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Giffard Le Quesne Martel

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Sir Giffard Le Quesne Martel
Lieutenant General Sir Giffard Martel, pictured here in 1942.
Nickname(s)"Q Martel"
"Q"[1]
Born10 October 1889[2]
Millbrook, Southampton, Hampshire, England
Died3 September 1958 (aged 68)
Camberley, Surrey, England
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service / branch British Army
Years of service1908–1945
RankLieutenant-General
Service number6628
UnitRoyal Engineers
Royal Tank Regiment
Commands9th Field Company RE[3]
50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division
Royal Armoured Corps
Battles / warsFirst World War
Second World War
AwardsKnight Commander of the Order of the Bath
Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Distinguished Service Order
Military Cross
Mentioned in dispatches (5)[4]

Lieutenant-General Sir Giffard Le Quesne Martel KCB KBE DSO MC MIMechE (10 October 1889 – 3 September 1958) was a British Army officer who served in both the First and Second World Wars. Familiarly known as "Q Martel" or just "Q", he was a pioneering British military engineer and tank strategist.

Early life and military career

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Born into a traditional military family he was the son of Brigadier-General Sir Charles Philip Martel who was Chief Superintendent of Ordnance Factories. He married Maud Mackenzie on 29 July 1922 and they had one son.[5]

Martel entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich in 1908 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the British Army's Royal Engineers on 23 July 1909.[6] Martel was instrumental in the establishment of The Royal Navy and Army Boxing Association in 1911[7] and was Army and Inter Services boxing champion both before and after World War I.[8]

First World War

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A young Lt Martel (furthest right), October 1914.[9]

Martel deployed for the First World War with 9th Field Company RE, serving in the Great Retreat, First Battle of the Marne, First Battle of the Aisne, the Battle of Armentières and the Second Battle of Ypres. He commanded the 9th Field Company from October 1915 to July 1916.[3]

In 1916, as a sapper officer with direct experience of the first British use of tanks on the Somme, Martel was put in charge of recreating a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) wide replica of the British and German trench systems, complete with no man's land, at Elveden, Norfolk, as part of a tank training ground.[10]

There he developed a keen interest in tank theory believing them to be the future of warfare and in November 1916 he wrote a paper, A Tank Army, suggesting an army composed entirely of armoured vehicles. As J. F. C. Fuller's GSO3 the wide-ranging ideas set out in this paper profoundly influenced Fuller's thinking which at the time simply regarded the tank as no more than a useful adjunct to infantry on the battlefield.[11] Martel was also interested in the construction of wire net roads as deployed in the British Army's 1917–1918 campaign in the Sinai and Palestine and their use in supporting tracked vehicles.[12]

In late 1916, Martel was on Hugh Elles' staff at Bermicourt in France assisting Fuller on the operational planning.[13]

In addition to his MC (1915) and DSO (1916),[14] in the course of the war Martel was mentioned in dispatches five times.[15][4]

Between the wars

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After the Armistice with Germany, now a major, Martel was able to combine his two interests of tanks and military bridging when he became head of the Experimental Bridging Establishment at Christchurch, Hampshire, which researched the possibilities of using tanks for battlefield engineering purposes such as bridge-laying and mine-clearing.[16] Here he continued trials on modified Mark V tanks. The bridging component involved an assault bridge, designed by Major Charles Inglis RE, the Canal Lock Bridge, which had sufficient length to span a canal lock.[17]

Martel, who attended the Staff College, Camberley, from 1921 to 1922, also developed his new bridging concept at the EBE, the Martel bridge, a modular box girder bridge suitable for military use.[4] The Martel bridge was adopted by the British Army in 1925 as the "Large Box Girder Bridge".[18] A smaller version, the Small Box Girder Bridge, was also formally adopted by the Army in 1932 and copied by many countries, including Germany, who called their version the Kastenrager-Gerät (K-Gerät for short).[18] The United States created a copy, the H-20. The modular construction of the basic Martel bridge was also used for the Bailey bridge. In 1954, the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors awarded Martel £500 for infringement on the design of his bridge by the designer of the Bailey bridge, Donald Bailey.[19]

Martel also continued to pursue his interest in tanks independently. In 1925 he built, in his own garage, a one-man tankette powered by a car engine and capable of a speed of 15 mph (24 km/h).[20] After a demonstration to the War Office, Morris Commercial Cars was contracted to build four test models, the first of which was delivered in 1926. Carden Loyd Tractors[21] built a similar one-man machine, the Carden Loyd One Man Tankette.[22]

In 1927, eight more Martel tankettes were ordered to assess their potential role in forward reconnaissance. They were tested along with two-man Carden Loyd tankettes in manoeuvres with the Experimental Mechanized Force on Salisbury Plain in 1927 and 1928.[23]

