Everything about Brian Horrocks totally explained
Lieutenant-General Sir Brian Gwynne Horrocks KCB,
KBE,
DSO,
MC (
September 7 1895 –
January 4 1985) was a
British military officer. He is chiefly remembered as the commander of
XXX Corps in
Operation Market Garden and other operations during the
Second World War. He also served in the
First World War and the
Russian Civil War, was a
prisoner of war twice, and competed in the
1924 Paris Olympics. Later in life he gained further fame as a television presenter and as
Black Rod in the
House of Lords.
In 1940 Horrocks commanded a
battalion during the
Battle of France and it was then that he first served under
Bernard Montgomery, the most prominent British general of the war. Montgomery was later to rely on Horrocks as one of his most able commanders, appointing him to
corps commands in both
North Africa and
Europe. Horrocks was seriously wounded in 1943 and spent over a year out of action, before returning to command a corps in Europe. This wound caused him continuing health problems and led to his early retirement after the war. It is also likely that this time spent wounded restricted his advancement in the army; his contemporary corps commanders in North Africa,
Leese and
Dempsey, went on to command at
army level.
Since 1945, Horrocks has been regarded by some as one of the most successful
British Army generals of the war and as the "
beau ideal of a corps commander".
Dwight D. Eisenhower called him "the outstanding British general under Montgomery".
Early life and First World War
Horrocks was the son of Colonel
Sir William Horrocks, a doctor in the
Royal Army Medical Corps. He was educated at
Uppingham School, an English
public school, and at the
Royal Military College, Sandhurst, which he entered in 1913. Out of the successful applicants for one hundred and sixty-seven cadetships, his score was sixth-lowest, even with 200 bonus points for an
OTC certificate which not all the other applicants had. He was an unpromising student and might not have received a commission at all had the circumstances not changed abruptly with the outbreak of the
First World War.
Commissioned as a
second lieutenant into the 1st
Battalion of the
Middlesex Regiment on
August 8 1914, Horrocks joined the
British Expeditionary Force in its retreat following the
Battle of Mons. Horrocks was shot through the lower stomach and captured when his platoon was surrounded at the
Battle of Armentières on
October 21 1914. He was taken to a military hospital and repeatedly interrogated by his
German captors, who believed that the British Army were using
dum-dum bullets. Horrocks' captors refused to change his clothes or sheets and denied him and a fellow officer the use of a
bed pan or bottle. Both had lost the use of their legs and they were forcd to crawl across the floor to use the toilet. As a result his wounds became infected. Conditions improved for Horrocks after his discharge from the hospital and he befriended a German soldier who escorted him to the
prisoner of war camp. Horrocks attributed this to the "respect for each other" that front-line troops have. Despite his capture he was promoted to
lieutenant on
December 18 1914. Whilst a prisoner, Horrocks made a number of escape attempts and in one instance came within of the
Dutch border before being caught. In an attempt to prevent further escape attempts, his captors placed him in a compound consisting solely of
Russian officers. He used the time to learn
their language. Years later, when working in the
House of Commons, he surprised
Nikita Khrushchev and
Nikolai Bulganin by greeting them in Russian. The escape attempts earned him the
Military Cross, awarded in 1920 and backdated to
May 5 1919. However, he soon found an opportunity to return to active service when the
War Office called for volunteers who knew Russian.
Inter-war period
Russia
Horrocks was posted to Russia as part of the
British mission during the
Russian Civil War. After landing in
Vladivostok on
April 19 1919 he was taken to the British headquarters and briefed on the situation. The
White Army under Admiral
Kolchak, with the assistance of released
Czechoslovak Legion prisoners, had driven the
Red Army out of
Siberia. The Czech troops planned to return home and the effort to replace them with Russians became an urgent one that was assisted by a British military contingent. To carry out this task, the British had at their disposal just two infantry battalions and two small administrative missions: one charged with training personnel and arming them with British war-surplus equipment and one to assist in administering the lines of communication for the White Army.
A platoon of British soldiers with fourteen officers, including Horrocks, were given the task of guarding a train carrying twenty-seven carriages full of shells for delivery to the White Army in
Omsk, away on the
Trans-Siberian Railway. Afterwards they were to report to the British mission to begin training troops. The journey took more than a month to complete. As the only contingent member fluent in Russian, Horrocks had to overcome numerous difficulties on his own.
