1st Airborne Division under the command of Major-General F.A.M. Browning. In July 1942 the 1st Parachute Battalion was selected to participate in the Dieppe Raid, and got as far as being loaded onto transport aircraft before poor weather cancelled the operation; when the raid was planned for a second time the parachute battalion was removed because their deployment was too dependent on there being good weather on the day of the raid. In mid September, as 1st Airborne Division was coming close to reaching full strength, Browning was informed that Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa, would take place in November. After being informed that an American airborne unit, the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion, was to be used during the invasion, Browning successfully advocated for the 1st Parachute Brigade to also be included. He argued that a larger airborne force should be utilised during the invasion, as the large distances and comparatively light opposition would provide a number of opportunities for airborne operations. The War Office and Commander in Chief, Home Forces were won over by the argument, and agreed to detach the brigade from 1st Airborne Division and place it under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who would command all Allied troops participating in the invasion. After it had been brought to full operational strength, partly by cross posting personnel from the newly formed 2nd Parachute Brigade, and had been provided with sufficient equipment and resources, the brigade departed for North Africa at the beginning of November 1942.\n\nNorth Africa\nAs an insufficient number of transport aircraft were allocated to the brigade, it was only possible to transport the 3rd Parachute Battalion by air. The rest of the brigade arrived at Algiers on 12 November, with some of its stores arriving slightly later. By the evening, reconnaissance parties had travelled to the airfield at Maison Blanche, with the remainder of the brigade following on the morning of 13 November; it was quartered in Maison Blanche, Maison Carree and Rouiba. After several ambitious airborne operations were planned but then cancelled by British First Army, on 14 November it directed that a single parachute battalion would be dropped the next day near Souk el-Arba and Béja; the battalion was to contact French forces at Beja to ascertain whether they would remain neutral, or support the Allies; secure and guard the cross roads and airfield at Soul el Arba; and patrol eastwards to harass German forces. 1st Parachute Battalion was selected for the task, to which Hill objected. The battalion had been forced to unload the vessel carrying its supplies and equipment itself, and had also to arrange its own transportation to Maison Blanche as no drivers were provided at Algiers; when it had arrived at Maison Blanche, it had been subjected to several Luftwaffe air raids that targeted the airfield. Hill argued that as a result his men were exhausted, and he did not believe all of the battalion's equipment could be sorted out within twenty four hours; as such he asked for the operation to be postponed for a short period, but this was denied.\nHill faced further problems as he planned for the operation. The American pilots of the Dakota transport aircraft that would transport the battalion were inexperienced and had never conducted a parachute drop before, and there was no time for any training or exercises. There were also no photos of the airfield or the surrounding areas, and only a single, small scale map available for navigation. To ensure that the aircraft found the drop zone and delivered the battalion accurately, Hill sat in the cockpit of the leading Dakota and assisted the pilot. The Dakotas were escorted by four American P-38 Lightning fighters, which engaged and drove off two roving German fighters, but as the Dakotas approached the Tunisian border they encountered thick clouds and were forced to turn back, landing at Maison Blanche at 11:00. It was decided that the battalion would conduct the operation the next day, which allowed the paratroopers to rest for a night. 1st Parachute Battalion took off on the morning of 16 November, and enjoyed excellent weather that allowed the transport aircraft to drop the battalion accurately around the airfield at Souk el Arba. Most of the paratroopers landed successfully, but one man was killed when his rigging line twisted around his neck mid drop, throttling him; one officer broke his leg on landing, and four men were wounded when a Sten gun was accidentally fired. The battalion's second in command, Major Alastair Pearson, remained at the airfield with a small detachment that collected the airborne equipment and supervised the burial of the casualty.Meanwhile, Hill led the rest of the battalion, approximately 525 strong, in some commandeered trucks towards the town of Béja, an important road and railway centre approximately forty miles from the airfield. The battalion arrived at approximately 18:00 and was welcomed by the local French garrison, 3,000 strong, which Hill persuaded to cooperate with the paratroopers; in order to give the garrison and any German observers the impression that he possessed a larger force than he actually did, Hill arranged for the battalion to march through the town several times, wearing different headgear and holding different equipment each time. A short time after the battalion entered Béja, German aircraft arrived and bombed the town, although they caused little damage and no casualties. The next day, 'S' Company was sent with a detachment of engineers to the village of Sidi N'Sir, about twenty miles away; they were to contact the local French forces, believed to be pro British, and harass German forces. The detachment found the village and made contact with the French, who allowed them to pass through towards the town of Mateur; by nightfall the force had not reached the town, and decided to encamp for the night. At dawn a German convoy of armoured cars passed the detachment, and it was decided to set an ambush for the convoy if it returned, with anti-tank mines being laid on the road and a mortar and Bren guns being set up in concealed positions. When the convoy returned at approximately 10:00 the leading vehicle struck a mine and exploded, blocking the road, and the other vehicles were disabled with mortar fire, Gammon bombs and the remaining anti tank mines. A number of Germans were killed and the rest taken prisoner, with two paratroopers being slightly wounded. The detachment returned to Béja with prisoners and several slightly damaged armoured cars. After the success of the ambush, Hill sent a second patrol to harass local German forces, but it was withdrawn after it encountered a larger German force that inflicted several British casualties; Béja was also bombed by Stuka divebombers, inflicting civilian casualties and destroying a number of houses.\nOn 19 November, Hill visited the commanding officer of the French forces guarding a vital bridge at Medjez el Bab, and warned him that any attempt by German forces to cross the bridge would be opposed by the battalion. Hill attached 'R' Company to the French forces to ensure the bridge was not captured. German forces soon arrived at the bridge, and their commanding officer demanded that they be allowed to take control of the bridge and cross it to attack the British positions. The French rejected the German demands, and in conjunction with 'R' Company repelled subsequent German attacks that lasted several hours. The battalion was reinforced by the U.S. 175th Field Artillery Battalion and elements of the Derbyshire Yeomanry, but, despite fierce resistance, the German forces proved to be too strong, and by 04:30 on 20 November the Allied forces had yielded the bridge and the surrounding area to the Germans. Two days later, Hill received information that a strong Italian force, which included a number of tanks, was stationed at Gue Hill. Hill decided to attack the force and attempt to disable the tanks, and the following night moved the battalion, less a small guard detachment that remained at Béja, to Sidi N'Sir where it linked up with a force of French Senegalese infantry. Hill decided that the battalion's section of 3 inch mortars would cover 'R' and 'S' Companies as they advanced up Gue Hill and attacked the Italian force, while a small force of sappers would mine the road at the rear of the hill to ensure the Italian tanks could not retreat.The battalion arrived at the hill without incident and began to prepare for the attack; however, just prior to the beginning of the attack there were several loud explosions from the rear of the hill. The anti tank grenades carried by the sappers had accidentally detonated, killing all but two of them. The battalion lost the element of surprise, and Hill immediately ordered the two companies to advance up the hill. The force reached the top and engaged a mixed force of German and Italian soldiers, who were assisted by three light tanks. Hill drew his revolver, and with his adjutant and a small group of paratroopers advanced on the tanks, firing shots through their observation ports in an attempt to persuade the crews to surrender. This tactic worked on two tanks, but upon reaching the third tank Hill and his men were fired upon by the tank's crew; Hill was shot three times in the chest and his adjutant wounded, although the tank crew were swiftly dispatched with small arms fire. Hill survived because of prompt medical treatment, and was replaced as commander of the battalion by Major Pearson, who supervised the routing of the rest of the German and Italian soldiers.