MECHANISED ARMY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 51, 10 December 1940, Page 5

MECHANISED ARMY

DEVELOPMENT IN BRITAIN.

NEW COMMAND INSTITUTED.

DECISIVE STEP FORWARD

(United Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.55 a.m.) LONDON, December 9.

The King has approved the appointment of Major-General H. R. L. G. Alexander to be General Officer Com-mander-in-Chief of the Southern Command.

Major-General G. le Q. Martel will be Commander of the Royal Armoured Corps.

General Alexander will succeed General Auchinleck, who has been Com-mander-in-Chief in India. He was in command of the British Expeditionary Force during the last days of the evacuation from Dunkirk. He is 49 years of age. The appointment of Commander of the Royal Armoured Corps is a new appointment, and General Martel is particularly fitted for it. He served on the staff of the Tank Corps in -France for 18 months in 1917-18, and was As-sistant-Director of Mechanisation at the War Office from October, 1936, to De-r comber, 1937, thereafter being DeputyDirector of the same branch until February last year. He is 51 years of age.

The creation of such an appointment marks the reaching of a definite stage in the policy of rapidly increasing the armoured strength of the Army, to which military authorities have ' been devoting themselves.—British Official Wireless.