The idea for a single-man fighting vehicle was soon dropped as it became apparent that one operator could not control the vehicle at the same time as firing a weapon and the British Army requirement for a light tank, the Light Tank Mark I, was a development of the Carden Loyd tankette.[24] Morris Motors tried developing a two-man version of the Martel design and Crossley Motors a further version - the Morris-Martel - in 1927 with Kégresse rubber tracks but after two prototypes were tested the project was abandoned.[25][26]

In 1928, the Tank and Tracked Transport Advisory Committee that Martel was a member of became the Mechanical Warfare Board which was to liaise with industry and to advise on technical matters relating to "mechanised transport".[27] In 1929, Martel was seconded to the King George V's Own Bengal Sappers and Miners and then served as an instructor at the British Indian Army's Staff College in Quetta from 1930 until 1934, after which he attended the Imperial Defence College.[4] From 1936 until 1939, Martel served at the War Office, first as Assistant Director of Mechanisation, then from 1938 as the Deputy Director with the temporary rank of Brigadier.[28][2]

In 1936, he attended along with Wavell a large-scale tank exercise in the Belorussian Military District of the Soviet Union in which large numbers of the Soviet BT tanks took part. Martel pressured for a similar fast tank design to be investigated for addition to British tank brigades and convinced the General Staff to issue a specification for a cruiser tank.[29]

Martel was appointed General Officer Commanding the 50th Northumbrian Division, Territorial Army in February 1939 with the rank of major-general.[30][31] The division had been converted from October 1938 to "motorised" with the whole of the infantry being carried by large lorries.[32]

Second World War

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After a tank demonstration near Frensham, Surrey; Martel, Władysław Sikorski (Prime Minister of the Polish Government-in-Exile and C-in-C of the Polish Armed Forces), Winston Churchill, General Charles de Gaulle (C-in-C of the Free French Forces) and Willoughby Norrie (GOC 1st Armoured Division), February 1941.

The 50th Division embarked for France on 14 September 1939 as part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). There, on 21 May 1940 during the Battle of France, Martel directed the tank attack on the 7th Panzer Division in the Battle of Arras in which the German frontline was driven back eight miles.[5][33]

Following the BEF's evacuation, Martel became the Commander of the Royal Armoured Corps in 1940 where he put his theories of armoured warfare to good use.[34][35] In March 1941, he gave the military attaché of the neutral United States in London, Brigadier General Raymond E. Lee, a report outlining his experiences and assessment of the German armoured tactics in France.[36]

In March 1943, Martel became the Head of the Military Mission to the Soviet Union.[37] He assessed the effectiveness of the Soviet order of battle and tactics during a visit to the front line in the Kursk-Oryol region between 11 and 19 May 1943.[38][39]

His reports based on his visit to the Soviet front line and his discussions with the Red Army Tank Directorate concluded that the Soviet battlefield experience would be far more relevant to armoured tactics in the forthcoming Operation Overlord than that of the experience of the British Army in the North African campaign. Martel's intelligence-gathering and his clear and perceptive analyses of the Soviet military position were commended by his superiors at the War Office but with the arrival of the new and overtly anti-communist Head of RAF Mission, Air Marshal Sir John Babington in September 1943 his working relationship with the Soviets deteriorated with a marked decline in co-operation. He was recalled, being replaced by Lieutenant-General Montagu Burrows and left Moscow on 7 February 1944.[40] Later that month, he lost his right eye as a result of a German bombing raid on London.[41]

Subsequent life

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Martel was knighted in 1943,[42] with the Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath following in 1944.[5] He retired from the army in 1945 with the rank of lieutenant-general.[43][39][44] He stood unsuccessfully as the Conservative Party candidate for the Barnard Castle constituency in the 1945 UK General Election.[45][44]

On his retirement, Martel wrote on military matters. He died at his home in Camberley, Surrey, on 3 September 1958.[46]