\n\nNormandy\nAfter his injuries were treated, Hill was evacuated to a hospital in North Africa to recover; although forbidden to do so, he often exercised by climbing out of the window of his hospital ward at night. For his actions in North Africa, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO), which \"paid tribute to the brilliant handling of his force and his complete disregard of personal danger,\" as well as the French Légion d'honneur. By February 1943 he had recovered from his injuries, and was flown back to England where he met up with Brigadier Gerald W. Lathbury, commander of the newly raised 3rd Parachute Brigade. The War Office had authorised the raising of the brigade on 5 November 1942, comprising the 7th, 8th and 9th Parachute Battalions, all converted infantry battalions. The 9th Parachute Battalion was in need of a commanding officer and Lathbury offered the job to Hill, who accepted. His first action was to send the entire unit on a forced march, at the end of which he announced that the battalion would \"work a six and a half day week\" with Sunday afternoons off, until it was well-trained and fit. The 3rd Parachute Brigade was initially attached to the 1st Airborne Division, but in April 1943 Lathbury was given command of 1st Parachute Brigade, which departed with 1st Airborne Division at the end of April for the Mediterranean theatre and Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. The 3rd Parachute Brigade was detached from the division in March and remained in England, and on 23 April it was transferred into the newly formed 6th Airborne Division with Hill as the brigade's new commander. On 11 August, 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion was attached to the 3rd Parachute Brigade; although meant to be assigned to the newly formed 5th Parachute Brigade, also attached to the 6th Airborne Division, it instead replaced the 7th Parachute Battalion, which was transferred to the new parachute brigade.\nThe 6th Airborne Division, under the command of Major-General Richard Nelson Gale, was fully mobilised by late December 1943, with orders to prepare for airborne operations to be conducted during mid-1944. The division's first airborne operation would also be the first time it saw combat, conducting Operation Tonga, the British airborne landings in Normandy on the night of 5/6 June, D-Day. It was tasked with guarding the left flank of the British amphibious landings by securing the area east of the city of Caen, capturing a number of bridges that spanned several rivers and canals, and then preventing any Axis forces from advancing on the British beaches. The 3rd Parachute Brigade was given several tasks to accomplish. The 9th Parachute Battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Terence Otway, was to assault and destroy the Merville Gun Battery, as well as capturing high ground and setting up roadblocks. The 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion was to destroy two bridges, and the 8th Parachute Battalion had the task of destroying three bridges. When the operation began, the brigade suffered from a combination of poor navigation by the pilots of their C-47 Dakota transport aircraft, heavy cloud cover and incorrectly marked drop zones, which led to all of its units being scattered over a wide area; Hill himself was dropped with several sticks from the 1st Canadian and 9th Parachute Battalions near the River Dives. He landed in a submerged river rank approximately half a mile from Cabourg, and was forced to wade through four feet of water and a number of flooded irrigation ditches before reaching dry land; the same flooded areas claimed the lives of a number of paratroopers from his brigade.\nCollecting up a number of his men, he headed for the town of Sallenelles, where he hoped to find out how the 9th Parachute Battalion had fared assaulting the Merville Battery. En route, however, he and his party were strafed by low-flying German aircraft, forcing the paratroopers to dive for cover; when the aircraft had departed Hill stood up again, finding that he had been wounded in the buttocks and the officer next to him had been killed. Most of the other men had either been killed or wounded during the attack, leaving only himself and the commander of his headquarters defence platoon; once first aid had been administered to the wounded, Hill continued on and finally managed reach Ranville, where the headquarters of the General Officer Commanding (GOC), Major-General Gale, had been set up. After being informed by Gale that his brigade had successfully completed its objectives, Hill had his wound tended to, and then travelled to his own headquarters; there he found Lieutenant Colonel Pearson in temporary command, who informed him that many the brigade's staff had been killed during the drop. By 00:00 on the night of 6/7 June, the entire division was fully deployed on the eastern flank of the invasion beaches. The 3rd Parachute Brigade was holding a 4-mile (6.4 km) front, with the 9th Parachute Battalion at Le Plein, 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion at Les Mesneil and the 8th Parachute Battalion in the southern part of the Bois de Bavent.For the rest of its time in Normandy the division acted in an infantry role. From 7 June until 16 August, it first consolidated and then expanded its bridgehead. The 3rd Parachute Brigade was responsible for a section of front around the Chateau Saint Come and a nearby manor, with the latter being used as the brigade's primary defensive position. The brigade was positioned next to the 1st Special Service Brigade, and from 7 June onwards German pressure rapidly increased against both brigade's positions, with a number of attacks being repelled between then and 10 June. On 10 June the decision was taken to expand the bridgehead to the east of the River Orne, with the 6th Airborne Division tasked with achieving this; however, it was deemed not to be strong enough, and the 5th Battalion, Black Watch was placed under the 3rd Parachute Brigade's command; the battalion launched an attack on the town of Breville on 11 June, but was met with extremely heavy resistance and was repulsed after suffering a number of casualties. The next day 3rd Parachute Brigade's entire front was subjected to fierce artillery bombardment and assaults by German tanks and infantry, with the Germans particularly focusing on the positions held by 9th Parachute Battalion. Both the 9th Parachute Battalion and the remnants of the 5th Black Watch defended the Chateau Saint Come but were gradually forced to retreat. Lieutenant Colonel Otway informed brigade headquarters, some 400 metres (1,300 ft) away, that his battalion would be unable to hold its ground for much longer; upon hearing this message, Brigadier Hill gathered together forty paratroopers from the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion and led a counter-attack that forced the German troops to withdraw.German attempts to breach the 9th Parachute Battalion's positions did not end until 12 June, and Hill stated that the period 7–12 June were \"five of the toughest days fighting I saw in five years of war.