“EIGHTH ARMY”

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 March 1944, Page 5

“EIGHTH ARMY”

BOOKLET’S REVELATIONS

DISMISSAL OF GENERALS (N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent)

(Rec. 10 a.m.) LONDON, March 22. “The Eighth Army,” the official booklet prepared for the War Office by the Ministry of Information, will provide interesting reading in New Zealand, for it gives a good account of the Second New Zealand Division’s work, referring to it as “a magnificent division,” and makes plain its important consistent contribution in North African campaigns. Included among the many fine photographs is one of General Freyberg with Mr Churchill at Alamem in August, 1942, also the meeting of New Zealanders and the tank commanders at Tobruk at El Duda. The Ministry of Information states that 50,000 copies will be distributed in New Zealand and Australia. The booklet gives the first detailed official version of the dismissal or replacement of Generals Cunningham, Ritchie and Auchinleck. It tells how General Cunningham, in the critical battle of 1941, concluded the battle could not be won and that the troops should disengage. The enemy tanks had proved superior to the British, which were equipped with only twopounders. “British armour made mincemeat of the lighter tanks, but most of the enemy’s surviving armour was composed of heavy machines which were more than a match for it. These serious considerations were very present to the mind of General Cunningham. He was not the man to cry halt without good reason. He tried resolutely to carry out General Auchinleck’s plan of campaign,’ but now he reached the conclusion it could not be done, and that the operation should be abandoned and all troops withdrawn for re-grouning. “Nothing is more fatal than to entrust the conduct of a battle to a commander who does not think he can win it. In the . circumstances. General Auchinleck after a personal visit to advanced headquarters, decided to entrust the command of the Eighth Army to General Ritchie, who had partaken in all the original planning and was intimately acquainted with his views and processes of thought.” AUCHINLECK’S DECISION The booklet tells how Rommel took Tobruk and swept on to Alamein and describes how General Ritchie decided to attack the German bulge from several sides simultaneously and pinch it out. “To some, particularly those in the Fiftieth Division, this’ decision must have borne a sinister analogy to ‘the Weygand Plan in the battle of France. General Ritchie’s plan did at least materialise. The northern attack aided from the east got some way forward towards Bireltamar, but there was held up and heavily counter-attacked next day and practically wiped out * * ■’ Rommel undoubtedly scored a defensive victory. He had held his bulge virtually intact. Later, when Rommel reached the Egyptian border, the hour was critical. General Auchinleck decided to take on his own shoulders the direct responsibility for the operations.” (There has been no news of General Ritchie since he saw the King in August, 1942. The War Office staled that nothing can bo said about his present activities) The booklet describes the visit ol Mr Churchill, Lord Wavell and General Smuts to the Eighth Army and continues: “There was no lack ol appreciation or' indeed admiration for the way in which General Auchinleck averted an' imminent disaster, but it seemed possible that in the more or less haphazard distribution of commands, which was always forced upon the enormously expanded edition of Britain’s small army in time of war, the best man had not yet been found for this place.” It was therefore decided that General Alexander should be the new Commander-in-Chief in the Middle East. The appointment of General Montgomery was an accident. General “Strafer” Gott was designated to command the Eighth Army, but he was unhappily killed. “The Eighth Army, therefore, was entrusted to General Montgomery who, while holding an appointment in England, achieved a great reputation for force of character and for insistence upon physical fitness in every officer and man under his command.”

AWARD OF STARS. RUGBY, March 22. The Africa Star has already been given- to a million and a half officers and men, and the 1939-1943 Star to a million six hundred thousand, said Mr. Churchill, opening the Commons debate on war decorations. With other cases now under consideration, the two ribbons might cover nearly four million men. At present, he said, the Government could not. consent to widen the 1939-43 ribbon in order to include the whole army, or those who took part in the Battle of Britain. The Prime Minister admitted there was no perfect solution regarding the issue of medals. He reminded the House that the Africa Star was issued to commemorate the expulsion ol the enemv from Africa, whereas the 1939-43 Star covered service in other theatres. Six months had been taken as the Qualifying period in time, though in special operations actual presence with the forces was enough. The General Service ribbon was the prime or senior ribbon. * Discussing the question of men who served both in the First, Eighth, and other armies, Mr. Churchill said it was clear no one could have both the emblems, One and Eight—which had been approved. Exception, however, had been made in the case of Generals Alexander and Eisenhower, as the only two officers who had commanded both the First and Eighth Armies. , , i[T Mr. Churchill concluded: I may say that at the end of the war everyone who has worn the King’s uniform and served in uniformed and disciplined services will, I presume, receive a Victory Medal, commemorating this great struggle for human freedom. There will also be very likely a United Nations Allied war medal of the widest possible application. AIRMEN’S QUALIFICATIONS.

’ RUGBY, March 22. The Secretary of Air, in the Commons to-day, announced the following list of campaigns of operations in respect of which the service would qualify for the 1939-43 Star: France, Belgium. Holland, Norway, Greece, Crete, North-west Frontier of India, the Lofoten Islands (March and December, 1941), Lucania, Syria. Spitsbergen, Hong Kong, Malaya, Vaagso, Burma (February, 1942, and February, 1943), Grunevale, St. Nazaire, Awelo, Madagascar, _ Boulogne, Le Touquet, the Aleutian Islands (air crews only), Dieppe, Sark, and Sicily.