William Gott

William Henry Ewart " Strafer" Gott (born the August 13rd 1897, dead the August 7th 1942) was a British lieutenant-general of the second world war. It received several medals and titles: the Order of the Bath, the Order of the British Empire, the Order of the service distinguished and the military Cross. It was normally to take the command of the British troops in the Middle East in 1942 in the place of Claude Auchinleck but the plane which transported it was cut down by a German hunter.

Biography

As an officer of the King' S Royal Files Body (KRRC), Gott carried out its service in France within the British force expeditionary during the First World War.

It arrives to Egypt in 1939 with the rank of lieutenant-colonel at the head of the 1st battalion of the KRRC. Its ranks were successively general staff officer of level I, ordering group of support (sergeant) then officer ordering (major-general) the 7th armor-plated division (“rats of the desert”). Gott was promoted lieutenant-general and accepted the command of British XIIIe body to the beginning of the year 1942. It carried out these troops at the time of the Bataille of Gazala and the First battle of El Alamein.

In August 1942, the Prime Minister Winston Churchill withdrew the command of the troops in the Middle East and the 8th army with Claude Auchinleck. The impetuous and somewhat aggressive personality of Gott liked Churchill which had envisaged to place it at the head of the 8th army. Gott was called besides Strafer (the “machine gunner”) because of its ardor.

Auchinleck issued reserves, just as Alan Brooke, then chief of the imperial general staff, which saw in Gott an officer who would not be able to correctly carry out operations of great scale, with the confused context of the war in North Africa melts about it before and after the first battle of El Alamein. Even if Gott were an officer of quality to the head of only one large unit, its adversaries did not see it ready to implement the co-operation and coordination necessary between the various speakers of the army.

Before even as it cannot reach its station, Gott was killed when its plane was cut down by a German hunter Me 109 whereas it turned over to the Cairo since the battle field. He survived the crash landing of the conveyer and tried to help the other occupants of the apparatus but was cut down by the machine-guns of the squadron of hunters. Only 5 people out of 18 left themselves there.

Its substitute was the lieutenant-general Bernard Montgomery voted by plebiscite by Alan Brooks, although Churchill preferred Henry Wilson to him.

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