\" It was during this period that Hill was awarded the first Bar to his Distinguished Service Order, after supervising an assault by 12th Parachute Battalion on the town of Breville; the town dominated a long ridge near the Allied bridgehead, from which the German 346th Infantry Division launched repeated attacks. From then on until mid-August the division remained in static positions, holding the left flank of the Allied bridgehead and conducting vigorous patrolling. Finally, on 7 August the division was ordered to prepare to move over to the offensive, and on the night of 16/17 August it began to advance against stiff German opposition, its ultimate objective being the mouth of the River Seine (see 6th Airborne Division advance to the River Seine). Hill's 3rd Parachute Brigade led the division's advance, being held up until nightfall at the village of Goustranville, but then securing several bridges and allowing the 5th Parachute Brigade to pass through its positions and continue the division's advance. The brigade remained around the Dives canal for several days, and then on 21 August it advanced towards Pont L'Eveque, but was stalled by German infantry and armour near Annebault until 8th Parachute Battalion secured the village. Fighting continued to be fierce, but by 24 August the entire division had advanced across the River Touques. After another three days of reorganising and patrolling, the division's time in Normandy came to an end; in nine days it had advanced 45 miles, captured 400 square miles (1,000 km2) of occupied territory and taken prisoner over 1,000 German soldiers. Its casualties for the period were 4,457, of which 821 would be killed, 2,709 wounded and 927 missing. It was finally withdrawn from the frontline in the last days of August, and embarked for England at the beginning of September.\n\nArdennes\nOn 16 December 1944, the Germans launched a huge offensive in the Ardennes forest, with the German objective to split British and American forces apart and capture the port of Antwerp, an important logistical base for the Allies. The initial assaults were extremely successful, creating a salient some fifty miles wide and forty-five miles deep, and by 23 December German units were advancing towards Dinant. American resistance was fierce, however, and blunted German advances in several areas, particularly the U.S. 101st Airborne Division around the town of Bastogne. By Christmas Day the offensive had been halted and contained, and an Allied counter-offensive began. Although the majority of the troops committed belonged to the American First and Third Armies, British XXX Corps also participated, with the British 6th Airborne Division as one of its leading divisions. The division had been in England since the beginning of September, and had been due to go on Christmas leave only days before the counter-offensive began; however, it was quickly transported to the Ardennes, arriving on the night of 24 December. By 26 December the 6th Airborne Division, now commanded by Major-General Eric Bols, had positioned itself between the towns of Dinant and Namur, and on 29 December it advanced against the German salient, with the 3rd Parachute Brigade, under James Hill, occupying an area around Rochefort.When the German offensive had begun, Hill had been in hospital, undergoing reconstructive plastic surgery; this meant that he was unable to join the 3rd Parachute Brigade for two days. When he had recovered, however, he and his batman were flown to the Ardennes and he was able to rejoin the brigade. The 5th Parachute Brigade launched several attacks against German positions in the village of Bure, which resulted in heavy British casualties, and both brigades conducted a large number of offensive patrols. The 3rd Parachute Brigade did not see any action, as those German units occupying positions opposite to it withdrew without fighting. By the end of January, however, the division was transferred back to the Netherlands and set up new positions along the Maas river, where it conducted more patrolling against elements of the German 7th Parachute Division, which held positions on the other side of the Maas. These operations came to an end in late February, when the 6th Airborne Division was withdrawn back to England to prepare for a major airborne operation in March.\n\nRhine\nOn 24 March 1945 Operation Varsity began, an airborne operation to aid in the establishment of a bridgehead on the east bank of the River Rhine which involved the British 6th Airborne Division and the U.S. 17th Airborne Division, under Major General William Miley. Varsity was the airborne component of Operation Plunder, in which the British Second Army, under Lieutenant-General Miles C. Dempsey, and the U.S. Ninth Army, under Lieutenant General William Simpson, crossed the Rhine at Rees, Wesel, and an area south of the Lippe Canal. Both divisions would be dropped near the town of Hamminkeln, and were tasked with a number of objectives: they were to seize the Diersfordter Wald, a forest that overlooked the Rhine, including a road linking several towns together; several bridges over a smaller waterway, the River Issel, were to be seized to facilitate the advance; and the town of Hamminkeln was to be captured. The 6th Airborne Division was specifically tasked with securing the northern portion of the airborne bridgehead, including Hamminkeln, a section of high ground to the east of Bergen, and several bridges over the River Issel. Hill's 3rd Parachute Brigade was to drop at the north-eastern corner of the Diersfordterwald forest and clear the western portion of the forest. It would then seize a hill known as the Schneppenberg, secure a road junction near Bergen and eventually link up with the 5th Parachute Brigade.\nThe 3rd Parachute Brigade dropped nine minutes later than planned, but otherwise landed accurately on drop zone 'A'. Hill landed near to the Diersfordterwald forest, which was occupied by German soldiers \"who are switched-on people,\" killing a number of paratroopers whose parachutes became tangled up in the trees. His brigade headquarters was positioned by a copse which was supposed to have been immediately cleared, but when he arrived it was still occupied by German troops; Hill immediately ordered a company commander of the 8th Parachute Battalion to clear the copse. The officer did so, but was killed in the process. Hill then moved his headquarters to the copse, but was then nearly killed by an approaching glider which barely managed to pull up in time, landing in the trees above him; upon investigation, Hill discovered that it contained his batman and personal Jeep, which took some time to lower down safely. The brigade suffered a number of casualties as it engaged the German forces in the Diersfordter Wald, but by 11:00 hours the drop zone was all but completely clear of enemy forces and all battalions of the brigade had formed up. The key town of Schnappenberg was captured by the 9th Parachute Battalion in conjunction with the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, the latter unit having lost its commanding officer to German small-arms fire only moments after he had landed. Despite taking casualties the brigade cleared the area of German forces, and by 13:45 Hill could report that the brigade had secured all of its objectives.\nWith Varsity a success, the 6th Airborne Division was ordered by Major General Matthew Ridgway, commander of U.S. XVIII Airborne Corps, to advance eastwards. It was supported by the 6th Guards Tank Brigade, and many of the airborne troops used unconventional transport during the advance, including captured German staff cars, prams and even horses. Hill requisitioned a motorcycle for his batman and travelled alongside the 3rd Parachute Brigade as it advanced; at one point his batman stopped the motorcycle and relieved a captured German colonel of his binoculars before driving off again. Hill disapproved of battlefield looting and admonished his batman, although eventually relented by stating \"If you can get me a pair [as well], you can keep them!\" At midnight, 27/28 March the division came under the control of British VIII Corps, commanded by Lieutenant-General Evelyn Barker, and became part of the general Allied advance through Germany towards the Baltic Sea, with the 3rd Parachute Brigade as the division's leading unit. German resistance continued to be heavy, but the division managed to advance at a rapid pace despite this, with the brigade at one point advancing fifteen miles in twenty-four hours, with eighteen of those being spent in combat. By early April the 6th Airborne reached the River Weser, with the brigade approaching it near the town of Minden, accompanied by armoured support; as it did so, the brigade found itself moving parallel to several German tanks, with Hill sitting on the rear of one of the British tanks. Both sides opened fire, but did little damage, the two German tanks managing to outpace the brigade.The brigade continued its fast pace of advance, with Hill continuing to ride pillion on his motorcycle, and by 23 April it had reached the River Elbe, having advanced 103 miles in fourteen days; the division had captured more than 19,000 prisoners during this period. After crossing the Elbe, the division once again came under the command of U.S. XVIII Airborne Corps, with General Ridgway informing Major General Bols that it was vital the division reach the port of Wismar before the approaching Russian Army did, to ensure that Denmark was not occupied by the Soviet Union. Although the 5th Parachute Brigade was ordered to lead the division's advance, Hill was determined to reach Wismar first; after an extremely rapid advance he succeeded, with troops from the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion being the first to enter Wismar, beating an advancing Russian tank column by only a few miles. A few days later, on 7 May 1945, Germany surrendered and the war in Europe came to an end. Hill was awarded a second Bar to his DSO for his command of the 3rd Parachute Brigade during its advance from the Rhine to the Elbe, as well as the American Silver Star.