Horrocks' next destination was
Yekaterinburg, where he was appointed second in command of a
NCO training school attached to the Anglo-Russian Brigade. This period was a frustrating one; he'd to dismiss nearly a third of his initial group of soldiers on medical grounds and struggled to get supplies and support from the White Army authorities. Despite this, he developed a rapport with his men and an admiration for the ordinary Russian soldier.
The British forces were ordered to return home shortly afterwards, but Horrocks and one other officer were ordered to remain, to act as liaisons with the First Siberian Army. The White Army by this stage was in headlong retreat and Horrocks joined them in falling back to Vladivostok, away. He was finally captured by the
Red Army on
January 7 1919 in the town of
Krasnoyarsk. He spent the next ten months as a prisoner, narrowly surviving a severe case of
typhus.
Back home
Horrocks rejoined his regiment, based in Germany with the
British Army of the Rhine, and followed it to
Ireland, then embroiled in the
Anglo-Irish War. His duties there included searching for arms and dealing with ambushes and road-blocks, "a most unpleasant form of warfare". This was followed by a short period in
Silesia, to deal with tensions between the
Polish and
German populations.
On his return to the United Kingdom Horrocks looked for something else to occupy his time, and decided to take up the
modern pentathlon. He competed in army tournaments and, eventually, the
1924 Paris Olympics, where he finished 20th of 38 competitors. Horrocks spent the remainder of the inter-war years in a variety of postings, including as
adjutant for the 9th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment of the
Territorial Army, as a student at
Staff College, Camberley, as a
Staff Captain at the
War Office, as
Brigade Major with the 5th infantry Brigade, and finally as an instructor at the Staff College. The Territorial Army posting provided experience of dealing with citizen soldiers which would prove invaluable during the war and Horrocks later said they were among his happiest experiences. He received a
brevet majority in 1935, and was promoted to substantive major in 1936, and brevet
lieutenant colonel in 1937.
In 1928 Horrocks married Nancy Kitchin, daughter of an architect to the
Local Government Board. Together they'd one daughter, Gillian, who drowned in 1979 while swimming in the
River Thames.
Second World War
When the Second World War broke out Horrocks was working as an instructor at the staff college where he'd taught since 1938. After assisting in organising the new short course for officers, he was promoted to substantive lieutenant-colonel in December 1939. In May 1940 he was despatched to France to command the 2nd Battalion, Middlesex Regiment. This was a machine-gun battalion directly subordinate to the
3rd Division HQ of Major-General
Bernard Montgomery. British doctrine of the time didn't have heavy
machine guns as an
organic part of lower formations and instead kept them under the direct command of the
corps or, in this case,
division. He joined the battalion during the retreat to
Dunkirk. After commanding the battalion for only seventeen days he'd impressed his superiors sufficiently for him to be given the temporary rank of
brigadier and command of
11th Brigade. The brigade's previous commander,
Kenneth Anderson, had been promoted to command of 3rd Division during the
evacuation when
Alan Brooke, commander of
II Corps, was recalled to the UK and Montgomery had taken over his command. In addition to his acting promotion, he was promoted to substantive
colonel on
May 28 1941 (with seniority backdated to
July 1 1940).
In 1942, Horrocks was given command of the newly formed
9th Armoured Division and gained the temporary rank of major-general on
June 27. He was an ununsual choice for commander of an armoured division. He was an infantry soldier and had no experience of dealing with cavalry regiments. He trained the division hard and learned a great deal about
armoured warfare in exercises. Despite never commanding a division in battle, he was next given the rank of acting lieutenant-general and sent to
Egypt to command
XIII Corps in the
Eighth Army under its new commander, Montgomery. General
Claude Auchinleck had been dismissed from his commands. General
Harold Alexander and Lieutenant-General Montgomery replaced Auchinleck as
Commander-in-Chief Middle East and Eighth Army commander respectively and were making a "clean sweep". Officers perceived to have failed under the old regime were removed and Montgomery's favoured commanders were brought in. Among these was Horrocks, an officer whom Montgomery felt was "exactly what was wanted for the job that lay ahead".
