The division, in mid-November, transferred from Crocker's I Corps and the First Canadian Army to Lieutenant General Neil Ritchie's XII Corps of the British Second Army, where it was involved in the clearing the west bank of the River Maas on the Dutch-German frontier. On 28 November Barker met Montgomery and Dempsey, GOC Second Army, both of whom were impressed with Barker's handling of the 49th Division, particularly in Normandy, and was informed that he was taking over command of VIII Corps. One of Barker's former Staff College instructors, Lieutenant General Sir Richard O'Connor, GOC VIII Corps, was being transferred to India to take command of the Eastern Army and Barker was appointed the new GOC VIII Corps in his place. Barker, handing over the 49th Division to Major General Gordon MacMillan, who had been a fellow student at the Staff College during Barker's second year there, was promoted to the acting rank of lieutenant general on 2 December, and became GOC in time to see the end of Operation Nutcracker.