Ivor Thomas (British Army officer)

General Sir Gwilym Ivor Thomas, GCB, KBE, DSO, MC & Bar (23 July 1893 – 29 August 1972) was a senior British Army officer who saw active service in both World Wars.

[2][3] Thomas fought in the First World War, arriving on the Western Front from India with II Battery, XIII Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, part of the 7th (Meerut) Division, in October 1914.

[3] Relinquishing this appointment on 19 November 1919, over a year after the war ended, the first few years of the interwar period for Thomas were spent as an adjutant to various Territorial Army (TA) units, including the 68th (South Midland) Field Brigade, Royal Artillery, part of the 48th (South Midland) Division, until attending the Staff College, Camberley from 1924 to 1925.

[12] In September 1940 Thomas, by now a temporary brigadier,[3] became Commander Royal Artillery (CRA) of the 2nd Infantry Division, which had recently fought in France with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and was then commanded by Major General Noel Irwin before being succeeded by Major General Daril Watson, both of whom had been fellow students at the Staff College in the mid-1920s.

[1] By this time Thomas's division had been selected to participate in the Allied invasion of Normandy, then scheduled to take place in May 1944, as part of the newly formed British Second Army (initially under Lieutenant General Sir Kenneth Anderson but later replaced in January 1944 by Lieutenant General Miles Dempsey), and training in all-arms co-operation, already at a very high standard due to Thomas's energetic and ruthless methods, intensified, and he demanded only the very highest standards.

However, casualties had already been sustained, by the 43rd (Wessex) Reconnaissance Regiment, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Francis Lane Fox−who "Von Thoma" later sacked−which suffered severe losses before it even landed in Normandy.

[21] Carver later described Thomas as, "a small, fiery, very determined and grim gunner, without a spark of humour, he would bite the head off anyone who attempted to disagree with him or question his orders.

Thomas was closely involved in Operation Berlin to rescue the British 1st Airborne Division, and lead the ad hoc force in the defence of the Nijmegen salient early in October.

[23] From 27 December 1944 until 28 January 1945, during the Battle of the Bulge in which the 43rd Division played no part, Thomas was temporarily given command of XXX Corps by Montgomery, while Horrocks, the GOC, was away in England to rest.