North Africa
Upon arriving in North Africa, Horrocks' corps was ordered to defend the
Alam el Halfa ridge from the expected attack by the
Afrika Korps. To prevent casualties prior to the planned
Second Battle of El Alamein, Montgomery instructed Horrocks that he repel
Rommel "without getting unduly mauled in the process". On this basis Horrocks prepared a plan for a purely defensive battle, with his armour dug in around the ridge. When the Germans attacked on
August 30 they were unable to coax the British tanks out towards their
88mm guns, a tactic that they'd previously used with great success, and found themselves battered by artillery and the
Desert Air Force. The battle ended with the Germans having captured the Himeihat hill, at a high cost, and the Allied forces unwilling to attempt to recover it after an unsuccessful attack by the
2nd New Zealand Division on the withdrawing Germans. The success in the battle proved crucial in raising the morale of the army. Horrocks received praise from both his subordinate, Brigadier
Roberts, for his "wonderful knack of inspiring confidence and enthusiasm wherever he goes", and his commanding officer, Montgomery, who said "he deserves great credit for his action on that day".
Horrocks was offered the command of
X Corps, an armoured corps, in the planned Alamein battle. He refused it, believing that Major-General
Herbert Lumsden, a cavalry officer, would be more successful in the role. Horrocks therefore retained command of XIII Corps, which was given the task of making a feint to the south in an effort to deceive
Axis forces, while the main thrust was made by
XXX Corps and X Corps to the north. Montgomery that Horrocks wasn't to incur tank losses, and so XIII Corps' offensive operations were limited to small-scale raids.
Horrocks' corps was assigned to the reserve after the battle and was reduced in size while the rest of the Eighth Army pursued the retreating Axis forces. At one point the only formation under his command was a salvage unit clearing the wreckage of the battlefield, which he visited daily. He was appointed a Companion of the
Distinguished Service Order (DSO) on
December 31 1942 for his leadership in both battles at Alamein, and
Mentioned in Despatches on
June 24 1943.
After the fall of
Tripoli the Axis forces retreated to prepared defences in front of the
Mareth Line in southern
Tunisia, a line of French defences built before the war. It was here in March 1943 that Horrocks carried out one of his most successful actions of the war. Horrocks' X Corps, comprising at this time a Free French Brigade, the
1st Armoured Division in addition to the New Zealand Corps (which included
New Zealand 2nd Division and
British 8th Armoured Brigade) under his command, was ordered to attack as part of
Operation Supercharge after an attack by XXX Corps had failed to breach the line. Horrocks carried out a flanking manoeuvre through a pass judged by the Germans to be impenetrable, rendering the Mareth position untenable for the Axis forces, which were again forced to retreat. Three Italian divisions were destroyed and the German
15th Panzer Division,
21st Panzer Division and
164th Division were heavily depleted in the battle. Horrocks was then transferred to
First Army to take over
IX Corps after its previous commander,
John Crocker, was wounded in a training accident. Horrocks led IX Corps in the final Allied offensive in Tunisia during April and May 1943, capturing
Tunis and accepting the surrender of the remaining Axis forces in its area. For his service in Tunisia Horrocks was appointed a
Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) on
August 5 1943.
Horrocks was seriously injured during an air raid at
Bizerte by a
strafing German fighter. He was hit in the top of the chest and the bullets carried through his body, piercing his
lungs,
stomach and
intestines. He had to undergo five operations and spent the next 14 months recovering.]]
Horrocks had recovered sufficiently by June 1944 to meet the
Chief of the Imperial General Staff,
Alan Brooke, and express that he was "very anxious to be given another corps". After being restored to the acting rank of lieutenant-general in August, Horrocks assumed command of
XXX Corps during the battle around the
Falaise gap, where the
Allies defeated the
German Seventh Army. Montgomery had been dissatisfied with the performance of the corps and its commander,
Gerard Bucknall, since the landings. Horrocks retained control of the formation during the advance through
Belgium, capturing
Brussels and, at one point, covered in only six days. Eventually Horrocks diverted to capture
Antwerp. This city was vital to the Allies as the major deep water ports in France remained in German hands, leaving supply lines stretched perilously thin, reaching back to the beaches at
Normandy.
21st Army Group was operating from its ports, twice the distance the logistical plans had been based on. Once the city was secured, XXX Corps was halted by Montgomery because of the continuing supply concerns.
11th Armoured Division stopped at the docks and failed to secure the area around the city, leaving the wide
Albert Canal to the north. Horrocks regretted this after the war, he believed there was enough fuel available for his corps to advance a further, although whether he could have achieved this without stopping is doubtful. The delay had unfortunate consequences, as in September 1944, unknown to the Allies, XXX Corps were opposed by only a single German division. The pause gave the German forces enough time to regroup around the Scheldt. By the time the Allies were able to attack again, the German
First Paratroop Army, under
General Student, had been brought into the line to oppose them and had set up strong defensive positions along the canal. By mid-September, XXX Corps had been diverted to the east, while the
First Canadian Army would be tasked with clearing the strengthened German defensive line stretching from Antwerp down both banks of the
Scheldt River to the North Sea in the month-long, costly
Battle of the Scheldt.
