O,Connor is a hard one to measure. Sure he showed that he could organize a force that could kick the Italian’s butt, but right now everyone is doing that. Like you said, he is about to go out of circulation and wont be back until he commands the British VIII Corps (not to be confused with Middleton’s American VIII Corps). Even then he will be tied up in things like the attempts to take Caen which were very often stalled while when the breakout after operation COBRA happens, his Corps will be held in reserve so he won’t be utilized. He finishes the war commanding in India, pretty much out of the way.
But one has to admit, his command during operation COMPASS is exceptional and I can’t say for sure, but I’d almost bet that he captured more Italian prisoners than any other single commander in the war.
It’s not so much that he beat the “Eye-Ties”, but the manner in which he did it, especially the cut accross the middle of Eritrea with his armor, and the way he cut off tghe Italians who stayed on the coast road. He seems to have had a feel for armor, and was one of the few who used armor and infantry together in his operations.
As for Caen, that’s Monty’s screw up,and, I think the beginning of Eisenhower’s realization of what a twit Monty was. It was supposed to be taken on D-Day. Didn’t happen, and Monty kept embroidering the truth about the operations there to the point where Ike [and Tedder] didn’t believe him anymore. Aside from that,I study the Caen A/O because it gave Wittmann a chance to let his Tiger play.