of its performance, with Montgomery, the army group commander and Dempsey, the army commander, both being highly impressed with the division. The division HQ remained in suspended animation until October and Lyne temporarily commanded the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division in place of the GOC, Major-General Douglas Graham, who had been Lyne's superior as GOC 56th Division in Italy. Graham returned in late November, only for the 50th Division to suffer the same fate as the 59th Division, again due to manpower shortages, although the division was reduced to a training reserve formation. On 22 November Lyne was, unusually for an infantryman, selected to become GOC of the veteran 7th Armoured Division, in place of Major-General Gerald Lloyd-Verney who, his superiors believed, had been over-promoted. The division was a much changed formation to the one which had fought in the Western Desert and consisted of the 22nd Armoured and 131st Infantry Brigades, having gone through changes of command. Lyne did not see his first action as an armoured commander until mid-January 1945, when, serving in XII Corps, it fought in Operation Blackcock, the attempt to clear the Roer triangle. The operation was successful, with the division managing to seize its objective, despite the frozen ground, with relatively light casualties. The division remained in its positions until relieved in late February. The division's next assignment was the crossing of the River Rhine into Germany, codenamed Operation Plunder, although the division did not take part in the initial stages, crossing the river on 27 March, three days after the operation began, spearheaded by the 11th Hussars. Two days later Lyne's rank of major general was made temporary. The division, against token resistance, then raced across Germany, capturing thousands of German troops along the way, by 8 April reaching the outskirts of the city of Bremen, which fell to the 3rd Division, and crossed the River Weser a week later. The end of the war in Europe arrived soon after. Lyne took part in the Victory Parade in Berlin on 21 July 1945. He was mentioned in dispatches for his services in Northwest Europe on 7 August. Postwar After the war he became Commandant of the British Sector in Berlin on 6 July 1945, a position he held while still retaining command of the 7th Armoured Division. He was made Director of Staff Duties (DSD) at the War Office in 1946 in 1949; he