Comments by "Ben Wilson" (@benwilson6145) on "British Armour Doctrine \u0026 Tactics World War 2 with David Willey of @thetankmuseum" video.

  1. The slow movement of the Eighth Army after El Alamein is a myth. The advance was not as fast as Monty wanted, as he was held up by his officers not obeying orders and stopping, these included Lumsden, Freyberg and Gatehouse. The most ironic part it was Gatehouse who was sacked by Montgomery after failure to follow orders and attack Rommel’s retreating troops that made the allegations that Montgomery was too cautious after El Alamein. While the truth is he disobeyed orders sitting on a hill at Mersa Matruh saying “ This is Custances battle and I’m not going to interfere”. Gatehouse’s tanks were held up by one anti tank gun and he had approx 40 tanks. Monty had advanced so far that his headquarters were ahead of his own Generals, leading to the capture of his Step son. Rommel described the Eighth Army advance in a letter to his wife as vulture like. The 8th Army did 1,100 km in just 17 days from El Alamein to Benghazi November 4th to 20th 1942.  If you can find any one to beat that let us know,. After El Alamein the Germans and Italians had lost about 30,000 captured, including nine German Generals, 10,000 killed and 15,000 wounded.  The problems with the Generals in the Eighth Army not doing as they were ordered had caused problems for both Ritchie and Auchinlect. Monty sacked Gatehouse and Lumsden but could not sack Freyberg as he was a New Zealander.
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