Dedicated Professional

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32032, 5 July 1969, Page 4

Dedicated Professional

Slim as Military Commander By Geoffrey Evans. Bats ford, N.Z. Agent*—Whit eombe and Tombs. 23! pp. Illustrated. The campaign of recon quest of Burma glows todaj with a lustre which, thougl subdued, shows no sign o: fading. It seems to be univer sally agreed that here th< Japanese were defeated ot equal terms. The Japanese supply position was still good in early 1944 even at theii furthest point of land con quest, but the British and Indian troops opposing then in Burma were always giver the lowest priority for wea pons and logistic support The doctrine “Europe first

then Asia” seemed to have been expressly formulated to keep Slim from getting too fatField - Marshal Viscount Slim (as he became) joined the profession of arms almost accidentally. Commissioned from a peace-time O.T.G, he decided to stay in the army and at the end of the 1914-18 War entered the Indian Army. He did well at Staff College, Quetta, and was given a three-year appointment as an instructor at Camberley, followed by a year’s course at the Imperial Defence College. This training in the theory of war was to pay its own dividends, but it may have been just as advanta-

geons that, like Rommel, Slim did not derive from his country’s traditional military class. Although older than most people in similar appointments, W. J. Slim was soon employed in the new war ‘ commanding mixed forces of British and Indian troops. At Gallabat on the Sudan border in IMO Slim failed.

through a series of bits of bad luck, in an action against the Italians which he afterwards realised he could have won if he had followed his instinct and stuck his neck out The benefit of the experience was that there- ’ after he usually took the bolder course. In 1941, he took part in the advance into Syria to overcome the Vichy French. In Burma in 1942 the order of the day was retreat This never became a rout and, as well as many civilians evacuated successfully, there was never the abandonment of equipment—or of opportunities to fight—that characterised the collapse in Malaya. Among his other qualities —and he gives the impression of a dedicated professionalism not as common as it might have been in the British Army—Slim paid constant attention to morale, at a number of levels. He grasped very early the need to conquer malaria and other tropical maladies. Then be would always listen to his subordinates whose faith in his judgment was enhanced by his attention to their ideas. (The author of this book served under him in Burma). He kept on good personal terms with two difficult characters, the American General Stillwell and the thrusting wild man, Wingate. The favourite photographs of Slim exaggerate that very firm chin, which, while of Habsburg proportions, had about as much meaning He was not in fact a Blimpish

, figure and at least one photo* i graph in this well-illustrated book gives an entirely different impression of his character. He had the flexible mind to cope with the exigencies of jungle warfare, mastered already by his opponents. His use of air supply to keep going distant units followed bn his acceptance of some groups operating behind the enemy’s main strength. The defence of Imphal and Kohima between March and June 1944 are the high-water-mark of Slim's The Japanese had achieved surprise, at least in relation to the strength of their thrust against India-' They were beaten, and the.rommants of their forces (many were to die of starvation) 9 were pursued back into Burma. The exhausted British troops—many of whom could now keep going only on rum and condensed milk—still had the heart to begin the reconquest of Burma. The author remarks that Slim was lucky that his Burmese terrain was not weU known to the public and he could thus concentrate on his prime objective of the destruction of the Japanese armies without the territorial disposition of his forces at any given moment generating emotion. Perhaps, he was, too, lucky not to have had allies. The Chinese gave some help but were apt to withdraw it capriciously. The Americans helped with air lifts. But neither was absolutely indispensable. The reviewer’s only complaint about this book really underlines is chief strength: it is exactly what its title implies, a treatise on Slim’s generalship. Although it is by no means narrowly conceived, its main interest, with its many excellent plans, will still be found among Lieu-tenant-General Evans’s fellow soldiers.