\n\nPost-war career\nIn May 1945 Hill served as military governor of Copenhagen, for which he was awarded the King Haakon VII Liberty Cross, and then assumed command of the 1st Parachute Brigade and oversaw its demobilisation. He retired from the British Army in July 1945, although he continued to serve as an officer in the Territorial Army, raising the 4th Parachute Brigade (Territorial Army) in 1947 and serving as its commanding officer until 1949. After standing down as commander of the brigade, Hill served on the board of a number of companies, including Lloyds Bank, the Associated Coal and Wharf Companies, and Powell Duffryn of Canada. Hill was an avid birdwatcher, with a particular claim to fame for being only the second person to discover a cuckoo's egg in the nest of a whinchat. He also helped to set up the Parachute Regiment Association and the Airborne Forces Security fund, acting as a trustee of the latter organisation for thirty years and chairman for five years. Hill married for a second time, wedding Joan Patricia Haywood in 1986. On 6 June 2004 he attended the 60th Anniversary of the Normandy landings, and a bronze statue of him was unveiled at Le Mesnil crossroads by Charles, Prince of Wales, Colonel-in-Chief of The Parachute Regiment. He died on 16 March 2006, two days after his 95th birthday. He is survived by his second wife and a daughter from the first marriage, Gillian Bridget Sanda.\nPassage 2:\nJohn Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort\nField Marshal John Standish Surtees Prendergast Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort,  (10 July 1886 – 31 March 1946) was a senior British Army officer. As a young officer during the First World War, he was decorated with the Victoria Cross for his actions during the Battle of the Canal du Nord. During the 1930s he served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (the professional head of the British Army). He is best known for commanding the British Expeditionary Force that was sent to France in the first year of the Second World War, only to be evacuated from Dunkirk the following year. Gort later served as Governor of Gibraltar and Malta, and High Commissioner for Palestine and Transjordan.\n\nEarly life and family\nVereker was born in London. His mother was Eleanor, Viscountess Gort née Surtees (1857–1933; later Eleanor Benson), who was a daughter of the writer Robert Smith Surtees. Vereker's father was John Gage Prendergast Vereker, 5th Viscount Gort (1849–1902).J. S. S. P. Vereker grew up in County Durham and the Isle of Wight. He was educated at Malvern Link Preparatory School, Harrow School, \nand entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst in January 1904. As Viscount Gort, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards on 16 August 1905, and promoted to lieutenant on 1 April 1907.In November 1908, Gort visited his uncle, Jeffrey Edward Prendergast Vereker, a retired British army major, who was living in Canada, at Kenora, Ontario. During a moose hunting trip, Gort slipped off a large boulder, causing his rifle to discharge; the bullet injured a local guide, William Prettie, who later died of his wound in Winnipeg. Gort returned immediately to England. While studying at Trinity College, Cambridge he was initiated into Isaac Newton University Lodge.Gort commanded the detachment of Grenadier Guards that bore the coffin at the funeral of King Edward VII in May 1910. He was made a Member of the Royal Victorian Order for his services in that role.On 22 February 1911, Gort married Corinna Katherine Vereker, his second cousin; the couple had two sons and a daughter, before divorcing (1925). Their elder son, Charles Standish Vereker, was born on 23 February 1912, and served as a lieutenant with the Grenadier Guards, before committing suicide (26 February 1941). A second son, Jocelyn Cecil Vereker, was born on 27 July 1913, but died before his second birthday. Gort's daughter, Jacqueline Corinne Yvonne Vereker, who was born on 20 October 1914, married (June 1940) The Honourable William Sidney, later the 1st Viscount De L'Isle.\n\nFirst World War\nOn 5 August 1914, Gort was promoted to captain. He went to France with the British Expeditionary Force and fought on the Western Front, taking part in the retreat from Mons in August 1914. He became a staff officer with the First Army in December 1914 and then became Brigade Major of the 4th (Guards) Brigade in April 1915. He was awarded the Military Cross in June 1915. Promoted to the brevet rank of major in June 1916, he became a staff officer at the Headquarters of the British Expeditionary Force and fought at the Battle of the Somme throughout the autumn of 1916. He was given the acting rank of lieutenant-colonel in April 1917 on appointment as Commanding Officer of 4th Battalion Grenadier Guards and, having been awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in June 1917, he led his battalion at the Battle of Passchendaele, earning a Bar to his DSO in September 1917. The bar's citation reads:\nFor conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. Although hit in two places in the shoulder by the bursting of a shell early in the day and in great pain, he refused to leave his battalion, and personally superintended the consolidation subsequent to a successful attack. He remained with them until 5 p.m. on the following day, when he was ordered to come out and have his wounds dressed. His conduct set a very fine example of self-sacrifice, and was of great value in maintaining the high morale and offensive spirit of his battalion.\nOn 27 November 1918, sixteen days after the war came to an end, Gort was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces, for his actions on 27 September 1918 at the Battle of the Canal du Nord, near Flesquieres, France.Victoria Cross citation\n\nCaptain (Brevet Major, Acting Lieutenant-Colonel), 1st Battalion The Grenadier Guards\nCitation: For most conspicuous bravery, skilful leading and devotion to duty during the attack of the Guards Division on 27th September 1918, across the Canal du Nord, near Flesquieres, when in command of the 1st Battalion, Grenadier Guards, the leading battalion of the 3rd Guards Brigade.\nUnder heavy artillery and machine-gun fire he led his battalion with great skill and determination to the \"forming-up\" ground, where very severe fire from artillery and machine guns was again encountered.\nAlthough wounded, he quickly grasped the situation, directed a platoon to proceed down a sunken road to make a flanking attack, and, under terrific fire, went across open ground to obtain the assistance of a Tank, which he personally led and directed to the best possible advantage. While thus fearlessly exposing himself, he was again severely wounded by a shell. Notwithstanding considerable loss of blood, after lying on a stretcher for a while, he insisted on getting up and personally directing the further attack. By his magnificent example of devotion to duty and utter disregard of personal safety all ranks were inspired to exert themselves to the utmost, and the attack resulted in the capture of over 200 prisoners, two batteries of field guns and numerous machine guns. Lt.-Col. Viscount Gort then proceeded to organise the defence of the captured position until he collapsed; even then he refused to leave the field until he had seen the \"success signal\" go up on the final objective.\n\nThe successful advance of the battalion was mainly due to the valour, devotion and leadership of this very gallant officer.\nSubsequent to this he became known as \"Tiger\" Gort. He won a second Bar to his DSO in January 1919, with the citation reading:\n\nFor conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in command of his battalion. He led his men up by night to relieve a battalion which had attacked and failed to reach its objective. Regardless of danger he personally reconnoitred the line ahead of his troops, and got them on to the objective before dawn. During the three following days he again made forward reconnaissances, and leading his battalion gradually on, advanced the line 800 yards and gained a canal bank. It is impossible to speak too highly of this officer's initiative.