Martel, Giffard

The son of artillery officer Charles Philip Martel (Charles Philip Martel, 1861-1945) and his wife Lillian Mary. In 1908 he entered the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich. Due to the alleged war with Germany, the two-year term of study at the academy was reduced to one year and in 1909 Martel was released into the engineering forces. He studied at the School of Military Engineering in Chetem and at railway workshops in Darlington. In the fall of 1911 he was appointed to the 9th company of royal engineers.

He was engaged in boxing, in 1912 and 1912 he was a boxing champion not only in the army, but also in all the British armed forces.

From the beginning of World War I fought in France. He was promoted to captain (1915). In the summer of 1916 he was recalled to England and he was instructed to build an obstacle course, which is a copy of the front section, for testing and training the crews of the tanks being developed. In October 1916, shortly after the first use of tanks in the Battle of the Somme, Martel received an assignment at the headquarters of the nascent tank troops, where he worked under John Fuller . In May 1917, Martel was promoted to majors.

After the end of World War I, Martel returned to service in the engineering forces, however, leaving no interest in tanks. Developed the first tank-laying tanks.

July 29, 1922 married Maud Mackenzie, who bore him two children. In 1921-1922 he studied at the Staff College. In 1923-1926 - in the Ministry of War. In 1925 he built a prototype of a light single-seat tank for one person.

In 1926, Martel was appointed commander of an engineering company, which he had to fully mechanize, as an experiment.

In 1929 he was sent to India, where he served in Bengal sappers . In 1930-1934 - a teacher at the headquarters college in Quetta . In October 1936 he was promoted to colonel.

In 1936-1938 - at the Ministry of War, junior director for mechanization. In 1936 he attended large exercises in the Belarusian Military District of the USSR. In February 1939 he was promoted to major general.

Since January 1940, in France, he commanded the 50th Motorized Division . In May 1940 he led the English counterattack under Arras . In December 1940 he was appointed commander of the Royal Armored Corps .

In 1943 - February 1944 - head of the British military mission in Moscow , replacing Admiral Jeffrey Miles . In early May 1943, he handed over an urgent letter to the representative of the Soviet People’s Commissariat of Defense, in which he reported the operational data received by the British about the preparation by the German command of the offensive in the Kursk region . ^[1] April 12, 1943 was at a reception with Stalin .

Soon after returning to England he was wounded (lost his eye) during an air raid .

In 1945 he ran for parliament from a conservative party , but lost the election .

He died in 1958.

• In the Wake of the Tank. 1931.
  • Russian translation: The first 15 years of mechanization of the British army. Per. from English Ed. I.R. Karachan. M., State. military man. ed., 1931. 167 pp., ill.
• Our Armored Forces. 1945.
• The Russian outlook. 1947.
• G. Martel. An outspoken soldier: his views and memoirs. 1949.

• Military Cross (1915).
• DSO (1916).
• CB (1940).
• KBE (1943).
• KCB (1944).