conflict vernon erskine-crum
Lieutenant - General Vernon Forbes Erskine - Crum , CIE , MC ( 11 December 1918 -- 17 March 1971 ) was a British Army officer , who briefly served as General Officer Commanding in Northern Ireland during the early period of ___MASK42___ . The General officer commanding ( GOC ) is the usual title given in the armies of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth ( and some other , such as in Ireland ) nations to a general officer who holds a command appointment . Thus , a general might be the GOC British II Corps or GOC British 7th Armoured Division . A general officer heading a particularly large or important command , such as Middle East Command or the Allied Armies in Italy , may be called a general officer commanding - in - chief ( GOC - in - C ). ___MASK42___ is the common name for the ethno - nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland during the late 20th century . Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict , it is sometimes described as a " guerrilla war " or " low - level war ". The conflict began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed to have ended with the Good Friday " Belfast " Agreement of 1998 . Although ___MASK42___ mainly took place in Northern Ireland , violence spilled over at times into parts of the Republic of Ireland , England and mainland Europe . The Allied Armies in Italy ( AAI ) was the title of the highest Allied field headquarters in Italy , during the middle part of the ___MASK90___ of ___MASK2___ . In the early and later stages of the campaign the headquarters was known as the 15th Army Group ; it reported to the Joint Allied command Allied Forces Headquarters ( AFHQ ), the theatre command for the Mediterranean theatre . Middle East Command , later Middle East Land Forces , was a British Army Command established prior to the Second ___MASK43___ in Egypt . Its primary role was to command British land forces and co - ordinate with the relevant naval and air commands to defend British interests in the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean region . it primarily composed of Arabs , Sudanese and Persians .