\nHe was also mentioned in despatches eight times during the war.\n\nInter-war years\nGort was promoted to the substantive rank of major on 21 October 1919. After attending a short course at the Staff College, Camberley, in 1919 he joined Headquarters London District and, having been promoted to brevet lieutenant-colonel on 1 January 1921, he returned to the College as an instructor. He left the Staff College in May 1923.Gort was promoted to colonel in April 1926 (with seniority backdated to 1 January 1925). In 1926 he became a staff officer at London District before becoming a chief instructor at the Senior Officers' School at Sheerness. In January 1927, he went to Shanghai, returning in August to give a first-hand account of the Chinese situation to the King and the Prince of Wales. He returned home to be a staff officer at Headquarters 4th Infantry Division at Colchester in July 1927.In June 1928, Gort was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He went on to command the Guards Brigade for two years from 1930 before overseeing training in India with the temporary rank of brigadier. In 1932, he took up flying, buying the de Havilland Moth aircraft Henrietta and being elected chairman of the Household Brigade Flying Club. On 25 November 1935, he was promoted, at the relatively young age (in peacetime, where promotion was painfully slow) of 49, to major-general. He returned to the Staff College in 1936 as its Commandant.In May 1937, Gort was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath. In September 1937, he became Military Secretary to the War Minister, Leslie Hore-Belisha, with the temporary rank of lieutenant-general. On 6 December 1937, as part of a purge by Hore-Belisha of senior officers, Gort was appointed to the Army Council, made a general and replaced Field Marshal Sir Cyril Deverell as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS). On 1 January 1938, he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath. His appointment was generally well received in the army, although there was some resentment in his having passed over a number of much older and more senior officers, among them John Dill, Archibald Wavell and Alan Brooke, who would later become an outspoken critic of Gort. He was not especially highly regarded for his intelligence and so Major General Ronald Adam was appointed to be Gort's Deputy Chief of the Imperial General Staff.As CIGS, Gort advocated the primacy of building a land army and defending France and the Low Countries over Imperial defence after France had said she would not be able on her own to defend herself against a German attack.On 2 December 1938 Gort submitted a report on the readiness of the British Army. He observed that Nazi Germany, as a result of the acquisition of Czechoslovakia, was in a stronger position than the previous year and that as a result of the government's decision in 1937 to create a \"general purpose\" army, Britain lacked the necessary forces for the defence of France.On 21 December Gort recommended to the Chiefs of Staff that Britain would need to help France defend the Netherlands and Belgium and that for that purpose the British Army needed complete equipment for four Regular army infantry divisions and two mobile armoured divisions, with the Territorial army armed with training equipment and then war equipment for four divisions. The First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Roger Backhouse, replied that Britain's continental commitment might not be a limited liability. Gort replied: \"Lord Kitchener had clearly pointed out that no great country can wage a 'little' war\". He also attacked as a fallacy the theory of strategic mobility by the use of seapower because in modern war land transport was faster and cheaper than transport by sea. The experience of David Lloyd George's 1917 Alexandretta project \"proved that [maritime side-shows] invariably led to vast commitments out of all proportion to the value of the object attained\". If a purely defensive position was taken the Maginot Line would be broken, and the British Army (with anti-aircraft defence) was only getting £277 million out of a total £2,000 million spent on defence.\n\nSecond World War\nOn the outbreak of the Second World War, Gort was appointed by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain as the Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France, arriving there on 19 September 1939.During this time Gort played a part in a political manoeuvre, the Pillbox affair, that led to the dismissal of War Minister Leslie Hore-Belisha. Unimpressed by his qualities for command, Hore-Belisha described Gort as: \"utterly brainless and unable to grasp the simplest problem\". Gort dismissed his subordinates' critiques of the Allies' Plan D, including his former friend Alan Brooke's correct prediction that it would allow the Wehrmacht to outflank the Allied forces, as defeatist.Following the period of the \"Phoney War\", the Wehrmacht's attack and breakthrough in the Ardennes in May 1940 succeeded in splitting the Allied Armies, and surrounding the French First Army and BEF, Gort took the unilateral decision to abandon his orders received from the British Government for a southward attack to be made to support the French Army, instead on 25 May 1940 ordering a retreat by the BEF northwards to the French coast. On reaching the coast Gort oversaw the en masse retirement of the BEF back to the British Isles, involving the Battle of Dunkirk and the Dunkirk evacuation, while France was defeated and surrendered to Nazi Germany four weeks later.With regard to his conduct as C.-in-C. in France in 1940, Gort is credited by some historians as reacting efficiently to the crisis and saving the BEF, while others hold a more critical view of his leadership, seeing his decision to abandon France during Germany's attack into the west as defeatist.Gort went on to serve in various positions for the remainder of the war, but the chaotic rout of the BEF under his command from France had convinced Winston Churchill, the newly installed British Prime Minister, that he was undesirable as a field commander, and he was side-lined to non-combatant posts. On the day of his return to England from France on 1 June 1940 he was appointed an ADC General to George VI. On 25 June he went by flying boat, with Duff Cooper, to Rabat, Morocco, to rally anti-Nazi French cabinet ministers, but was instead held on his flying boat. He quickly returned to Britain.\nGort was given the post of Inspector of Training and the Home Guard, and with nothing constructive to do visited Iceland, Orkney and Shetland.  He went on to serve as Governor of Gibraltar (1941–42). In 1943 he succeeded Lord Galway as Colonel Commandant of the Honourable Artillery Company, a position he held until his death.\nAs Governor of Malta (1942–44), Gort's courage and leadership during the siege was recognised by the Maltese giving him the Sword of Honour. He pushed ahead with extending the airfield into land reclaimed from the sea, against the advice of the British government, but was later thanked by the War Cabinet for his foresight when the airfield proved vital to the British Mediterranean campaign. The King gave Gort his field marshal's baton on 20 June 1943 at Malta.  On 29 September, Gort, together with Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower and Harold Alexander, witnessed Marshal Pietro Badoglio signing the Italian surrender in Valletta harbour.Gort was present when his son-in-law, Major William Sidney, received the Victoria Cross from General Sir Harold Alexander, Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of the Allied Armies in Italy, on 3 March 1944 in Italy.\nGort ended the war as High Commissioner for Palestine and Transjordan. He served in this office for only one year. In 1945 he nominated William James Fitzgerald, Chief Justice of Palestine, to enquire into the Jewish-Arab conflict in Jerusalem. Chief Justice Fitzgerald issued his report in which he proposed to divide the city into separate Jewish and Arab Quarters. Despite growing tensions in Palestine, Gort strove to cultivate good personal relations with both Jews and Arabs, and was greatly admired and respected by the Jewish and Arab communities.