World War II
Sir Archibald Wavell dismissed Hobart into retirement in 1940, based on hostile War Office information due to his "unconventional" ideas about armoured warfare. Hobart joined the Local Defence Volunteers (precursor to the Home Guard) as a lance-corporal and was charged with the defence of his home village, Chipping Campden. "At once, Chipping Campden became a hedgehog of bristling defiance", and Hobart was promoted to become Deputy Area Organiser. Liddell Hart criticised the decision to retire Hobart and wrote an article in the newspaper Sunday Pictorial. Winston Churchill was notified and he had Hobart re-enlisted into the army in 1941. Hobart was assigned to train 11th Armoured Division, which was recognised as an extremely successful task. His detractors tried again to have him removed, this time on medical grounds, but Churchill rebuffed them. Subsequently, however, he was removed from the 11th Armoured when they were transferred to Tunisia in September 1942. He was relatively old (57) for active command and he had been ill.
Once again, Hobart was assigned to raise and train a fresh armoured division, this time the 79th.
Read more about this topic: Percy Hobart
Famous quotes containing the words world and/or war:
“Children became an obsessive theme in Victorian culture at the same time that they were being exploited as never before. As the horrors of life multiplied for some children, the image of childhood was increasingly exalted. Children became the last symbols of purity in a world which was seen as increasingly ugly.”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)
“Haven’t you heard, though,
About the ships where war has found them out
At sea, about the towns where war has come
Through opening clouds at night with droning speed
Further o’erhead than all but stars and angels
And children in the ships and in the towns?”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)