Giffard LeQuesne Martel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

General Sir Giffard Le Quesne Martel, KCB, KBE, DSO, MC (1889 - 1958), familiarly known as "Q Martel", was a British Army officer during World War I and World War II.

Originally a member of the Royal Engineers, Martel developed an interest in tanks in 1916, when he was put in charge of building an obstacle course at the new tank training ground at Thetford in Norfolk. In 1919, he was able to combine his two interests when he became head of the Experimental Bridging Establishment at Christchurch, which researched the possibilities of using tanks for engineering purposes such as bridge-laying and mine-clearing. He continued to pursue his interest in tanks, becoming commanding officer of a company of Royal Engineers attached to the Experimental Mechanised Force on Salisbury Plain.

Following this assignment, he served as an instructor at the Indian Army's Staff College in Quetta, India (now in Pakistan) from 1930 until 1934. From 1936 until 1939, he served at the War Office, first as Assistant Director of Mechanisation, then as Deputy Director. With the outbreak of war, he was appointed commander of the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division, which was part of the British Expeditionary Force. Following the BEF's evacuation from Dunkirk in 1940, he was put in charge of the Royal Armoured Corps, where he put his insights into the theory of armoured warfare to good use.

In early 1943, he became the head of the British Military Mission to the Soviet Union. In his autobiography An Outspoken Soldier, he describes advising Stavka to allow the Germans to strike first at Kursk. To which extent his advice affected the course of the battle is debatable, since his first conference with Stavka did not occur until late May, while Zhukov had been advocating the same thing since March, and had all but convinced Stalin by mid-April. However, Martel's advice that the most effective way of preventing the enemy from exploiting a breakthrough was by pushing on the "shoulders" (or "haunches") of the penetration may have proved useful.

Martel retired from the army in 1945, at the rank of full general. He died in 1958. Despite his nickname and his interest in technology, he did not serve as the inspiration for the character of Q in the James Bond novels and films.