REAL CONQUEROR

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 111, 12 May 1943, Page 3

REAL CONQUEROR

TUNISIAN VICTORIES British Press Acclaims General Alexander N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent Rec. 11 a.m. LONDON, May 11. "History's New Alexander the Great" and "The Real Conqueror of North Africa" are descriptions given to General Sir Harold Alexander, deputy-Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Armies in North Africa, whose name is being linked with the Tunisian victories. He is the man of the hour in Britain to-day, and the newspapers, after devoting columns to General Sir Bernard Montgomery for months, are focusing attention on General Alexander.

Typical headlines are: HowAlexander Did It," "Our Greatest General," and "Some Talk of Alexander." General Alexander, who is aged 51, was a lieutenant-colonel at the age of 25 in the last war and at 45 was the youngest major-general in the British Army. He took over the command from Lord Gort on the Dunkirk beaches and was the last man to leave. He organised the retreat from Burma and then took over the Middle East Command from General Sir Claude Auchinleck when the fortunes of the Eighth Army were at a low ebb. The Daily Express military writer, Alan Moorehead, commenting on General Alexander's arrival at El Alamein, writes: "He suddenly arrived one day, a slight, dusty figure from the desert, wearing corduroy trousers, a battledress jacket and an ordinary field service cap. I doub'

if half the Allied troops had ever heard of their new commander, but suddenly you began to see him everywhere. "The general's headquarters were moved out into open country, signals began to pass back and forth at a tremendous rate, tens of thousands of men found themselves Kfted from one place and dumped in another, guns, tanks and workshops were switched along the line, little by little three Allied armies were sorted out and General Alexander's order of the plan of battle was put into action. Now you will understand there is great respect for this 51-year-old Irishman, who has brought up to Tunis the largest Allied force assembled on the Mediterranean since the war began." Mr. Moorehead adds that General Alexander is not an historical accident or a surpassing genius, but he has an extension of all the normal qualities of a regular fighting soldier. There are no violent contrasts in him and no marked idiosyncrasies or prejudices. "His will power and physical stamina are tougher than those of most commanders. He is not an ascetic. He both drinks and smokes. He has a warm sense of humour. It would be impossible to flurry him. I doubt if the public will ever get to know him intimately." "In the last resort," the correspondent adds, "he is a professional soldier and to him war is more important than the general." lan Hay's Tribute Major-General John Hay Beith, more widely known as the noyelist and playright lan Hay, in a tribute to General Alexander, says he is dependable in a crisis and also that he is a diplomatist of the first water. Lan Hay states that when the British and Americans landed at Casablanca and in Algeria there was a delicate problem as to who should be supreme commander. "General Eisenhower was chosen," he adds. "It was the only selection possible, firstly, because the gesture was immensely appreciated by America and did much to establish cordial relations between the Allied troops, and, secondly, because General Alexander, with vast experience and complete mastery of his job, could be just as effective as General Eisenhower's chief of staff as in supreme command. It may have been a disappointment to him to miss this final distraction, but he is eminently a soldier who sets the cause above the personal prize, and so he effaced himself and set to work upon his allotted duty."

Sir Harold's wife, Lady Alexander, with her children Rose, Shane and Brian, aged ten, seven and three years, respectively, live in Windsor Forest. The general writes to each child in turn, drawing neat sketches, one of which is of a tortoise which is a headquarters' pet.