Richard O'Connor - Operation Market Garden, India and Afterwards

Operation Market Garden, India and Afterwards

O'Connor remained in command of VIII Corps, for the time being, and was given the task of supporting 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.

On 27 November he was removed from his post and was ordered to take over from Lieutenant-General Sir Mosley Mayne as GOC-in-C, Eastern Command in 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 the CIGS Field Marshal Alan Brooke but Montgomery made no attempt to retain O'Connor. 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.

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. From 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, then Chief of the Imperial General Staff, maintained that he had been sacked rather than resigned for being "not up to the job". Not long after this he was installed a Knight Grand Cross of the Bath.