WAVELL—Warrior Of The Desert

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 86, 12 April 1941, Page 16 (Supplement)

WAVELL—Warrior Of The Desert

NO legend has as yet cluttered j up the fame and achieve- j ments of General Sir Archibald j Wavell unless to be known as "Archie" even by the 90 per cent of his armies, who have never done more than see him in the distance, is a sign that a legend is beginning to take shape. Ir is b<.und to do so; a Commander in f !:!■■!" who, while almost invi.-ible. c.m ii"i r! h.-!"-s c\n it ly judfe ih" rapabilit! • - <•(" i: ; - -"lit t ered I' • - i! -I,] <■:> n w ! ! «"• i ' :m;l\ ■•! victory in i ! i- 11: ii■ • ] biui'ch tii- i• t :i. : i ii:-t iiiiiiicrii •; 11y r : i r: i•.i <■ p and Uiniv when not to s.iv ""halt.'' f.iuii it ri ;!;.iin long untouched liy j■ rf--• f: • I r 11Ir. Cius.-ip li-li lies no in j'e I: is perhaps sfinip measure "f bis hi'jli c:i p;i I'i Ii i : i-s (hat. he is not popular in Downing Si reef, where caution lias lavn rarely numbered among thy niilit.:ry virtues. In t lie dark hours of last autumn. when p'liticians won!'! have been jtlarl to divert British thoughts from the bombs failing on them in the ni-jbt liy an oli'er of some flittering prize fr mi Africa, Oeneral Wax oil's stock fell to an all-time low. (It is interesting that lie is again being criticised in fcoir.e circles.) <M-nor.il Wavell, like Nelson before liini, has only one eye; and as Nelson d'd he sometimes finds that the blind eye is more useful than the other. He presents it blandly to hints and instructions, no matter whence they come, that he should move faster than liis military knowledge tells him is wise. He was trained in desert warfare hv General Allenby, conqueror of the Turks in the last war, and served on Allenby's

Silent, unhurrieJ, indifferent to puUiic acclaim, he won the resoundino victory the Empire needed, and to day again he is facing a severe test in Grccco and the Western Desert. In this articie, conricnsed from the "New York Times," an intimate story is told of his life.

By Philip Jordan

sialT during t!:' 1 whole r.; tnpa :pn in Palestine. :i! n! from that equaiiy inde I >•-i 1< U" I:; —■ ■ 1-1 ii ■ r learned 11!: .• true e--en-liais (if his ;:rl: 'i'o train your men 10 l lie I; i~ L 11. ■ i i": !o prepare lor every contingency t ii.it ran ari-c: to attack 1: <1(leniy (I'iit nit Iv" when vim arc ready), ami then ]>r">s your attack lieyond the p--s >!>!e 1 illlii ~ tn which Villi Ix'liuM' : no ■ ca.'i go. Then yon will achieve .-!IC-CC.-s. but 1.1 <1 Otherwise. 'I'lli-s is what lie says himself of 11uart of dc-crt war; anil if the Itali.ns hail taken the trouble to read the autcbiography of Alienhy which General Wavell wrote ami from which th.se words are taken they might have been less surprised than they were:

''In all professions, especially the military, character is of greater importance than brains." There is the voice of the third successive general in three generations of his family, a man who says that a commander should have a touch of the gambler about him. Superb staff work was largely responsible for the rapid advance of British Imperial troops across the North African plains. Here, in a nutshell, is what General Wavell thinks of its importance: " 'Where do you read that Sir Tristram weighed out hay and corn, that .Sir Lancelot distributed billets, or that any Knight of the Round Table condescended to higgle about truss straw,' scornfully cries a character in one of Scott's novels. Hut if these knights had indeed not troubled to supervise such details of interior economy lie sure their enter prises would have miscarried."

Tactics of the Chase And there is this further sample of his philosophy of war: "To the initiated pursuit seems the easiest possible form of war. To chase a flying and presumably demoralised enemy must be "a simple matter, promising much gain at the expense of some exertion and hardship but little danger. Yet sustained pursuits in history have been few, escapes from a lost battle manv."

And, later: "In pursuit you must always stretch the possibilities to the limit. The troops, having beaten the enemy, will want to rest. They mnst be given as objectives not those you think they will reach, but the farthest they could possibly reach.'' And there is Wavell written down by himself for all to see.

