Finance          Automotive          Computers          Health          Shopping          Sports         News          Reference           Print Facts in English - BCUZ.COMlos hechos en Español

Claude Auchinleck



Churchill offered Auchinleck command of the newly created Persia and Iraq Command (this having been hived off Alexander's command), but the Auk declined this post, possibly as Tenth Army, which at the time, formed the bulk of the troops, was commanded by his Indian Army friend and colleague Lieut.-General Sir Edward Quinan. His stated reasons were more pragmatic, that the new arrangements would not be workable in practice, and were set out in his letter to the CIGS dated 14 August 1942.[8] The post was accepted in his stead by General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson. Instead he returned to India, where he spent almost a year "unemployed" before in 1943 being again appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army, General Wavell meanwhile having been appointed Viceroy. C-in-C India had become a rear area appointment with the prosecution of the Burma Campaign the responsibility of the Supreme Commander, Admiral Louis Mountbatten. Nevertheless, Auchinleck played an important role and made the supply of Fourteenth Army, with probably the worst lines of communication of the war, his immediate priority[9]; as William Slim, commander of the Fourteenth Army was later to write:[10]

"It was a good day for us when he [Auchinleck] took command of India, our main base, recruiting area and training ground. The Fourteenth Army, from its birth to its final victory, owed much to his unselfish support and never-failing understanding. Without him and what he and the Army of India did for us we could not have existed, let alone conquered"

Auchinleck continued in the post after the end of the war, being promoted field marshal in June 1946.

[

Post-war life

Auchinleck as C-in-C of the Indian Army, with the then Viceroy Wavell and Montgomery.
Auchinleck as C-in-C of the Indian Army, with the then Viceroy Wavell and Montgomery.

Much against his own convictions, Auchinleck helped prepare the future Indian and Pakistani armies prior to Partition scheduled for August 1947. In November 1945, Auchinleck was forced to commute the sentence of transportation for life awarded to three officers of the Indian National Army in face of growing unease and unrest both within the Indian Population, and the British Indian Army. 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.[9] 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 Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Peirse 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, whose reputation, unlike that of many Allied officers, has grown with passing years. In retirement, The Auk moved to Marrakesh, where he lived quietly in a modest flat for many years, taking his morning coffee at the La Rennaisance Cafe in the new part of the city, where he was known by all simply as le marechal. He was befriended and aided by Corporal Malcolm James Millward, a serving soldier in the Queen's Regiment for three and a half years up until the death of Sir Claude in 1981.

[

Army career summary

[

References

[

Footnotes

  1. ^ Keegan (ed), John; Philip Warner (1991). Churchill's Generals. London: Cassell Military, p131. ISBN 0-304-36712-5.  Other sources, including the online Dictionary of Ulster Biography, state that Auchinleck was born in Co Fermanagh, Ulster
  2. ^ Ulster Scot Newsletter: Famous Ulster Generals
  3. ^ Keegan (ed), John; Philip Warner (1991). Churchill's Generals. London: Cassell Military, pp 131-132. ISBN 0-304-36712-5. 
  4. ^ Mackenzie, Compton (1951). Eastern Epic. Chatto & Windus, London, pp. 1-3. 
  5. ^ a b Mead, p.52
  6. ^ Montgomery, Bernard Memoirs of a Field Marshal, p.71
  7. ^ Mead, p.53
  8. ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 38177, pages 398–400, 15 January 1948.
  9. ^ a b Mead, p.57
  10. ^ Slim, Defeat into Victory, p.176
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Military offices
Preceded by
Sir Robert Archibald Cassels		 Commander-in-Chief, India
1941		 Succeeded by
Sir Archibald Wavell
Preceded by
Sir Archibald Wavell		 Commander-in Chief, Middle East
July 1941 - August 1942		 Succeeded by
The Hon. Sir Harold Alexander
Preceded by
Neil Ritchie		 Commander-in Chief, Eighth Army
25 June 1942 - 13 August 1942		 Succeeded by
Bernard Law Montgomery
Preceded by
Sir Archibald Wavell		 Commander-in-Chief, India
1943 – 1947		 Succeeded by
Sir Robert Lockhart



BCUZ.com FACTS Encyclopedia content is licensed under the GFDL as approved by Wikipedia.
For more information review our copyright contact and privacy policy.
© 1996 - BCUZ.COM - We have all the FACTS you need about Small Business Financing, Behavior Disorder, Having Too Many Bills, Needing Cash Fast, Structured Settlements, Frequent Flier Programs, Top Steak Houses, The Mayan Indians, Norfolk and Suffolk England, Growing Longer Hair and a full reference English Encyclopedia and Spanish Encyclopedia.Privacy Policy