Claude Auchinleck

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Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck
Born	June 21, 1884 Aldershot, United Kingdom
Died	March 23, 1981 Marrakesh, Morocco

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.

Contents 1 Early life and career 2 World War II 2.1 Norway 2.2 North Africa 2.3 India 3 Post-war life

[edit] 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.

[edit] World War II

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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, he continued to dictate operational matters to Ritchie. In January of 1942 Afrika Korps struck at British forces, driving the British back to the Gazala positions near Tobruk. Rommel's attack at Gazala of May 25, 1942 was a significant defeat for the British. Eighth Army retreated 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. An attempt to stand at Mersa Matruh failed, and the rout continued back to Alamein. The German/Italian advance was finally halted at the First Battle of El Alamein by the Eighth army. But attempts by Auchinleck to destroy Afrika Korps in a succession of poorly planned attacks during July and early August 1942 were failures.

"The Auk", as he was known to some, appointed a number of senior commanders who were unsuitable for their positions, and command arrangements were often characterised by bitter personality clashes. Auchinleck was an Indian Army officer and was criticised as apparently having little direct experience or understanding of British and Dominion troops.

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 and successor Montgomery), 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 and the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Alan Brooke, flew to Cairo in August 1942, to meet Auchinleck, but it is now obvious that Churchill and Brooke had already lost confidence in Auchinleck.

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 Lieutenant-General William Gott, who was killed in Egypt before taking up command. On Gott's death, Lieutenant-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 at the hands of Montgomery and others.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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 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. 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.

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Military Offices
Preceded by Sir Robert Archibald Cassels	Commander-in-Chief, India 1941	Succeeded by Archibald Wavell
Preceded by Archibald Wavell	Commander-in-Chief, India 1943 – 1947	Succeeded by Sir Robert Lockhart