Sir Basil Liddell-Hart (1895-1970)
Born Basil Hart in October 1895, the son of a pastor he later joined the surnames of his mother and father together. After he left university he joined the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and served during the First World War during which he received the wounds that would force him to retire from active service in 1924. He had already started the writing which were to make him famous as one of the foremost British Military theorists. His ideas of mechanized warfare and the 'expanding torrent' (forcing men and material through a small gap in the enemy line) were to become the foundation of what the Germans were later to call Blitzkrieg.Liddell-Hart campaigned between the wars for the mechanization of the British Army with little success, until sadly it was too late. After working for a time as military correspondent for both the Daily Telegraph and later The Times he was finally appointed as a government advisor with special responsibilities for mechanization of the Army in 1937. He found progress too slow and quit a year later to try to further his campaign from outside government.
How to cite this article:Dugdale-Pointon, T. (2 August 2000), Sir Basil Liddell-Hart, http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/people_liddelhart.html