William Gott Lieutenant - General William Henry Ewart Gott ( 13 August 1897 – 7 August 1942 ) , nicknamed " Strafer " , was a British Army officer during both the First and Second World Wars , reaching the rank of lieutenant - general when serving in the British Eighth Army . In August 1942 he was appointed as successor to Claude Auchinleck as commander of the Eighth Army . On the way to take up his command he was killed in a plane crash . His death led to the appointment of Bernard Montgomery in his place . Military career . Educated at Harrow School , he was commissioned into the King ' s Royal Rifle Corps ( KRRC ) in 1915 , and served with distinction with the BEF in France during World War I . His nickname " Strafer " was a pun on the German World War I slogan " Gott strafe England " ( God punish England ) . He was promoted to the rank of captain in January 1921 and attended Staff College from January 1931 . He was promoted major in July 1934 ( having been made a brevet major earlier in January . His service between the World Wars included a posting as adjutant to a territorial battalion and a period of postings in India as a general staff officer ( GSO2 ) and Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General . North African campaigns . Having been promoted lieutenant - colonel in October 1938 to command the 1st Battalion KRRC on its transfer from Burma to Egypt to become part of the Mobile Division ( later to become 7th Armoured Division ) , Gott enjoyed a remarkably rapid promotion path : he was successively chief staff officer of the division ( General Staff Officer , Grade I ) ranked lieutenant - colonel ) commander of the Support Group as acting brigadier , and General Officer Commanding ( acting major - general ) of the 7th Armoured Division ( the Desert Rats ) . While under Gott ' s command the Support Group performed well during the Italian invasion of Egypt , conducting a planned withdrawal , and the subsequent Operation Compass which saw the destruction of the Italian Tenth Army . Following the arrival of German troops in North Africa the British Commonwealth forces were pushed back to the Libyan border with Egypt where Gott was placed in command of a mixed force to plan and conduct " Operation Brevity " which was unsuccessful . A subsequent larger scale operation , " Operation Battleaxe " in which the support Group also took part was also a failure and led to a reorganisation of the commands in the Western Desert which included Gott ' s promotion to command the 7th Armoured Division . In late 1941 the next major Commonwealth offensive , " Operation Crusader " , took place . Although ultimately the operation was a success for British Eighth Army , 7th Armoured Division was heavily defeated by the Africa Corps at Sidi Rezegh in November 1941 . Gott ' s permanent rank had been made up to full colonel in October 1941 and he was promoted to acting lieutenant - general and given command of XIII Corps in early 1942 . He led the corps in the battles of Gazala and First Alamein . Death . In August 1942 , Prime Minister Winston Churchill removed General Sir Claude Auchinleck as Commander - in - Chief Middle East and acting General Officer Commanding Eighth Army . Gott ' s aggressive , somewhat impetuous personality appealed to Churchill , and he was strongly recommended by Anthony Eden , who had served with Gott in World War I . Gott was chosen to take over Eighth Army . This was despite the reservations of Auchinleck and General Sir Alan Brooke , the Chief of the Imperial General Staff . Brooke knew Gott very well and had a high opinion of his abilities . However , a number of factors , including a personal interview with Gott on 5 August ( during which Gott had revealed that he had " . . . tried most of his ideas on the Boche . We want someone with new ideas and plenty of confidence in them . " ) , led Brooke to conclude that Gott was tired and had temporarily lost his drive having been in the desert since the start of the war . He also felt that Gott needed more experience before taking an army command . Before he could take up his post , Gott was killed when the transport plane he was traveling in was shot down and destroyed while returning to Cairo from the battle area . The aircraft , a Bristol Bombay of No . 216 Squadron RAF flown by 19 - year - old Flight Sergeant Hugh " Jimmy " James , was intercepted and shot down by Unteroffizier Bernd Schneider of and Emil Clade of Jagdgeschwader 27 ( Fighter Wing 27 ) . With both engines out , the pilot had made a successful crash landing , but two German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters attacked the crashed plane , straffing it until the Bombay was totally wrecked . Everyone left onboard was killed . He is buried in a Commonwealth War Grave at the El Alamein War Cemetery . Gott ' s replacement was Lieutenant - General Bernard Montgomery , who had always been Brooke ' s preferred choice . Assessment . A big man with an aggressive , outgoing personality , he was popular with soldiers under his command , but as a senior commander he was considered by some to be out of his depth . The South African official historian , J . A . I . Agar - Hamilton , wrote of Gott : " It has not been unknown for a commander to pass from disaster to disaster , but it is quite without precedent for any commander to pass from promotion to promotion as a reward for a succession of disasters . " John Bierman and Colin Smith say that Gott was much admired for his personal qualities , but lacked real military skill . He was one of the few senior officers who was " well known and well liked by the rank and file " . However , " a cold appraisal of his soldiering in North Africa reveals no stunning display of tactics or Rommel - esque grip that bends scarred and exhausted men to the will of the born leader . " Michael Carver , one of Gott ' s officers , later Field Marshal , took a similar view . He stated that Gott was the one person to whom " all , high and low , turned for advice , sympathy , help and encouragement " , but he also believed that Gott was " too good a man to be a really great soldier " . Churchill himself seems to have accepted that he made a mistake in promoting Gott over Montgomery . Alan Brooke recalled that after seeing how Montgomery had revitalised the Eighth Army , Churchill commented on " the part that the hand of God had taken in removing Gott at the critical moment " . A first biography of Gott - " ' Strafer ' - The Desert General : The Life and Killing of Lieutenant General WHE Gott CB CBE DSO * MC " authored by Brigadier N S Nash CBE is to be published by Pen and Sword on 19 September 2013 References . His medals were presented to the RGJ ( Rifles ) Museum by his daughters in 2012