Percy Hobart

Sir Percy Hobart (1885-1957) was British military engineer and commander of the 79th Experimental Armored Division during the World War Two. Many of his contemporary superior officers mainly tried to disregard him.

Percy Cleghorn Stanley Hobart was born in 1885. In his youth he studied history, painting, literature and church architecture.

On 1904 Hobart graduated from the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich and was commissioned with the Royal Engineers. First he was sent to India but during the World War One, he was first sent to France and then to Iraq.

At the early 1920's Hobart was a military engineer was transferred to the Royal Tank Corps. He was greatly influenced by writings of B. H. Liddell Hart about armored warfare. He also earned a nickname "Hobo". In 1934 he became a brigadier of the first permanent armored brigade in Britain. Still he had to fight for supplies for his command, because British Army was still dominated by cavalry officers. When he was sent to form an armored unit to Egypt in 1938, local general resisted his efforts. Still he made his best to form the 2nd Armored Brigade, which was later nicknamed Desert Rats during the following war.

After the outbreak of the World War Two in 1939, Sir Archibald Wavell dismissed Hobart into retirement, based on hostile War Office information due to his "unconventional" ideas about armored warfare. Hobart joined the Home Guard as a corporal. Liddell Hart criticized the decision to Wavell and wrote an article in Sunday Pictorial. Winston Churchill was notified and he had Hobart re-enlisted into army as Major Colonel. Hobart was assigned to train 11th Armored Division, intended for North Africa. His opponents tried to have him dismissed again for medical grounds but Churchill rebuffed them.

On March 1943 General Alan Brooke assigned Hobart to form a unit in the handling of specialized armor. Hobart was reputedly suspicious at first and conferred with Liddle Hart before he accepted. The unit was named 79th (Experimental) Armored Division Royal Engineers. Unit insignia was a black bull's head with flaring nostrils superimposed over a yellow triangle. Later in the same year Hobart was knighted. His brother-in-law Bernard Montgomery informed Eisenhower of his needs to build unusual tank designs.

Under Hobart's leadership, 79th build a number of unusual modified tanks designs that were nicknamed "Hobart's Funnies". Many of them were modified Churchill tanks. One model had a reel of cloth reinforced with steel poles that was unrolled beneath its tracks so it would not sink into soft clay in amphibious landing. One modification carried a bundle of wooden poles (a fascine) lashed together with wires that could be released to cover a ditch or form a step. Armored Ramp Carrier was a tank without a turret that had extendable ramps; other vehicles could drive up ramps and over the vehicle to scale obstacles. Small Box Girder was an assault bridge that was transported on the tank that could be lowered to span gaps. "Crocodile" had had its machine gun replaced with a powerful flamethrower and was equipped with a trailer of 400 gallons of fuel. Sherman "Crabs" were modified Sherman tanks equipped with a rotating cylinder of hefty flails that ended in steel balls that were used to explode mines.

At the end of the war 79th had almost 7000 vehicles. Unit insignia was painted on every vehicle. Many of the vehicles were first used in the Dieppe raid. Later most of them landed successfully on the Sword Beach during the Normandy Invasion. They did not serve alone but attached to US and British units.

The 79th Armored Division was disbanded August 20 1945. After the war Hobart received US Legion of Merit and retired.

Sir Percy Hobart died February 19 1957.