\nDuring his time in Palestine, Gort's health deteriorated, and he was suffering from great pain and discomfort in his abdomen. He was in fact suffering from liver cancer, but the doctors he consulted in London were unable to properly diagnose his condition. Gort ruled Palestine at the time that the Jewish insurgency was beginning. Despite his efforts, he was unable to stem the growing confrontation between the Yishuv (Jewish community) and British authorities. On 5 November 1945, he stepped down as High Commissioner and returned to Britain. Commenting on his departure, The Palestine Post wrote that \"No High Commissioner in the twenty-five years of British rule in Palestine enjoyed greater popular trust and none repaid it with greater personal kindness.\"\n\nDeath\nAfter leaving Palestine and returning to England, Gort was admitted to Guy's Hospital in London, where exploratory surgery revealed that he was dying from inoperable liver cancer. In February 1946 he was created a Viscount in the Peerage of the United Kingdom under the same title as his existing Viscountcy in the Peerage of Ireland. On 31 March 1946, he died in Guy's Hospital at the age of 59 years. As he did not have a surviving son, the Irish Viscountcy of Gort passed to his brother, Standish Vereker, and the British creation became extinct. His body was entombed in the Sidney family vault at St. John the Baptist Church, Penshurst, in the county of Kent.\n\nFilm portrayal\nGort was portrayed by Cyril Raymond in the film Dunkirk (1958).\nPassage 3:\nRichard O'Connor\nGeneral Sir Richard Nugent O'Connor,  (21 August 1889 – 17 June 1981) was a senior British Army officer who fought in both the First and Second World Wars, and commanded the Western Desert Force in the early years of the Second World War. He was the field commander for Operation Compass, in which his forces destroyed a much larger Italian army – a victory which nearly drove the Axis from Africa, and in turn, led Adolf Hitler to send the Afrika Korps under Erwin Rommel to try to reverse the situation. O'Connor was captured by a German reconnaissance patrol during the night of 7 April 1941 and spent over two years in an Italian prisoner of war camp. He eventually escaped after the fall of Mussolini in the autumn of 1943. In 1944 he commanded VIII Corps in the Battle of Normandy and later during Operation Market Garden. In 1945 he was General Officer in Command of the Eastern Command in India and then, in the closing days of British rule in the subcontinent, he headed Northern Command. His final job in the army was Adjutant-General to the Forces in London, in charge of the British Army's administration, personnel and organisation.\nIn honour of his war service, O'Connor was recognised with the highest level of knighthood in two different orders of chivalry. He was also awarded the Distinguished Service Order (twice), the Military Cross, the French Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honour, and served as aide-de-camp to King George VI. He was also mentioned in despatches nine times for actions in the First World War, once in Palestine in 1939 and three times in the Second World War.\n\nEarly life\nRichard Nugent O'Connor was born in Srinagar, Kashmir, India, on 21 August 1889. His father, Maurice O'Connor, was a major in the Royal Irish Fusiliers, and his mother, Lilian Morris, was the daughter of a former governor of India's central provinces. He attended Tonbridge Castle School in 1899 and The Towers School in Crowthorne in 1902. In 1903, aged 13, and after his father's death in an accident, he moved to Wellington College. \"His career there was not distinguished in any way\", however, although he enjoyed his time there.Following this, he went to the Royal Military College at Sandhurst in January 1908. Despite his success in later life, his time there, as at Wellington (only a few miles away from Sandhurst), was not remarkable, and he did not mention his time there even in his later life.  A year ahead of him at the college was a man who would play a significant role in O'Connor's future military career and life. This was Bernard Montgomery, about two years older than O'Connor, although it is unknown if the two men knew of each other at this very early stage of their military careers.Passing out 38th in the order of merit, in September of the following year O'Connor, anxious to join a Scottish regiment, was commissioned, as a second lieutenant and posted to the 2nd Battalion of his new regiment, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), the regiment of his choice, recruiting from Glasgow and Lanarkshire, and with which he was to maintain close ties with for the rest of his life. The battalion was initially stationed in Aldershot when O'Connor joined them in October 1909 before being rotated, in January 1910, to Colchester. It was here where he received signals and rifle training, after attending courses for both, resulting in his being appointed a regimental signals officer for the former, and becoming a distinguished marksman after attending the Small Arms School at Hythe, Kent. In September 1911 the battalion sailed for Malta where it was to remain for the next three years as part of a Malta brigade, with O'Connor, now a lieutenant (having been promoted to that rank in May), continuing in his role as regimental signals officer.  By now it was becoming obvious that a war in Europe was on the horizon. As a result, for O'Connor, who at some point was appointed the Malta brigade's signal officer, the years of 1913 and 1914 were spent in training the men under his command for the duties that they would one day have to perform in battle.\n\nFirst World War\nDuring the First World War, O'Connor initially served as signals officer of the 22nd Brigade in the 7th Division and captain in command of the 7th Division's Signals Company. From October 1916, as a captain and later as a brevet major, he served as brigade major of 91st Brigade, 7th Division. He was awarded the Military Cross (MC) in February 1915. In March of that year he saw action at Arras and Bullecourt. O'Connor was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and appointed brevet lieutenant-colonel while he was in command of the 2nd Infantry Battalion of the Honourable Artillery Company, part of the 7th Division, in June 1917. The citation for his DSO reads:\n\nFor conspicuous gallantry and resource. In consequence of a change in the situation a revision of plans became necessary, but, owing to darkness and heavy shelling, confusion arose. By his courage and promptness he quickly restored order, and organised a successful attack.\nIn November of that year, the division was ordered to support the Italians against the Austro-Hungarian forces at the River Piave which then formed part of the Italian Front. In late October 1918 the 2nd Battalion captured the island of Grave di Papadopoli on the Piave River for which O'Connor received the Italian Silver Medal of Military Valor and a Bar to his DSO.At the end of the war, O'Connor reverted to his rank of captain and served as regimental adjutant from April to December 1919.\n\nBetween the wars\nO'Connor attended the Staff College, Camberley in 1920. O'Connor's other service in the years between the world wars included an appointment from 1921 to 1924 as brigade major of the Experimental Brigade (or 5 Brigade) under the command of J. F. C. Fuller, which was formed to test methods and procedures for using tanks and aircraft in co-ordination with infantry and artillery.\nHe returned to his old unit, the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), as adjutant from February 1924 to 1925. From 1925 to 1927 he served as a company commander at Sandhurst. He returned to the Staff College, Camberley as an instructor from October 1927 to January 1930. In 1930 O'Connor again served with the 1st Battalion, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) in Egypt and from 1931 to 1932 in Lucknow, India. From April 1932 to January 1935 he was a general staff officer, grade 2 at the War Office. He attended the Imperial Defence College in London in 1935. In April 1936 O'Connor was promoted to full colonel and appointed temporary brigadier to assume command of the Peshawar Brigade in north west India. In September 1938 O'Connor was promoted to major-general and appointed General Officer Commanding 7th Infantry Division in Palestine, along with the additional responsibility as Military Governor of Jerusalem. For his services in Palestine O'Connor was mentioned in despatches.In August 1939, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, the 7th Division was transferred to the fortress at Mersa Matruh, Egypt, where O'Connor was concerned with defending the area against a potential attack from the massed forces of the Italian Tenth Army over the border in Libya. The 7th Division later converted to become the 6th Division in November 1939. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in July 1940.