What if O'Connor hadn't gotten captured?

Split from "Did the Brits make bad tanks"

OK - anybody have any suggestions as to how the Desert War would have progressed had O'Conner not been captured?

Note to Moderators - can you move this to the World War II or Leaders of WW2 section of World War II as it is probably better in one of these two sections.

 

Well, we'd probably have reacted a bit better overall to Rommel's outflanking tactics, but down at unit level I think maybe much the same would have happened.

The bigger impact would (IMO) be in Europe. O'Conner was brought back as a commanding officer, and great things were expected, but by then he had been a POW since the early days of North Africa, and was well out of touch. Had he been fighting ever since, I reckon we could have seen a British Patton (now there is an odd image! ).

 

Kinda scary, too...

Opinions vary on just how good O'Connor performed in NW Europe. Some say he was outstanding, others that he was, at best, mediocre. I believe that the truth lies somewhere in between.