Major General Sir Percy Cleghorn Stanley HOBART
(1885-1967)

Percy Cleghorn Stanley Hobart was born in India on 14 June 1885, where his father was in the Indian Civil Service. After Clifton College he entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich and was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1904. In 1906 he was posted to India where he joined the Bengal Sappers and Miners.

In January 1915 he went to France with the 1st Indian Expeditionary Force and won the MC at Neuve Chapelle, but was transferred to Mesopotamia in January 1916, where he was awarded the DSO.

He was a forward thinker with a strong personality and on more than one occasion these characteristics led him into trouble with his superiors, many of whom failed to appreciate that change was inevitable and that future wars were unlikely to be on the same lines as in 1914-1918.

Hobart - 'Hobo' to his military colleagues - returned to India in 1921 and, in the belief that any future wars would be won by the tank, transferred to the Royal Tank Corps on its formation in 1923.

After four years as an instructor at the Staff College in Quetta, he returned to England, initially as 2 i/c of the 4th Battalion of the Tank Corps and later as CO of the 2nd Battalion.

In 1934 he raised and commanded the 1st Tank Brigade and in four years he evolved new tactical methods based on mobility and speed, linked to new techniques for command and control.

After a short spell at the War Office, he was appointed Director of Military Training and in 1938 was sent to Egypt to raise what was to become the 7th Armoured Division. But his advanced views on the use of armour did not find favour in all quarters and in 1939 he was retired, at the age of 54. The soundness of his methods and training were well illustrated by this famous division in subsequent years.

However, his active military career was far from over and in 1941, after a short period in the ranks in the Home Guard, he was recalled at the specific order of Winston Churchill and given command of the 11th Armoured Division. Following the disaster at Dieppe in 1942, the need for specialist armoured equipment was realised and in April 1943 Hobart was given the task of raising, organising and training the 79th Armoured Division for the invasion of Europe in 1944.

At the outbreak of war in 1939, the Royal Engineers had no armoured vehicles but it quickly became clear that change was needed. As a first step, armoured scout cars were issued to Field Squadrons of Armoured Divisions and these were followed by armoured personnel carriers.

But it was accepted that some form of engineer tank was required to enable Royal Engineers personnel to force routes through minefields and over or through defended anti-tank obstacles.

Tanks were not available for experimental work but as a compromise for a particular operation, some were "lent" to the Sappers for these tasks. Certain fittings, which could be mounted and removed in a matter of hours were developed, mostly in the field.

The formation of 79th Armoured Division, under Hobart, put massive emphasis on the development programme, with a brief to "co-ordinate the development of armoured assault techniques and equipment."

Hobart's Funnies

Below are some examples of Hobart's innovations - Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers (AVREs).

Small Box Girder bridge mounted on a Sherman tank



Petard mounted on a Churchill tank



A double ARK (Armoured Ramp Carrier)
crossing River Senio, Itlay 1945

By the end of October 1943, various engineer units had been re-named and transferred into this division as 1st Assault Brigade Royal Engineers. This brigade comprised 3 Assault Regiments, each with 4 Assault Squadrons, plus an Assault Park Squadron. This structure remained unchanged up to the Normandy landings in June 1944.

The basic vehicle of these assault units was the Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers (AVREs). This was a Churchill tank with its turret modified or removed and to which were attached certain special equipments.

These included - Petard, Assault Bridge, Fascines, Crocodile, Bulldozer, Flails, the Bobbin flexible carpet and several others. There is no space here to describe each in detail but all were developed, in a remarkably short space of time, under the watchful eye and with the ruthless enthusiasm and confident nature of "Hobo". He would not consider failure.

A more permanent adaptation of the Churchill tank was the Ark (Armoured Ramp Karrier). With the turret removed, and with trackways fitted over the top and at each end, this machine could be driven into a ditch, thus forming a causeway over which battle tanks could cross.

Many of these machines, cynically christened "Hobart's Funnies" were crewed by the Royal Engineers within 1st Assault Brigade but the Flail tanks and the DD Amphibious tanks were manned by units of the Royal Armoured Corps.

Despite opposition from various quarters, Hobart wanted the 79th Armoured Division to be made up entirely of armoured units and its success in Europe, followed by a similar formation structure in Italy, led to the total vindication of his philosophies.

Much of the 79th Armoured Division landed in Normandy early on the morning of 6th June 1944 as a special assault team in support of the three infantry divisions on the British/Canadian sector. This assault support role, under the continuing command of Hobart, was maintained until the end of the war.

May 1945 saw the end of the war in Europe, with the 79th Armoured Division in the Hamburg area. By August, the division was being disbanded but there was a small re-incarnation with the formation, in Suffolk, of the Specialised Armour Development Establishment (SADE), with Hobart at the helm.

But even though potential danger still threatened from the East European Bloc, the pace there was slow and March 1946 saw Percy Hobart's "second retirement" at the age of 60.

Initial efforts to find further direct employment were not successful but, with Field Marshal Montgomery as the new Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Hobart was appointed Lieutenant Governor of the Royal Hospital in Chelsea. In 1947 he was appointed a Colonel Commandant of The Royal Armoured Corps.

He left Chelsea in 1953 but in 1955 became seriously ill. Despite all his previous strength of character, this was a battle which he could not win, and he died on 19th February 1957, aged 71.

It was not widely known outside military circles that Percy Hobart was Viscount Montgomery's brother-in-law. Although they did not always see eye to eye, "Monty" was fulsome in his praise of "Hobo" in an obituary notice. "Hobo" had been a Major General in 1937 and was, at that time, far senior to all the senior commanders of 21st Army Group under whom he served throughout the war.

Hobart Barracks in Detmold, West Germany was named after Major General Sir Percy Hobart KBE, CB, DSO, MC.