\n\nSecond World War\nItalian Offensive and Operation Compass\nItaly declared war on Britain and France on 10 June 1940 and, soon after, O'Connor was appointed commander of the Western Desert Force. He was tasked by Lieutenant-General Henry Maitland Wilson, commander of the British troops in Egypt, to push the Italian force out of Egypt, to protect the Suez Canal and British interests from attack.On 13 September, Graziani struck: his leading divisions advanced sixty miles into Egypt where they reached the town of Sidi Barrani and, short of supplies, began to dig in. O'Connor then began to prepare for a counterattack. He had the 7th Armoured Division and the Indian 4th Infantry Division along with two brigades. British and Commonwealth troops in Egypt totalled around 36,000 men. The Italians had nearly five times as many troops along with hundreds more tanks and artillery pieces and the support of a much larger air force. Meanwhile, small raiding columns were sent out from the 7th Armoured and newly formed Long Range Desert Group to probe, harass, and disrupt the Italians (this marked the start of what became the Special Air Service). The Royal Navy and Royal Air Force supported by bombarding enemy strongpoints, airfields and rear areas.\n During November, O'Connor was appointed an acting lieutenant-general in recognition of the increased size of his command.The counteroffensive, Operation Compass, began on 8 December 1940. O'Connor's relatively small force of 31,000 men, 275 tanks and 120 artillery pieces, ably supported by an RAF wing and the Royal Navy, broke through a gap in the Italian defences at Sidi Barrani near the coast. The Desert Force cut a swath through the Italian rear areas, stitching its way between the desert and the coast, capturing strongpoint after strongpoint by cutting off and isolating them. The Italian guns proved to be no match for the heavy British Matilda tanks and their shells bounced off the armour. By mid-December the Italians had been pushed completely out of Egypt, leaving behind 38,000 prisoners and large stores of equipment.The Desert Force paused to rest briefly before continuing the assault into Italian Libya against the remainder of Graziani's disorganised army. At that point, the Commander-in-Chief Middle East General Sir Archibald Wavell ordered the 4th Indian Division withdrawn to spearhead the invasion of Italian East Africa. This veteran division was to be replaced by the inexperienced 6th Australian Division, which, although tough, was untrained for desert warfare. Despite this setback, the offensive continued with minimal delay. By the end of 6 December the Australians besieged and took Bardia along with 40,000 more prisoners and 400 guns.\nIn early January 1941, the Western Desert Force was redesignated XIII Corps. On 9 January, the offensive resumed. By 12 January the strategic fortress port of Tobruk was surrounded. On 22 January it fell and another 27,000 Italian POWs were taken along with valuable supplies, food, and weapons. As Tobruk fell it was decided to have XIII Corps answerable directly to Wavell at HQ Middle East Command, removing HQ British troops Egypt from the chain of command. On 26 January the remaining Italian divisions in eastern Libya began to retreat to the northwest along the coast. O'Connor promptly moved to pursue and cut them off, sending his armour southwest through the desert in a wide flanking movement, while the infantry gave chase along the coast to the north. The lightly armoured advance units of 4th Armoured Brigade arrived at Beda Fomm before the fleeing Italians on 5 February, blocking the main coast road and their route of escape. Two days later, after a costly and failed attempt to break through the blockade, and with the main British infantry force fast bearing down on them from Benghazi to the north, the demoralised, exhausted Italians unconditionally capitulated. O'Connor and Eric Dorman-Smith cabled back to Wavell, \"Fox killed in the open...\"In two months, the XIII Corps/Western Desert Force had advanced over 800 miles (1,300 km), destroyed an entire Italian army of ten divisions, taken over 130,000 prisoners, 400 tanks and 1,292 guns at the cost of 500 killed and 1,373 wounded. In recognition of this, O'Connor was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath.\n\nReversal and capture\nIn a strategic sense, however, the victory of Operation Compass was not yet complete; the Italians still controlled most of Libya and possessed forces which would have to be dealt with. The Axis foothold in North Africa would remain a potential threat to Egypt and the Suez Canal so long as this situation continued. O'Connor was aware of this and urged Wavell to allow him to push on to Tripoli with all due haste to finish off the Italians. Wavell concurred as did Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, now the military governor of Cyrenaica, and XIII Corps resumed its advance. However, O'Connor's new offensive would prove short-lived: when the corps reached El Agheila, just to the southwest of Beda Fomm, Churchill ordered the advance to halt there. The Axis had invaded Greece and Wavell was ordered to send all available forces there as soon as possible to oppose this. Wavell took the 6th Australian Division, along with part of 7th Armoured Division and most of the supplies and air support for this ultimately doomed operation. XIII Corps HQ was wound down and in February 1941 O'Connor was appointed General Officer Commanding-in-Chief the British Troops in Egypt.Matters were soon to become much worse for the British. By March 1941, Hitler had dispatched General Erwin Rommel along with the Afrika Korps to bolster the Italians in Libya. Wavell and O'Connor now faced a formidable foe under a commander whose cunning, resourcefulness, and daring would earn him the nickname \"the Desert Fox\". Rommel wasted little time in launching his own offensive on 31 March. The inexperienced 2nd Armoured Division was soundly defeated and on 2 April Wavell came forward to review matters with Lieutenant-General Sir Philip Neame, by now the commander of British and Commonwealth troops in Cyrenaica (Wilson having left to command the Allied expeditionary force in Greece). O'Connor was called forward and arrived from Cairo the next day, but declined to assume Neame's command because of his lack of familiarity with the prevailing conditions. However, he agreed to stay to advise.On 6 April O'Connor and Neame, while travelling to their headquarters which had been withdrawn from Maraua to Timimi, were captured by a German patrol near Martuba.\n\nCaptivity and escape\nO'Connor spent the next two and a half years as a prisoner of war, mainly at the Castello di Vincigliata near Florence, Italy. Here he and Neame were in the company of such figures as Major-General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart and Air Vice Marshal Owen Tudor Boyd. Although the conditions of their imprisonment were not unpleasant, the officers soon formed an escape club and began planning a break-out. Their first attempt, a simple attempt to climb over the castle walls, resulted in a month's solitary confinement. The second attempt, by an escape tunnel built between October 1942 and March 1943, had some success, with two New Zealander brigadiers, James Hargest and Reginald Miles, reaching Switzerland. O'Connor and Carton de Wiart, travelling on foot, were at large for a week but were captured near Bologna in the Po Valley. Once again, a month's solitary confinement was the result.It was only after the Italian surrender in September 1943 that the final, successful, attempt was made. With help from the Italian resistance movement, Boyd, O'Connor and Neame escaped while being transferred from Vincigliati. After a failed rendezvous with a submarine, they arrived by boat at Termoli, then went on to Bari where they were welcomed as guests by General Sir Harold Alexander, commanding the Allied Armies in Italy (AAI), then fighting on the Italian Front, along with the American General Dwight D. Eisenhower, on 21 December 1943. Upon his return to Britain, O'Connor was presented with the knighthood he had been awarded in 1941 and promoted to lieutenant-general. Montgomery suggested that O'Connor be his successor as British Eighth Army commander, but that post was instead given to Oliver Leese and O'Connor was given a corps to command.