LIEUTENANT COLONEL 'JUMBO' HOARE

Lieutenant Colonel 'Jumbo' Hoare (who died on December 19 1999, aged 83) won an MC during the Battle of France in 1940 when he leaped from a burning tank and pulled his sergeant from another; he dived off a sinking ship; jumped from a train taking him to a German prison camp; then, suffering from malaria, he was sheltered at an Italian convent in the hills near Rome where he swapped his uniform for a nun's habit to proceed into chapel.

When a search party arrived at the convent, the Mother Superior hid him and a comrade under her bed, refusing point blank to let the Germans search her room. "No man," she informed them, "has ever entered my bedchamber." After the coast was clear, Hoare recalled, she told him that she would have "to do a lot of penances for telling the Germans those lies". Although the local mayor warned there would be shootings if the British soldiers were discovered, the nuns sheltered them until they could join up with the advancing Allies.

The son of an engineer rear-admiral, James Gordon Hoare was born on July 22 1916 and educated at Weymouth College. He was commissioned via the Supplementary Reserve into 4th Royal Tank Regiment, which had small Matilda tanks with a top speed of 8 mph. Large and muscular, he had difficulty climbing in; and, once inside, he had to fire a machine gun and operate a radio.

Posted to France on the outbreak of war in 1939, Hoare's troop was involved in the fierce counter attack around Arras which was thought to have temporarily prevented the Germans entering Dunkirk. After extricating himself and his sergeant from their tanks he walked ninety miles to find his brother Henry in a ditch outside Dunkirk with some Wiltshires, and told him to get up as the Germans were coming; they reported home in Weymouth within an hour of each other.

'Jumbo' was next sent to East Africa, where 4RTR took part in the conquest of Keren and Eritrea, before being posted on to the Western Desert. When Tobruk was besieged in 1941, 4RTR was sent into the port by sea and took part in the battles for the break-out when Hoare was wounded in the leg and head. He was evacuated but his ship was torpedoed and sank rapidly, drowning many. But he leaped over the side and grabbed a piece of floating wreckage to be eventually rescued by a destroyer.

After recovering from his wounds he was posted to Palestine where his unit was re-equipped with Valentine tanks and sent to North Africa where, in the final battle for Tobruk, 4RTR fought until its last tank was on fire. Hoare was captured and sent to Italy.

When Italy sued for peace in 1943, the Germans started to move British POWs to Germany. But Hoare and a friend jumped from their train at night to make for the mountains, where a shepherd showed them to a cave and fed them. Soon he was so stricken with malaria that the shepherd took him to the nearby convent so weak at first that the local undertaker measured him up for a coffin. But gradually he recovered, and, heavily disguised, even took part in feast day processions despite the local mayor demanding he be sent on his way immediately.

As the Allies finally drew nearer Hoare was led through minefields to reach the British lines. He then spent a long time in hospital undergoing surgery on his leg. In 1945 he was posted to the Staff College at Haifa and then Quetta. Subsequent postings took him to Holland and Germany.

'Jumbo' Hoare was an extremely sociable, modest and independent man, who had been a fine rugby player and swimmer, and enjoyed fishing and sailing in his 27ft yacht in later life. After the war he returned to Italy several times to thank those who had helped him, including one of the nuns and the shepherd who had led him to the convent. In 1945, he married Ida Rifaat, an Egyptian who had nursed him in hospital. She predeceased him, and he was survived by a son.

LIEUTENANT COLONEL HENRY HOWARD

Lieutenant Colonel Henry Howard (who died on May 6 2000, aged 85) was awarded an MC in Palestine in 1936, a Bar in the Western Desert and a DSO in north-west Europe, earning the description 'absolutely fearless' from one fellow officer.

His first MC came while serving with the Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) during the Arab uprising in protest against Britain, the mandatory power, allowing too many Jewish immigrants into the country. They expressed their resentment by ambushing and sniping at patrols, then hiding among the villagers, which made them almost impossible to detect.

When the 2nd Battalion were patrolling the roads and clearing the Arabs from strategic points on a hillside near Tarshiha, a small party commanded by Howard, then a second lieutenant, came under fire from a large group of rebels. He was immediately shot through both thighs but picked himself up and managed to lead the platoon to the top of the hill, which he held for four hours until the surviving Arabs dispersed.

Frederick Henry Howard was born on February 25 1915 and educated at Gresham's School, Holt, and Sandhurst before being commissioned into the Buffs in 1935. Later he was seconded to the King's African Rifles, with whom he earned a mention in despatches, serving against the Italians operating mainly behind the lines in Kenya, Somaliland and Abyssinia.

After the Battle of Sidi Rezegh in 1941, in which the Buffs had sustained heavy casualties, Howard rejoined the regiment and was with the 1st Battalion through all the actions in the Western Desert, including Alamein, until the fall of Tunis. It was during this period of intense fighting that he was awarded a Bar to his MC. On the night of January 21 1943 – his fourth running without sleep – Howard led a moonlight attack down the Tarhuna Pass towards Tripoli and drove the enemy back two miles. Four nights later he seized the strongly defended Kidney Hill and held it in spite of heavy enemy counterattacks.

The Buffs were particularly successful in the Mareth battle of March 1943 when, according to the official history 'patrolling was a feature of life with the Buffs and many calls were made on the battalion in the quest for the enemy's intentions'. Howard was particularly prominent, probing right forward into the enemy defences and often being involved in a brisk exchange of fire.

After Staff College at Haifa he was given command of 1st Battalion, Ox and Bucks, with whom he cheerfully strode around the European battlefield, immaculately dressed with his green regimental cap on very straight to hearten many an uneasy soldier. Leading them through heavy floods, he crossed the Ruhr river on the Dutch-German border to secure many prisoners, and earned a DSO. He considered the German resistance the hardest in the Ardennes before going on to the Reichswald forest and the Rhine crossing.

In 1946 Howard commanded 2nd Reconnaissance Regiment in Singapore, where he kept a tame pygmy elephant presented to him by the Sultan of Johore. It was invited to parties in the mess, and would trumpet loudly in appreciation when offered a plate of sandwiches. Howard was then advised by General Sir Miles Dempsey, commanding Second Army in Europe, to join the Royal Armoured Corps as being especially suited to his talents and style. Transferring to 3rd Hussars as second-in-command at Bielefeld he was then appointed commander of the Tactical Wing at Lulworth, Dorset.

Anxious to relieve his boredom in that final posting, he caused surprise...