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Sir Robert Lusty, the acting chairman, commented that "it was like inviting Rommel to command the Eighth Army on the eve of Alamein".
It also was used as a command post for Allied Forces Command (AFHQ) for Free French, British and United States ground forces in Algeria in February 1943, under the command of General Sir Harold R. L. G. Alexander to coordinate the actions of the United States First Army advancing from the west and the British Eighth Army, advancing from the east against the German Afrika Korps.
It was Auchinleck who was to give him his highest field command, the Eighth Army, in November 1941, following the dismissal of Lt-Gen. Alan Cunningham from that position.
During World War II, Operation Begonia was the airborne counterpart to the amphibious Operation Jonquil, conducted by British SAS and Eighth Army Airborne between Ancona and Pescara, Italy, from 2-6 October, 1943.
General Sir Richard McCreery GCB, KBE, DSO, MC (1898 - 1967), Chief of Staff to Field Marshal Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis, at the time of the Second Battle of El Alamein and later commanded the British Eighth Army in Northern Italy during 1944-45, died in Templecombe.
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.
The squadron supported the British Eighth Army's landing at Termoli and subsequent operations in Italy, being reassigned to Twelfth Air Force in August 1943.
The British Eighth Army had four infantry divisions and an independent infantry brigade organized under XIII Corps commanded by Lieutenant-General Miles Dempsey and XXX Corps under Lieutenant-General Sir Oliver Leese.