TANK COMMAND

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 109, 10 May 1941, Page 12

TANK COMMAND

MAN WHO MADE ONE

TWO NEW LEADERS I LONDON. Mojor-General G. le Q. Mattel, who made thc first light tank in his private garage, has been appointed Commander of the Royal Armoured Corps. The establishment of this new Command for the H.A.C. is a departure in army administration and, says the War Oflice, "marks the reaching of a definite stage in the policy of rapidly-increasing the armoured strength of the army to which the military authorities nave been devoting themselves." Another important appointment is that of Lieutenant-General the Hon. H. R. L. G. Alexander as G.O.C. Southern Command. He succeeds General Auchinlcck, now Com-mander-in-Chief in India. Both are youiig men for such important positions. General Martcl is fifty-one. and General Alexander is forty-nine. General Martel served on the Tank Corps staff in Fiance in the last war. He was made Brigade-Major of the Heavy Armoured branch of tanks. From 192: i to 1926 he was AssistantDirector of Fortifications at the War Ofiicc. Later he played an important part in the mechanisation of the army, first as Assistant-Director of Mechanisation at the War Office and later as Deputy-Director. "Strategic Mind." He was mentioned in Captain Liddell Hart's last book, "Dynamic Defence." When there was concern three years ago about tank production there was a change in the office of Master-General of the Ordnance. "An obvious choice, seniority apart, was Colonel Martel, who had recently been brought into the Department as third man down the ladder," wrote Liddcll Hart. I "He combined a broad strategic mind with great inventive gifts, having built the first light tank in his garage. But he was onlv fortyeight and a colonel—while the post was customarily held by a lieu-tenant-general. "And when his turn.came for promotion to major-general he left the sphere of tank production to command a Territorial division." At Dunkirk General Alexander, described by Liddell Hart as one of the outstanding successes of the campaigns in France, commanded the BE F during the last days of the Dunkirk evacuation, and has . since been serving as a corps commander. He commanded a battalion in 1916 at the age of twenty-four, and when he became major-general three years ago he was the youngest in the army, He went over the top thirty times in the last war.