Early military career On 8 March 1911, Pope was
commissioned as a
second lieutenant (on probation) in the 4th Battalion,
Prince of Wales's (North Staffordshire Regiment), as part of the
Special Reserve of the
British Army. The Special Reserve were volunteer reservists (i.e. part-time soldiers) who had not previously served in the military. His commission and rank were confirmed on 24 October 1911. He became the junior
subaltern of the 1st Battalion, North Staffordshire Regiment, then serving as part of the
17th Brigade of the
6th Division. During this period, he saw service in
Ireland.
First World War , August 1914. Lieutenant Vyvyan Pope is pictured standing in the back row, third from the left. Following the outbreak of the
First World War in August 1914, the battalion was transferred to England and embarked for the
Western Front the following month. Pope remained with the battalion for most of the war, seeing action in the
First Battle of Ypres in late 1914, in the
Battle of Neuve Chapelle (where he won the
Military Cross) in 1915, in the two serious
gas attacks at Wulverghem in April and June 1916 (in the first of which his actions won him the DSO), in the
Battle of the Somme in mid-1916 and in the
Battle of Messines in mid-1917. His MC citation states the following: The citation for his DSO reads He also participated in the
Christmas truce of 1914. In June 1917, having returned from being wounded for the second time at Messines, and now a
captain with the acting rank of
lieutenant-colonel, he took over command of 1/North Staffs just in time to see the battalion, now serving as part of the
72nd Brigade of the
24th Division, take a prominent role in the
Battle of Passchendaele (also known as the Third Battle of Ypres). Second Lieutenant Bernard Martin of D Company, 1st Battalion, North Staffs would later write that, some days before the 31 July 1917 attack on Jehovah and Jordan Trenches near
Zandvoorde, Pope had ordered, to the surprise of his officers, that the attacking lines were, "not to charge at the double across No-Man's-Land as in the old tactics but to walk at a steady pace towards Jehovah". Under orders from High Command, the battalion was able to "charge" only after taking Jordan Trench. Starting the day with an estimated 550 rifles, the battalion lost 50 per cent of their attacking force: 4 officers killed and 7 wounded, 38 other ranks killed and 210 wounded, and 10 missing presumed killed. On 21 March 1918, the battalion was in front-line trenches near
Saint-Quentin when the Germans began
Operation Michael, the opening attack in their
Spring Offensive. There were extensive casualties, and in a highly confused and fluid situation, Pope received a bullet wound in the right elbow. By the time he reached a hospital
gas gangrene had set in, and his right arm had to be amputated. Every year thereafter he drank a glass of
port on 21 March in memory of his fallen comrades. Following his discharge from hospital Pope attempted to find a route back into military service but before he could do so the
Armistice with Germany had been signed.
Between the wars Pope managed to secure a position in 1919 in the
North Russia Relief Force, part of the
Allied intervention on the side of the
White forces in the
Russian Civil War. In April 1940, he was appointed Inspector of the
Royal Armoured Corps (RAC). He was then posted as Adviser on Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFV) on
General Lord Gort's staff at BEF headquarters in France. He soon contrived to become more closely involved in the fighting and was a prominent commander in the
Allied counter-attack at Arras on 21 May, which, although it did not halt the advancing Germans, shook their confidence. The BEF was forced to retreat, and at the end of May Pope was evacuated from
Dunkirk. He returned to the
War Office, where he was appointed Director of Armoured Fighting Vehicles in June 1940. While in this post he played a key role in initiating production of the A22 tank (afterwards known as the
Churchill tank). The
Western Desert campaign now assumed a growing importance in strategic thinking, and by the summer of 1941 an offensive in the desert against the Axis named
Operation Crusader was being planned. It was to be fought by the new
Eighth Army (Lieutenant-General Sir
Alan Cunningham), comprising
XIII Corps, an infantry corps and
XXX Corps, a predominantly armoured corps. In August 1941 Pope was appointed
General Officer Commanding (GOC) XXX Corps. He flew to
Egypt in September and assembled a staff; but on 5 October,
en route to Cunningham's first conference on the forthcoming battle, his
Hudson aircraft ran into trouble on taking off from
Heliopolis, and crashed in the
Mocattam Hills. All on board, including Pope and his Brigadier General Staff, Hugh Edward Russell, were killed. Pope was succeeded as GOC XXX Corps by Lieutenant-General Willoughby Norrie, who had been one of his fellow students at the Staff College, Camberley in the mid-1920s. Although a good soldier, Norrie, a cavalryman, lacked Pope's high ability and intellect. ==Personal life==