References

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  1. ^ Mead 2007, p. 285.
  2. ^ a b The Times, Saturday, 22 Jan 1938; pg. 7; Issue 47899; col G
  3. ^ a b "The Balswins: A Family of Royal Engineers". RE Ubique. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d Smart 2005, p. 210.
  5. ^ a b c "Obituary, WORLD-FAMOUS EXPERT ON TANK WARFARE", The Herald, Glasgow, 4 September 1958
  6. ^ "No. 28282". The London Gazette. 24 August 1909. p. 6448.
  7. ^ Tony Mason, Eliza Riedi (2010). Sport and the Military: The British Armed Forces 1880-1960. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781139788977. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  8. ^ Hamilton, Nigel (1981). Monty: The Making of a General 1887-1942. McGraw-Hill Book Company. p. 352.
  9. ^ Young, B. K. (March 1934). "The Diary of an R.E. Subaltern with the B.E.F. in 1914" (PDF). The Royal Engineers Journal (Contd.). 48: 16. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
  10. ^ Christy Campbell (2008). Band of Brigands: The First Men in Tanks. Harper Perennial. ISBN 9780007325856. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  11. ^ Azar Gat (2001). A History of Military Thought: From the Enlightenment to the Cold War. OUP Oxford. ISBN 9780199247622. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  12. ^ LIDDELL: 15/12/13 1922–1925 – King's College London, Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
  13. ^ Men, Ideas, and Tanks: British Military Thought and Armoured Forces, 1903–1939 By J. P. Harris, pg. 80
  14. ^ "No. 12947". The Edinburgh Gazette. 5 June 1916. p. 994.
  15. ^ "The Army Director of Personal Services" The Times, Saturday, 22 Jan 1938; pg. 7; Issue 47899; col G
  16. ^ Corps History - Part 15 The Corps between the wars (1919-39), Royal Engineers Museum, 7 February 2007, archived from the original on 1 May 2008
  17. ^ "The Inglis Bridges". Think Defence. 9 December 2017. Retrieved 31 October 2021.
  18. ^ a b Think Defence (30 December 2011). "UK Military Bridging – Equipment (Pre WWII Equipment Bridging)". thinkdefence.co.uk. Retrieved 8 May 2017. Adopted by the Army in 1925 the Large Box Girder Bridge was adaptable and relatively cheap, able to carry loads of up to 40 tonnes, it remained in service until replaced by the Bailey.
  19. ^ "Bridge Claim By General 'Used As Basis For Bailey Design'". The Times. 26 July 1955. p. 4 col E.
  20. ^ B T White, British Tanks 1915–1945, pg. 11
  21. ^ named for its founders Sir John Carden and Vivian Loyd who joined forces to make military tracked vehicles
  22. ^ "British Tankettes, Carden Loyd One Man Tankette". Florida State University. Archived from the original on 11 December 2012. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  23. ^ White, pg. 11
  24. ^ "Martel, Morris-Martel One Man Tankette". Florida State University. Archived from the original on 11 December 2012. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  25. ^ "Morris-Martel Two Man Tankette". Tanks! Armoured Warfare Prior to 1946. William A. Kirk Jr. Archived from the original on 11 December 2012. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  26. ^ "Crossley Military Vehicles After WW1". Crossley Motors Ltd. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  27. ^ The Times, Tuesday, 20 March 1928; pg. 16; Issue 44846; col F
  28. ^ The Times, Saturday, 8 Feb 1936; pg. 17; Issue 47293; col D
  29. ^ Milsom, John; Sandars, John; Scarborough, Gerald (1976). Crusader. Classic Armoured Fighting Vehicles: Their History and How to Model Them. Cambridge: Patrick Stephens in association with Airfix. pp. 5–7. ISBN 0-85059-194-5.
  30. ^ "Changes in the Army" The Times, Thursday, 15 Dec 1938; pg. 22; Issue 48178; col A
  31. ^ "No. 34600". The London Gazette. 21 February 1939. p. 1209.
  32. ^ "Motorized" T.A. Divisions The Times, Tuesday, 10 Jan 1939; pg. 6; Issue 48199; col F
  33. ^ Mead 2007, p. 286−287.
  34. ^ "Battle of Britain Brains Utilized", The Virgin Islands Daily News, 7 January 1941
  35. ^ Mead 2007, p. 287.
  36. ^ Mahnken, Thomas G. (2009). Uncovering Ways of War: U.S. Intelligence and Foreign Military Innovation. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0801439865. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  37. ^ "British General Sent to Moscow". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 22 March 1943.
  38. ^ Searle, D. Alaric (2007). "Uneasy intelligence collaboration, genuine ill will, with an admixture of ideology: the British Military Mission to the Soviet Union, 1941–1945" (PDF). pp. 12–13. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 October 2021. Retrieved 31 October 2021 – via University of Salford.
  39. ^ a b Mead 2007, p. 288.
  40. ^ Stoker, Donald J. (2010). Military Advising and Assistance: From Mercenaries to Privatization, 1815-2007. Routledge. ISBN 9780415770156. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  41. ^ Sir Giffard Le Quesne Martel (1949). An Outspoken Soldier:His Views And Memoirs. Sifton. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  42. ^ "No. 36033". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 June 1943. p. 2424.
  43. ^ MARTEL, Sir Giffard Le Quesne (1889–1958), Lieutenant-General – King's College London, Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives.
  44. ^ a b Smart 2005, p. 211.
  45. ^ "UK General Election results July 1945". Political Science Resources. Archived from the original on 25 May 2015. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  46. ^ "British tank expert dead", The Bulletin, Glasgow, p. 2, 4 September 1958 – via Google News

Publications

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Bibliography

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Military offices
Preceded by GOC 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division
1939–1940 		Succeeded by
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