Field Marshal Montgomery made
Operation Market Garden the priority for operations of 21st Army Group, diverting the main effort away from Antwerp and the Scheldt, and XXX Corps under Horrocks would be the lead player in the ground phase. The operation failed in its objective to reach
Arnhem to relieve the
British 1st Airborne Division, who had been told to expect a linkup with Horrocks' forces in two days. In the event they were forced to hold out for nine and eventually almost three-quarters of the division was destroyed or captured due to this failure. Postwar analysis of the battle is torn between a perceived lack of urgency on the part of XXX Corps, and the fact that German defences in the area had been severely underestimated by
First Allied Airborne Army, who had done the intelligence work. Particularly important was the failure to identify an entire corps of SS armour in Arnhem itself, the Airborne intelligence had stated there were "a few infantry units and between 50 and 100 tanks" in the Netherlands area. As the battle developed, a series of counterattacks by Army Group B under
Field Marshal Model kept Horrocks' units on the defensive. The terrain over which Horrocks' men had to attack was also not suited to their mission, restricting the
Guards Armoured Division spearheading the attack to a single narrow raised highway over flat or flooded terrain. In addition, the
Nijmegen bridge, just from Arnhem, wasn't captured on the first day as planned and, by the time XXX Corps arrived two days after
D-Day, it still hadn't been captured. Horrocks wasn't personally blamed for the failure of the operation; in fact, during this period the
U.S. 82nd Airborne Division of
James M. Gavin came under Horrocks' command and Gavin later wrote:
XXX Corps' advance as part of
Operation Veritable, during which the
German Army was forced back over the
Rhine, employed firepower on a massive scale. By this point the corps included 1,050 artillery pieces as well as other weapons, and for a short period had no fewer than nine divisions under command. Prior to the attack Horrocks was offered the use of
Bomber Command to attack the town of
Cleves. Horrocks agreed in order to assist the advance of
15th (Scottish) Division. He later said that this was "the most terrible decision I'd ever taken in my life" and that he felt "physically sick" when he saw the bombers overhead. The bombing was devastating, of high explosive was dropped on the town. Operation Veritable was successful; XXX Corps broke through into
Germany and captured
Bremen on
April 26, exposing the
Sandbostel concentration camp,
Stalag X-B. The corps had reached
Cuxhaven by the time hostilities ceased.
Post-war career
Horrocks continued to serve in the armed forces after the war, receiving substantive promotion to lieutenant-general in 1946 (with seniority backdated to
December 29 1944),. He had a short spell in command of the
British Army of the Rhine, until he was invalided out of the army in 1949 due to his continuing ill-health as a result of the wounds he sustained in North Africa. He was promoted to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the
King's Birthday Honours that year, In 1952 he was appointed
Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod, a post traditionally held by retired officers of the armed forces. The Black Rod has the responsibility of supervising the administration of the
House of Lords, controlling admission to it, as well as taking part in various ceremonies.
Horrocks began to take an interest in writing and submitted a number of articles on military matters to newspapers and magazines, including the
Picture Post and
The Sunday Times. This led to a short but successful career as the presenter of a series of military history television programmes,
Men in Battle and
Epic Battle, produced by
Huw Wheldon, lecturing on great historical battles using map boards and sand tables. This new-found fame included an appearance on the cover of
Radio Times, which rather embarrassed Horrocks. He would also later be interviewed extensively for the
Thames Television series,
The World at War. Following his television career he served on the
board of
Bovis and continued writing. He contributed a column to
The Sunday Times and edited a series of books covering the history of various
regiments of the British Army. His autobiography,
A Full Life, was published in 1960 and he co-authored
Corps Commander, an account of his battles in North-West Europe, published in 1977.
Horrocks acted as a military consultant for the 1977 film
A Bridge Too Far, based on Operation Market Garden.
Edward Fox played Horrocks in the film and later commented:
Horrocks died on
January 4 1985 at the age of 89. On
February 26 a memorial service was held at
Westminster Abbey. The
Queen was represented by Major-General Peter Gillett and the
Prime Minister was represented by the
Secretary of State for Defence,
Michael Heseltine. Thirty regiments and numerous other formations and associations were represented at the service.
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