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Here's something I never knew;

Selected by Churchill to command 8th Army in 1942, in place of the sacked Auchinleck, 'Strafer' Gott was targeted by German intelligence as he flew to Cairo to take up his new post. Six ME109s intercepted his aircraft and, after shooting it down, deliberately obliterated the crash scene killing Gott in the process.As a result Montgomery was given his chance to command and the rest is history.

(excerpted from a book review)