being sent to Palestine, where there were tensions between the Jews and the Arabs, and commanded the division throughout the Palestine Emergency. Gales' division, serving under British Forces in Palestine and Trans-Jordan, commanded by Lieutenant-General Sir Evelyn Barker (later replaced by Lieutenant-General Sir Gordon MacMillan), was responsible for northern Palestine, with his old 6th Airborne Division, now commanded by Major-General James Cassels, responsible for southern Palestine. Gale relinquished command of the division to Major-General Horatius Murray in December 1947 and, in January 1948, he was appointed GOC British Troops in Egypt, succeeding Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Allfrey. Then in 1949, after handing over the command to Lieutenant-General George Erskine, he was transferred and became Director-General of Military Training. Gale was promoted to general on 6 June 1952, eight years after he landed in Normandy, and appointed Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C), Northern Army Group, Allied Land Forces Europe and British Army of the Rhine (BAOR), succeeding General Sir John Harding, on 24 September; he held the post until retiring in 1957, in turn handing over BAOR to General Sir Dudley Ward. Gale initially retired in 1957, but in September 1958 he was recalled to serve with NATO and replaced Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery as Deputy Supreme Allied Commander, Europe; he retired permanently in September 1960 after two years in the post and was replaced by General Sir Hugh Stockwell. During the post-war years, Gale also held a number of ceremonial and non-military posts; he was aide-de-camp (general) to the Queen Elizabeth II between 1954 and 1957, Colonel of the Worcestershire Regiment between 1950 and 1961, and Colonel-Commandant of the Parachute Regiment between 1956 and 1967. Gale died at his home in Kingston upon Thames on 29 July 1982, just four days after his 86th birthday. His widow, Daphne (whom he married in 1924), subsequently lived in a grace and favour apartment in Hampton Court Palace until she died during a major fire at the palace in March 1986. Military thinking Gale's approach to military affairs emerged from both his personal history and personality. Gale, a 'tall, bluff, ruddy' individual, with a reputation as 'a bit of a buccaneer' but allegedly possessing a 'hectoring manner and a loud voice', was one of a number of First World War veterans to challenge the military status quo that had led to the terrible losses on the Western Front. Events such as the losses in the Battle