capture Longstop Hill, and then, with the 46th Division replacing the 4th Division on 30 April, all three divisions participated in further fierce fighting on the Medjez Plain, where the 1st Division put up an outstanding performance, gaining three Victoria Crosses (VC) in the space of a week. During the final stages of the campaign, Allfrey's V Corps played a more minor role. The main role was played by IX Corps, under Lieutenant General Brian Horrocks (succeeding Lieutenant General John Crocker, who had been injured). Horrocks, as previously mentioned, had been another one of Allfrey's fellow instructors at the Staff College before the war and thought highly of him, later writing in his autobiography that he "was one of the most popular officers in the British Army", and that "nobody could have been more helpful. The capture of Tunis was the result of the closest cooperation between our two corps, 5 and 9". Despite Allfrey's corps playing a relatively small role in the final stages of the campaign, which ended in mid-May with the surrender of almost 250,000 Axis troops, Allfrey, along with Major General Francis Tuker, GOC of the 4th Indian Division, was able to accept the surrender of German Colonel General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim, commanding the Panzer Army Africa. With the fighting in North Africa over Allfrey's V Corps, being in almost continuous fighting for the past five months (with the exception of the last few weeks), was rested and took no part in the Allied invasion of Sicily. The corps was transferred from the First Army, now disbanded, to the British Eighth Army, commanded by General Sir Bernard Montgomery. In August, he was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath and awarded the American Commander of the Legion of Merit for his services in Tunisia. His rank of major general was made substantive on 6 November. Italy and Egypt On 3 September 1943, exactly four years since Britain had declared war on Germany, the Eighth Army landed in Italy at Reggio Calabria, with the US Fifth Army under Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark landing at Salerno six days later. The 1st Airborne Division under Major General George Hopkinson landed at Taranto on the same day, encountering little in the way of serious resistance, although just a few days later the division's GOC was killed in action (and replaced by Major General Ernest Down). On 23