Talk:William Gott

message: I thought Gott was killed in a Plane Crash.  I don't think he was shot down Tomdidiot 12:59, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: He was shot down in a targeted German attack made possible by the breaking of the code used in telecommunications from Cairo, which disclosed to the Germans his intended movements.  This was an embarrassment to the British authorities, who misreported his death at the time as an accident. The pilot of his plane, Squadron Leader Jimmy James, survived, and gave a lecture at the Travellers Club about the whole episode recently.  Chelseaboy 11:01, 21 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Untitled 

message: '...two German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters attacked the crashed plane, strafing it until the Bombay was totally wrecked. Everyone left onboard was killed.'
:Not sure what you mean by 'everyone left onboard'. Which ones had managed to get out? Valetude (talk) 09:46, 3 September 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Survivors 

message: The comment by Michael Carver, that Gott was "too good a man to be a really great soldier" is interesting; I read somewhere (I forget where, so I can't put it in) that Gott was horrified by the slaughter of WWI and wanted above all to spare his men going through any such fighting; so that had he commanded 8th Army he would never have planned a battle like 2nd Alamein; it was Montgomery's insight (with the same WWI background as Gott) to see that was what was needed.</br> 
It's also interesting that Gott found the 8th Army attitude of “treating orders as a basis for discussion rather than instructions to be obeyed” to be a problem when he was Corps commander; so he probably wouldn't have had any more success as Army Cdr either; OTOH Montgomer dealt with it by warning everyone to stop, then jumping from a great height on the first one who tried it. I couldn't see Gott doing that... Xyl 54 (talk)
:It is often the case with men like Gott that when faced with colleagues and other people who are not doing their jobs, instead of reporting them and getting them into trouble, the 'good man' will often try to do their jobs in addition to his own. That may be why Gott was 'worn out'.
:Montgomery had also been through WW I (he had been at the Battle of the Somme - "30-thousand men killed before lunch!") and also was horrified by the slaughter, and he determined never to do the same himself. During the Battle of Caen he faced criticism from Tedder and others for not taking some ground that 2nd TAF wanted for its airfields. Montgomery considered he could do without the additional air support that would be provided by 2nd TAF possessing these airfields and did not consider the loss of life in taking the ground worthwhile. 2nd TAF was actually there explicitly to support Montgomery's ground forces, not to further its own aims, so Montgomery was absolutely right and Tedder and the others should have held their tongues.
:He was also aware that the British soldier in 1939-45 was not the same sort of man that had been in the British Army in 1914-1918 and needed to be handled differently.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.150.18.173 (talk) 15:06, 26 March 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Comment 

message: I don't want to edit directly in case I get something less than 100% correct but I seem to recall reading elsewhere that the reason Gott was on a trip to Cairo was that his condition for accepting the command was being allowed a weekend's R&R in Cairo first.  I am surprised that wasn't regarded as a red flag that qualified him out of the job.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.81.196.174 (talk) 08:14, 19 February 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Trip to Cairo