Brian Horrocks
Sir Brian Gwynne Horrocks KCB KBE DSO MC (born September 7, 1895 in Ranikhet , Uttarakhand , India, † January 4, 1985 in Chichester , West Sussex ) was a British lieutenant general who achieved fame during Operation Market Garden in World War II .
Life
Horrocks was born the son of a military doctor in British India and, like most other officer's sons, was educated in a boarding school in England . Before the outbreak of the First World War , he joined the army as an officer and served on the Western Front. He was wounded in the First Battle of Flanders in 1914 and became a prisoner of war in Germany, during which time he learned the Russian language.
After the war, Horrocks was sent to Russia , where he participated as a liaison officer in the Russian Civil War . He was captured by the Red Army and held for ten months, during which time he contracted typhus . At the 1924 Summer Olympics he took part in the modern pentathlon . In the interwar period, Horrocks served in various units of the British Army in the motherland and the Territorial Army. In 1931 he was admitted to the General Staff Course at Staff College Camberley . This was followed by appointments to the staff staff officer in the War Office , to the chief of staff (brigade major) of the 5th Infantry Brigade in Aldershot and finally to the instructor at Staff College.
When the Second World War broke out, he was transferred back to France, where he commanded a brigade within the British 3rd Infantry Division under the command of Bernard Montgomery at the Battle of Dunkirk . This was followed by assignments as commander of the 44th (Home Counties) Division and the 9th Panzer Division in the motherland.
On August 15, 1942 he was appointed commander of the XIII Corps in North Africa, where he again served under Montgomery in the 8th Army ( Battle of Alam Halfa , Second Battle of El Alamein ). Horrocks later took command of the XXX Corps from Lieutenant General Miles Dempsey , with whom he participated in the Battle of Mareth in the Tunisian campaign. He was wounded during an air raid in Bizerte ; he spent the next 14 months recovering.
On his return he was hired by Montgomery to lead the British XXX Corps in the Falaise Cauldron Battle . His corps then advanced to Belgium and took part in the conquest of Brussels (September 3, 1944) and Antwerp (September 4, 1944). During Operation Market Garden (September 17-27, 1944) his corps had the task of advancing to the parachutists who had landed near Nijmegen and Arnhem . The operation failed with high losses and the planned Rhine crossing was only possible in early 1945. The Corps commanded by Horrocks took part in Operations Veritable and Plunder in 1945 . It occupied Bremen in April and liberated the Sandbostel camp .
On 5 July 1945, he was a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the knighthood collected and led since then the suffix "Sir". On June 9, 1949 he was also Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath .
After the war, Horrocks served in the army for another four years until 1949 (Western Command in Chester and as commander of the British Army on the Rhine ) before he had to retire due to the late effects of his injuries suffered in Bizerta. Subsequently, Horrocks was a gentleman usher of the Black Rod , worked as a writer and co-editor of the Famous Regiments series , TV journalist and as a director of a construction company.
Horrocks had a reputation for being one of the most reliable British generals of World War II. Superiors and subordinates are said to have valued him very much.
Others
In the film The Arnhem Bridge , he was played by Edward Fox .
Works
- Horrocks, Sir Brian: A Full Life (1960), ISBN 0-85052-144-0 .
- Horrocks, Sir Brian; Eversley Belfield and Major-General Hubert Essame: Corps Commander (1977).
literature
- John Keegan : Churchill's Generals , ISBN 0-349-11317-3 .
- Philip Warner: Horrocks: The General Who Led from the Front.
Web links
- Biography at spartacus-educational.com (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Knights and Dames: HA-HOR at Leigh Rayment's Peerage
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Horrocks, Brian |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Horrocks, Sir Brian Gwynne (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British Lieutenant General |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 7, 1895 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Ranikhet , India |
| DATE OF DEATH | 4th January 1985 |
| Place of death | Chichester , West Sussex |