Lieutenant GeneralGerard Corfield Bucknall,CB,MC &Bar,DL (14 September 1894 – 7 December 1980) was a seniorBritish Army officer who served in both theFirst andSecond World Wars. He is most notable for being the commander ofXXX Corps during theNormandy landings and the subsequentBattle of Normandy which followed in the summer of 1944.^[1]

Gerard Bucknall
Lieutenant General Corfield Bucknall (left) with BrigadierHarold Pyman in Normandy, 1944.
Nickname(s)	"Gerry"
Born	(1894-09-14)14 September 1894 Rock Ferry,Cheshire, England
Died	7 December 1980(1980-12-07) (aged 86) Cheam,London Borough of Sutton, England
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/ branch	British Army
Years of service	1914–1948
Rank	Lieutenant General
Service number	5026
Unit	Middlesex Regiment
Commands	Northern Ireland District (1944–47) XXX Corps (1944) 5th Infantry Division (1943–44) I Corps (1943) XI Corps (1942–43) 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division (1941–42) 138th Infantry Brigade (1940–41) 2nd Battalion,Middlesex Regiment (1939)
Battles / wars	First World War Second World War
Awards	Companion of the Order of the Bath Military Cross &Bar Mentioned in Despatches

Gerard Bucknall was born on 14 September 1894 inRock Ferry,Cheshire, England, the son of Harry Corfield Bucknall and Alice Frederica, daughter of Thomas William Oakshott,JP, of Derby House, Rock Ferry.^[2] He was educated atRepton School andWest Downs School.^[3] Entering theRoyal Military College, Sandhurst in 1913, Bucknall wascommissioned as asecond lieutenant into theMiddlesex Regiment on 25 February 1914.^[4][5][6]

During theFirst World War Bucknall, promoted to thetemporary rank oflieutenant on 5 October 1914 (made permanent on 11 December 1914),^[7] served with the 1st Battalion, Middlesex inFrance and Belgium with some distinction, in particular during theBattle of the Somme on 25 August 1916 where he took command of the battalion and was awarded theMilitary Cross (MC). The citation for the MC reads:

For conspicuous gallantry in action. When his senior officers had become casualties, he went up and down the line cheering and reorganising his men in face of very heavy fire.^[8]

From 6 June 1917 he served as abrigade major with the114th Infantry Brigade,^[9] part of the38th (Welsh) Division, until war's end, and in 1918 he was awarded aBar to his MC andmentioned in despatches.^[10][6][11]

During theinterwar period Bucknall served initially with his old battalion in Germany, theEgyptian Army^[5] (Egypt was thende facto part of theBritish Empire). He then returned to the 1st Middlesex and remained with the battalion until he attended theStaff College, Camberley from 1928 to 1929. His fellow students there includedJohn Harding,Gerald Templer,Richard McCreery,Gordon MacMillan andAlexander Galloway. After returning to his regiment he was made a GSO3 at theWar Office from 21 January 1931,^[12] until 30 August 1932, when he returned to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, to command a company of gentlemen cadets.^[13]

Bucknall was promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel on 1 January 1936,^[14] and attended theRoyal Naval College, Greenwich. From 13 March 1937^[15] until 12 April 1939 he served as an instructor at theRoyal Military College of Canada, taking over from Gordon MacMillan, where he came into contact with some of the Canadian generals of the next war, such asHarry Crerar, the college Commandant, andE. L. M. Burns andGuy Simonds, both fellow instructors. He returned to the United Kingdom in 1939 and became CO of the 2nd Battalion, Middlesex Regiment.^[5][1] He was only with the battalion for a few short months, however, before receiving promotion tocolonel on 1 August (with seniority backdating to 1 January 1939) and being made an Assistant Quartermaster-General at theWar Office.^[16]

Bucknall was still in this post by the outbreak of theSecond World War, in September 1939, by the time theBritish Expeditionary Force (BEF) left for France. He then commanded the138th Infantry Brigade and, promoted to acting major general on 29 July 1941,^[17] was appointedGeneral Officer Commanding (GOC)53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division, taking over from Major GeneralBevil Wilson. His rank of major general was made temporary on 29 July 1942.^[18] He was promoted to the acting rank of lieutenant general on 12 September 1942^[19] and succeeded Lieutenant GeneralJohn Crocker as GOCXI Corps inEast Anglia. He held this command until April 1943 when he succeeded Lieutenant GeneralFrederick Morgan as GOC ofI Corps, which was earmarked as an assault formation for theinvasion of Normandy. With the3rd Canadian Division and the British3rd and49th (West Riding) Infantry Divisions, along with, under command, I Corps . He was made aCompanion of the Order of the Bath (CB) on 2 June 1943.^[20]

Frustrated at training troops and wishing to command them in battle in an overseastheatre of war, he requested demotion in rank, to temporary major general, so he could command a division. Sent to theMediterranean theatre, his chance came on 3 August 1943 when he became GOC of the5th Infantry Division in succession to Major-GeneralHoratio Berney-Ficklin, who had been in command for over three years.^[6] The division was thenfighting in Sicily, which had been invaded the month before by theAllies, and was serving as part of the BritishEighth Army, commanded by General SirBernard Montgomery, who had been one of Bucknall's instructors at the Staff College. Bucknall led the division during the final stages of the campaign in Sicily, followed in September by theAllied invasion of Italy and in the early stages of theItalian campaign, including in theFirst Battle of Monte Cassino in January 1944.^[5][21] His rank of major general was made permanent on 21 December 1943.^[22]

Bucknall's relatively brief performance under his command had sufficiently impressed Montgomery, who in late December 1943 returned to the United Kingdom to take command of the21st Army Group, and when he was chosen to commandOperation Overlord, the Alliedinvasion of Normandy, he appointed Bucknall to commandXXX Corps – Bucknall took command on 27 January 1944, and was made an acting lieutenant general.^[5] On 11 March his rank of lieutenant general was made temporary.^[23] TheChief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), Field Marshal SirAlan Brooke, believed Bucknall to be unsuitable for command at that level.^[11]

In August 1944 Bucknall was sacked, due to the relatively poor performance of XXX Corps (seeOperation Perch) and replaced by Lieutenant GeneralBrian Horrocks.^[5] Montgomery conceded that it had been a mistake to appoint him and, in November 1944, Bucknall revert to his permanent rank of major general and was given command ofNorthern Ireland, a post he held until his retirement from the army on 4 March 1948. He was granted the honorary rank of lieutenant general.^[24][5][1]

In 1952 Bucknall was given the colonelcy of theMiddlesex Regiment, a position he held until 1959.^[25] He died at the age of 86 on 7 December 1980 in a nursing home inChegworth.^[1][21]

• Alanbrooke, Field Marshal Lord (2001). Danchev, Alex; Todman, Daniel (eds.).War Diaries 1939–1945. Phoenix Press.ISBN 1-84212-526-5.
• Collins, James (1994).The D-Day Encyclopedia. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Helicon.ISBN 978-0132036214.
• D'Este, Carlo (2004) [1983].Decision in Normandy: The Real Story of Montgomery and the Allied Campaign. London: Penguin.ISBN 978-0-14-101761-7.OCLC 44772546.
• Smart, Nick (2005).Biographical Dictionary of British Generals of the Second World War. Barnesley: Pen & Sword.ISBN 1844150496.

• Generals of World War II