watches the attack on Caen from beside his
Humber scout car outside Beuville, 8 July 1944. Hobart had formed the
7th Armoured Division (then known as the Mobile Division) in Egypt before being removed by GOC
British Troops in Egypt and went into retirement. He was brought back into regular army by Churchill in 1941 to train the new
11th Armoured Division but ill-health meant he was considered unfit to command the division in battle and he had to give up the appointment. In 1942 Hobart was selected to train another new division. The 79th was formed as a standard armoured formation serving in the UK under
Northern Command in August 1942.
General Sir Alan Brooke, the
Chief of the Imperial General Staff, who foresaw the need for specialised armoured vehicles, offered command of the division to
Major-General Percy Hobart in October 1942. The initial new organization of the 79th was a tank brigade, an armoured brigade, and a Royal Engineers assault brigade; this was expanded with additional brigades of the new armoured vehicles developed by the 79th. Hobart gave firm direction and the strange-looking tanks it developed and operated were known as
Hobart's Funnies. They included tanks that floated, could clear mines, destroy defences, carry and lay bridges, and roadways - anything that would enable the invasion force to get ashore and break through the German defences. The division landed in France in June 1944. The division was further used during the
Battle for Brest, the battle for the
Scheldt estuary (
Operation Infatuate), the battle for the
Roer Triangle (
Operation Blackcock), the
Rhine crossings (
Operation Plunder), the Elbe crossing and (
Operation Veritable), the battle for the Reichswald. The 79th Armoured Division was disbanded on 20 August 1945. Hobart subsequently commanded the Specialized Armour Development Establishment (SADE), which was formed from elements of the 79th together with the Assault Training and Development Centre. ==Equipment==