Claude Auchinleck

Field Marshal Sir Claude John Eyre Auchinleck, GCB, GCIE, CSI, DSO, OBE (June 21 1884 - March 23 1981), nicknamed The Auk, was a British army commander during World War II.

Early life and career

Born in Aldershot, he grew up in impoverished circumstances, but was able through hard work and scholarships to graduate from Wellington College and the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. In 1904 he joined the 62nd Punjab regiment of the Indian Army. During World War I, he served in the Middle East in Egypt, Palestine and Mesopotamia. Claude Auchinleck was a career soldier who spent much of his military career in India, where he developed a love of the country and an affinity for the ordinary soldiers under his command.

World War II

Norway

Early in World War II Auchinleck was given command of the Allied forces in Norway in May 1940, a military operation that was doomed to fail. After the fall of Norway, in July 1940 he became briefly General Officer Commander-in-Chief, Southern Command, and then Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army.

North Africa

Following the see-saw of Allied and Axis successes and reverses in North Africa, Auchinleck was appointed to succeed General (later Field Marshal) Sir Archibald Wavell as C-in-C of the Allied Forces in the Middle East in July 1941; Wavell took up Auchinleck's post as C-in-C of the Indian Army, swapping jobs with him.

General Auchinleck as C-in-C Middle East was based in Cairo, with responsibility not just for North Africa but also for Persia and the Middle East; the Eighth Army confronting the German Afrika Corps and the Italian Army was commanded successively by Generals Sir Alan Cunningham and Sir Neil Ritchie. The first major offensive by Eighth Army, Operation Crusader in November 1941 resulted in the defeat of much of the British armour and the breakdown of Cunningham. Auchinleck relieved Cunningham, and ordered the battle to continue. Despite heavy losses, the Afrika Korps were driven back to El Agheila. Auchinleck then appointed Ritchie to command Eighth Army, while Auchinleck resumed overall strategic direction of the Middle East theatre. The Afrika Korps retook Benghazi in January of 1942 and then operations ended for the next four months. Rommel's attack at Gazala of May 25 1942 was a significant defeat for the British. Eighth Army retreated back into Egypt; Tobruk (which was of great political significance to Winston Churchill but of limited military importance to Auchinleck) fell on 21 June. Once more Auchinleck stepped in to take direct command of the Eighth Army. The German/Italian advance was finally halted at the First Battle of El Alamein by the Eighth Army, but attempts by Auchinleck to turn the battle into an outright victory were failures.

The Auk, as he was known to his troops, was unfortunate in some of his subordinate senior officers in North Africa: some were incompetent, some were killed and some were captured. Auchinleck was an Indian Army officer and was at the time criticised by politicians like Winston Churchill, as apparently having little direct experience or understanding of British and Dominion troops. Here lies the difference in perception between career officers of the British and Indian Armies. Even Wellington was called the 'Sepoy General' behind his back, as he had earned his military laurels in India. Field Marshal Lord Roberts of Kandahar, another Indian Army officer, also suffered similar criticism. Field Marshal William 'Bill' Slim praises the Auk in his book, Defeat into Victory (1956). Though Bill Slim served in a British regiment during the Gallipoli action, he was drawn towards the Gurkha regiment that fought alongside his own, and deliberately transferred into the Indian Army at the end of the First World War. The local pay in the Indian Army was higher, and the opportunities to spend money fewer. Both Churchill and Montgomery regretted the opportunity to serve in the Indian Army, due to the fact they figured low on the selection lists for the Indian Army at Sandhurst. A reading of John Masters' 'Bugles and a Tiger' demonstrates the pride of an officer who competed ably for service in the Indian Army, and reminisced in almost poetic terms the final years leading up to the Second World War, which changed everything forever.

Auchinleck's desire for the Eighth Army to fight in mobile 'Brigade Groups' rather than Divisions was resisted by many subordinates. His controversial chief of staff, Dorman-Smith, was regarded with considerable distrust by many of the senior commanders in Eighth Army. By July 1942 Auchinleck had lost the confidence of Dominion commanders and relations with his British commanders had become strained.

Like his foe Rommel (and his predecessor Wavell), Auchinleck was subjected to constant political interference, having to weather a barrage of hectoring telegrams and instructions from Prime Minister Churchill throughout late 1941 and the spring and summer of 1942. Churchill constantly sought an offensive from Auchinleck, and was (understandably) downcast at the military reverses in Egypt and Cyrenaica. Churchill was desperate for some sort of British victory before the planned Allied landings in North Africa, Operation Torch, scheduled for November 1942. He badgered Auchinleck immediately after the Eighth Army had all but exhausted itself after the first battle of El Alamein. Churchill flew to Cairo in August 1942, purportedly for consultations with Auchinleck, but it is now obvious that Churchill had made up his mind to replace Auchinleck before the meeting. It is believed that Auchinleck refused to order a major offensive before his troops were properly prepared.

He was replaced as C-in-C Middle East by General Harold Alexander (later Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis) and as GOC Eighth Army by Lt-General William Gott, who was killed in Egypt before taking up command. On Gott's death, Lt-General (later Field Marshal Viscount) Bernard Montgomery was appointed commander of the Eighth Army. Auchinleck's reputation (along with that of many other officers) subsequently suffered unfairly at the hands of the Montgomery publicity machine, a disservice that was repeated by Churchill in his own war memoirs. Indeed, Montgomery launched his El Alamein offensive on 23 October 1942, even later than the date proposed by Auchinleck while still in command.

India

Churchill offered Auchinleck command of Allied Forces in Persia and the Middle East (this having been hived off Alexander's command), but the Auk declined this post, possibly as it was held by his Indian Army friend and colleague General Sir Edward Quinan. Instead he returned to India, where he spent almost a year "unemployed" before in 1943 becoming again Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army, Wavell meanwhile having been appointed Viceroy. Auchinleck retained this post after the end of the war.

Bill Slim, while commanding the famous Fourteenth ('Forgotten') Army, worked in coordination not only with British and Dominion troops (including Indians), but also American and Chinese soldiers. 'Vinegar Joe' Stilwell placed himself and his American and Chinese troops under Slim's command for a considerable part of the war in Burma. Auchinleck's support, as C-in-C India, for Slim, was vital to victory in the East. Indian Army officers were not used to 'set-piece' battles. They were constantly in action in the North-West Frontier Province, fighting tribesmen.

Post-war life

Much against his own convictions, Auchinleck helped prepare the future Indian and Pakistani armies prior to Partition scheduled for August 1947. In 1946 he was promoted to field marshal but he refused to accept a peerage, lest he be thought associated with a policy (i.e. Partition) that he thought fundamentally dishonourable. Having disagreed sharply with Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India, he resigned as C-in-C and retired in 1947. In 1948 the Auk returned to Britain, his wife having left him for another officer in 1946.

Although a somewhat dour character, he was known as a generous and welcoming host. Despite being a general for longer than almost any other soldier, he was never pompous, and hated all forms of display and affectation. Above all, he was a soldier of the utmost integrity who was popular with his troops, and respected by his foes. Rommel considered him to be one of the greatest generals of the war. In retirement, the Auk moved to Marrakesh, where he lived quietly in a modest flat for many years, befriended and cared for by Corporal Malcolm James Millward, a serving soldier, up until the death of Sir Claude in 1981.

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Claude Auchinleck

Early life and career

World War II

Norway

North Africa

India

Post-war life