\n\nVIII Corps and Normandy\nOn 21 January 1944 O'Connor became commander of VIII Corps, which consisted of the Guards Armoured Division, 11th Armoured Division, 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division, along with 6th Guards Tank Brigade, 8th Army Group Royal Artillery and 2nd Household Cavalry Regiment. The corps formed part of the British Second Army, commanded by Lieutenant-General Miles Dempsey, which itself was part of the Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group, commanded by General Sir Bernard Montgomery, a friend who had also been a fellow instructor at the Staff College, Camberley in the 1920s, in addition to having served together in Palestine some years before. O'Connor's new command was to take part in Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of German-occupied France, although it was not scheduled for the initial landings as it was to form part of the second wave to go ashore.On 11 June 1944, five days after the initial landings in Normandy, O'Connor and the leading elements of VIII Corps arrived in Normandy in the sector around Caen, which would be the scene of much hard fighting during the next few weeks. O'Connor's first mission (with the 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division under command, replacing the Guards Armoured Division) was to mount Operation Epsom, a break out from the bridgehead established by the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, cross the Odon and Orne rivers, then secure the high-ground positions northeast of Bretteville-sur-Laize and cut Caen off from the south. The break-out and river crossings were accomplished promptly. The army group commander, Montgomery, congratulated O'Connor and his VIII Corps on their success. But cutting off Caen would prove much harder. VIII Corps was pushed back over the Orne. O'Connor tried to re-establish a bridgehead during Operation Jupiter with the 43rd (Wessex) Division, but met with little success. Although the operation had failed to achieve its tactical objectives, Montgomery was pleased with the strategic benefits in the commitment and fixing of the German armoured reserves to the Caen sector.After being withdrawn into reserve on 12 July, the next major action for VIII Corps would be Operation Goodwood, for which the corps was stripped of its infantry divisions but had a third armoured division (7th Armoured Division) attached. The attack began on 18 July with a massive aerial bombardment by the 9th USAAF, and ended on 20 July with a three-pronged drive to capture Bras and Hubert-Folie on the right, Fontenay on the left, and Bourguébus Ridge in the centre. However, the attack ground to a halt in pouring rain, turning the battlefield into a quagmire, with the major objectives still not taken, notably the Bourguebus Ridge which was the key to any break-out.\nRestored to its pre-invasion formation but with British 3rd Infantry Division attached, the corps was switched to the southwest of Caen to take part in Operation Bluecoat. 15th (Scottish) Division attacked towards Vire to the east and west of Bois du Homme in order to facilitate the American advance in Operation Cobra (O'Connor, 5/3/25 July 29 1944). A swift drive was followed by fierce fighting to the south during the first two days of the advance, with both sides taking heavy losses.As the allies prepared to pursue the Germans from France, O'Connor learned that VIII Corps would not take part in this phase of the campaign. VIII Corps was placed in reserve, and its transport used to supply XXX Corps and XII Corps. His command was reduced in mid-August, with the transfer of the Guards Armoured Divisions and 11th Armoured Division to XXX Corps and 15th (Scottish) Division to XII Corps. While in reserve, O'Connor maintained an active correspondence with Montgomery, Hobart and others, making suggestions for improvements of armoured vehicles and addressing various other problems such as combat fatigue. Some of his recommendations were followed up; such as for mounting \"rams\" on armoured vehicles in order to cope with the difficult hedgerow country (O'Connor, 5/3/41- 5/3/44 Aug 24, 26 1944).\n\nOperation Market Garden and India\nO'Connor remained in command of VIII Corps, for the time being, and was given the task of supporting Lieutenant-General Brian Horrocks' XXX Corps in Operation Market Garden, the plan by Montgomery to establish a bridgehead across the Rhine in the Netherlands. Following their entry into Weert at the end of September, VIII Corps prepared for and took part in Operation Aintree, the advance towards Venray and Venlo beginning on 12 October.However, on 27 November O'Connor was removed from his post and was ordered to take over from Lieutenant-General Sir Mosley Mayne as GOC-in-C, Eastern Command, India. Smart's account says that Montgomery prompted the move for, \"not being ruthless enough with his American subordinates\", although Mead states that the initiative was taken by Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), but Montgomery made no attempt to retain O'Connor. He was succeeded as GOC VIII Corps by Major-General Evelyn Barker, a much younger man and formerly the GOC of the 49th (West Riding) Infantry Division who had been one of O'Connor's students at the Staff College at Camberley in the late 1920s. This marked the end of a long and distinguished combat career, although the new job was an important one, controlling the lines of communication of the Fourteenth Army. O'Connor was mentioned in despatches for the thirteenth and final time of his career on 22 March 1945.Having been promoted to full general in April 1945, O'Connor was appointed GOC-in-C North Western Army in India in October that year (the formation was renamed Northern Command in November of that year). By now the war was over.\n\nPost-war\nFrom 1946 to 1947 he was Adjutant-General to the Forces and aide-de-camp general to the King. His career as adjutant general was to be short-lived, however. After a disagreement over a cancelled demobilisation for troops stationed in the Far East, O'Connor offered his resignation in September 1947, which was accepted. Montgomery, by then the CIGS in succession to Brooke, maintained that he had been sacked, rather than resigned, for being, \"not up to the job.\" Not long after this he was installed as a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath.\n\nRetirement and final years\nO'Connor retired in 1948 at the age of fifty-eight. However, he maintained his links with the army and took on other responsibilities. He was Commandant of the Army Cadet Force in Scotland from 1948 to 1959; Colonel of the Cameronians, 1951 to 1954; Lord lieutenant of Ross and Cromarty from 1955 to 1964 and served as Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1964. His first wife, Jean, died in 1959, and in 1963 he married Dorothy Russell.In July 1971, he was created Knight of the Order of the Thistle. O’Connor was interviewed concerning North African operations in episode 8, \"The Desert: North Africa (1940–1943)”, of the acclaimed British documentary television series, The World at War. O'Connor died in London on 17 June 1981, just two months shy of his 92nd birthday. There was a small funeral, attended only by his family. There were also two memorial services, one held in London on 15 July, with O'Connor's great friend and admirer, Field Marshal Lord Harding, as he was now known, giving the address, where he stated the following:\n\nDick O'Connor was my ideal of a commander in battle; always approachable and ready to listen, yet firm and decisive and always fair in his judgement of people and events; modest to a degree, shunning the limelight and embarassed by praise; calmly resolute and courageously determined.\nThe second memorial service was held in Edinburgh on 11 August, where Lieutenant General Sir George Collingwood, who had been O'Connor's aide-de-camp in the late 1930s, made the address. Making references to O'Connor's campaign in the desert some forty years earlier, he then mentioned his numerous attempts to escape from captivity, along with his happy private life and his two \"wonderful partners in the home\", before ending his address with:\n\nSo there is in a sense a picture of three different people. The dedicated soldier and brilliant fighting Commander, a prisoner of war exerting all his energies and taking great risks to escape and return to serve his Country, and the quiet, unassuming little country gentleman with the kindly smile and charming manners, who was a wonderful host and a wonderful guest, but of course it was one and the same person and the chief facets of his character were, I think, great courage and determination, an impelling sense of duty, loyalty, extreme personal modesty, kindness and generosity and a delightful sense of humour. I think the jokes he liked best were those against himself.\n\nNotes",6  "char_len": 75003,7  "document_hash": "e4526b0cf1efa83199a8a4c059b99b2f9cfa8eab28135a3193ad453002556a50",8  "questions": [9    {10      "question_id": "q00",11      "qtype": "hotpotqa",12      "question": "Brigadier Stanley James Ledger Hill was attached to the command post of which senior British Army officer born on July 10, 1886?"13    }14  ]15}