All else is irrelevant. To General Wavell the demands of politicians, the hope of glory and applause of the crowd have no more to do with warfare than has a pound of cheese. The Commander-in-Chief must be supreme; he takes his basic orders from the War Cabinet and tells them what he will require to execute those orders. But from then on it is his own business. The how and the u hen must remain his own secrets. Ccneral Wavell devoured work. He was rarely seen about Cairo. >eld<>ni even at the. British Ki:iba>-y. where it was almost impossible to dine without, meeting a general of one kind or another. In the long i:orrs of the Kgyptian .-ie-ta between lunch and t'c de-lining of the fmi he was in hi- olliec. with the senior oflicers of his staff be.-ide him. <>n several occasions at that time, this writer lunched with the director of military intelligence, and. juiiuluallv at :> o'clock, if not earlier, when everyone else was settling down to recreation, lie would climb into his black Packard and drive back to headquarters two hours before the rest of the stall were due at their desks. If General Wavell was rarely seen be saw a great deal for himself, and not only on the sudden visits he would pay to the troops scattered about Africa. He knew everything going on inside G.H.Q., exactly how much weight each one of his huge staff was pulling.

Obscure yonnj; men in equally obscure departnients of the army have had dull driys brightened by a quite unexpected word of praise from him, and they have gone their way with a feeling that next time they would do even better. Because stories like that soon pet known from ono end of Cairo to the other, many other obscure young men have begun to work a trifle harder.

Almost certainly no general in history has had so territorially vast a command or, in proportion to its size, so few men to operate, inside it. The area stretches from Malta, and Crete southward to Kenya and beyond to the northern uplands of Rhodesia. It takes in Aden and Palestine. Now it takes in Somaliland apa in and Greece.

In something more substantial than theory it embraces also the whole of the South African Dominion. By the prowess of his troops operating with precision along the lines he has laid down for them, this territory is now being daily expanded. lie is the supreme l ummatider of Englishmen, Scotsmen, Australian-, New Zealanders, South Africans. Frenchmen, Czechs, Poles, Indians, Bedouins Ethiopians, as well as of soldiers drawn from the indigenous populations under his command.

Served in Boer V.'::r Despite the fact that General Wavell is considered "one of the bovs," his military career dates back to the beginning of the century, when he served throughout the South African War. At t'i.o close

of the war lie had won the South African Medal plus four clasps, thus proving himself a worthy officer of the famous regiment of the Black Watch to which he had been appointed in 1!K)1. G en era 1 Wavell's entry into the army was through a gateway not usually employed by those who are anxious to make a name for themselves by military exploits. He was educated in Britain's most academic school —Winchester College- which always has been considered t he path to the highest positions in the Civil Service. This Mid not prevent him from embracing the career ho most la \ oiirod. From the moment he entered the army 11 iprngrc»s was uninterrupted. After a short spell in the Stall' Colle.ee he served on the Indian frontier, where he achieved no fame. lie first became prominent in armv circles (which does not mean public circles, where his name was completely unknown until the Libyan campaign) when, in 1 !> 1 (>. lie was sent to I'ussia in the capacity of military attache to the Caucasus Army, lie held the post until the outbreak of the revolution in 1917, and thereafter was attached to the staff of General Alleuby. who then occupied a position analogous to that he himself holds to-day. It is true that Genera! Allenby's problem was not so diflictilt as that with which General Wavell now dee Is, but

that is because in those days the technique of war was not so far developed n<s it is to-day. Never Looked Back

At the close of the World War General Wavell never looked back. His career, owing almost certainly to that admitation which General Allenby had for his competent taciturnity, was almost automatic. Major general in 10.1.?. he n>-e one step to" lieutenant general only five years later. The year before nils latter promotion he was sent to Palestine to command all British troops in Palestine and Transjordan during what is now known in those countries as the "years of trouble. As soon as the War thoroughly realised the fundamental mistake of -Munich General Wavell was recalled and appointed commander in chief of the southern command, at that time the niivt important military command in the whole country. When it was obvious that war was just around the corner General Wavell was shifted to Kgypt, where he was given command of the largest and most complicated territory ever put under a British general. H-e took his wife out to Egvpt, where last year they celebrated their silver wedding. There is no height so lonely as that upon which a supreme commander stands. His decision is his own penalty for a grievous mistake. More than any general I have known in this war General Wavell is conscious of what is at stake; but his responsibilities seem to ride easily on his slightly bowing shoulders.