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Man of armour: A study of Lieut-General Vyvyan Pope and the development of armoured warfare
Hardcover
Published January 1, 1976
About the author
Ronald Lewin
17 books7 followersRonald Lewin was a British military historian, radio producer and publishing editor who has wrote several books on World War II and several of the WWII commanders like Lieut-General Vyvyan Pope, Montgomery and Rommel.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 14, 2016
A fascinating, yet frustrating book. Lewin traces the career of Vyvyan Pope, who might have become one of the most important British generals of the Second World War, had he not been killed in a plane crash just as he was about to take command of the main armoured formation in Eighth Army on the eve of El Alamein - hence the frustration for the reader, that Pope died before having the opportunity to demonstrate whether his undoubted understanding of armoured forces would have been translated into battlefield success, or swept aside by Rommel and the Afrika Corps.
Lewin draws a compelling picture of Pope, who at times seems almost the stereotypical British officer of the period, driving his car at breakneck speed despite losing his right arm in action in March 1918. But Lewin shows Pope was much more than that. He was a deeply practical soldier, as during his time commanding an armoured car company in the Egyptian desert in 1922/23, testing the logistics of desert operations. His experience in France in 1940, where he played a central role in the famous Arras counterattack, the first British use of tanks since 1918, also showed his abilities as a thinker about the principles of armoured combat.
Overall, a well-written and focused study of one of the men who made the British armoured corps what it was at the start of the Second World War, but whose untimely death left his reputation and potential uncertain.
Lewin draws a compelling picture of Pope, who at times seems almost the stereotypical British officer of the period, driving his car at breakneck speed despite losing his right arm in action in March 1918. But Lewin shows Pope was much more than that. He was a deeply practical soldier, as during his time commanding an armoured car company in the Egyptian desert in 1922/23, testing the logistics of desert operations. His experience in France in 1940, where he played a central role in the famous Arras counterattack, the first British use of tanks since 1918, also showed his abilities as a thinker about the principles of armoured combat.
Overall, a well-written and focused study of one of the men who made the British armoured corps what it was at the start of the Second World War, but whose untimely death left his reputation and potential uncertain.
Displaying 1 of 1 review