notionally part of First Canadian Army in the deception Operation Trolleycar II (threatening an attack on the Germans in the Netherlands) in November 1944. Post Second World War After the Second World War, as a genuine corps it was based in the Middle East, controlling British forces around the Suez Canal. Following the British withdrawal from Egypt, II Corps was also the controlling force for the invasion of the country during the Suez Crisis, seemingly controlling 3rd Infantry Division, under Major-General J.B. (Jack) Churcher, and 16th Parachute Brigade as well as 10th Armoured Division and 3 Commando Brigade. Lieutenant-General Hugh Stockwell commanded the corps during 'Musketeer.' On 31 July 1956 Stockwell, then commanding I Corps in Germany, received a message from the War Office telling him to meet General Sir William Oliver, Vice-Chief of the Imperial General Staff, who flew to Germany to collect Stockwell so that he could be briefed by General Sir Gerald Templer, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, back in London. Briefing Stockwell personally, Templer told him to hand over command of I Corps, but to take sufficient men from the corps staff as he would need to create another headquarters, II Corps, which was to "establish a planning cell in London as quickly as possible." Led by Kenneth Darling as Brigader, General Staff, this group was dispatched to London from West Germany on 4 August to begin setting up the corps headquarters and begin the initial planning. They were installed the next day, Bank Holiday Monday, in the old underground wartime HQ under the Thames, the Montagu House Annex of the War Office. But as the planning continued Stockwell and his new headquarters were not controlling the formations which were to be involved: those in the Middle East and Cyprus were under GHQ Middle East Land Forces, while those in the UK and Germany were directed for these purposes by the War Office through either Home commands or the British Army of the Rhine. After the invasion had ended and the United Nations Emergency Force was arriving under the Canadian Army general E. L. M. Burns, Stockwell returned to the UK, where II Corps was disbanded by being reintegrated back into I Corps. General Officers Commanding Commanders have included: 1 October 1901 – 31 December 1904 General Sir Evelyn Wood Aug 1914 Lieutenant-General James Grierson Aug–Dec 1914 Lieutenant-General Horace Smith-Dorrien Jan 1915 – May 1916