AHEAD OF HIS TIME

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24723, 27 September 1941, Page 8

AHEAD OF HIS TIME

GENERAL AUCHINLECK IDEAS LATER PROVED RIGHT BELIEF IN TOTAL DEFEAT OF GERMANY “A soldier ahead of his time.” This is the description given to General Sir Claude Auchinleck, who now commands Britain’s armies on the vital Middle East front, by a writer in a special radioed article from Cairo appearing in Collier’s magazine this month. The writer says that “ years ago General Auchinleck foresaw that war would outgrow the ‘ mule and march ’ era, so he replaced camels and cavalry with tanks and armoured cars, substituted machine-guns for sabres and bombing planes for artillery.” The article continues: — General Auchinleck married Jessie Stewart, of Seattle, Washington, 20 years ago. That is why he has lost his British accent. And ever since 1930 he has been one of the British Army’s leading exponents of armoured warfare. That is at least one of the

reasons why, at the age of 57, when most careerists are beginning to hope they might become brigadiers. Sir Claude is a full general and com-mander-in-chief of the armies of the Middle East. “ Hitler Still a Rough ” Sir Claude talked tanks and muttered motorisation while Hitler and Goering were still beer-hall roughs. It took him nearly eight years, but he pulled the Indian Army off horseback and gave it motors. He wanted cavalry to move 300 miles a day when its maximum speed was 30, and he envisioned infantry marching into action at 100 miles a day when its forward movement was limited to 10. He, like General de Gaulle and Douhet and Winston Churchill, was a man ahead of his time—a soldier, who foresaw, as did General von Ludendorff, that war would outgrow the “ mule and march ” era.

Even three or four years ago his concept of war was considered radical and revolutionary, and it took five months of arguing with the famed Chatfleld Commission, which in 1938 ordered the modernisation of the British Army in India, before it adopted his proposals. The official biography of General Auchinleck states merely that he was able “ to put many of his ideas into effect.”

To his troops and to'his staff, when he is not listening, Auchinleck is “ The Auk.” He is as direct as a monosyllable and as forthright as the crack of a pistol. He said he would be in the lobby of Shepheard’s Hotel at 3 p.m., and at 3he was there. That he arrived promptly at 3 o’clock proved more than the obvious. It showed that “The Auk” does not take siestas. At least not unless it is so hot that it knocks you down. You had a hunch that lots of people would be skipping siestas thereafter in this highly important part of the world that is fighting Hitler.

He came without a fly swish, an important accessory in the Middle East. “The Auk” believes in slapping them dead. His technique is interesting because ho fights the same way. • Ideals of Generalship

“A general should choose his battlefield,” he was saying, “and oblige his enemy to fight on that battlefield and no other. He must choose his objectives and then prepare.' He must prepare thoroughly and engage the enemy, knowing to the last bullet what he has got and how he is going to use it. . . . “ Sure we can win this war,” he said. “ Sure we can win it. But it has got to be won in Germany, perhaps in Austria. We’ve got to bring the war to the enemy. Our battlefield is his own backyard. Napoleon was beaten that way. And it’s the only way. Anything short of the total defeat of Germany will mean what? ” He looked up and stuck his chin out. “It will mean a patchcd-up peace. Germany in control of all of Europe will turn around and offer peace. You wait and see. And that will be a decisive moment. Acceptance of any peace would be nothing but an armistice, and then it would begin all over again.” “But where could Germany be attacked? ” he was asked. He replied; “ I don’t know now how we will get at them. But there will be some way. Something will turn up, and if nothing does we’ll have to make a battlefield.”