British Army Changes

Southland Times, Issue 24598, 21 November 1941, Page 4

British Army Changes

THE SECOND major shake-up in the British Army since the outbreak of war has placed General Sir Alan Brooke in supreme command of the Empire’s forces. A little more than a year ago General Brooke rose from comparative obscurity to the command of the British Army at home. He had been one of the outstanding successes of the campaign in France, and on his return to England he performed what has been described as “the major feat of organization in British Army history” by reorganizing, in one week, the scores of thousands of exhausted soldiers who arrived back from Dunkirk. But service in the field in the present war- is only one of General Brooke’s special qualifications for his new office. Although he is primarily an artilleryman, he held the command of the Armoured Division in 1937-38 and was subsequently commander-in-chief of the Anti-Aircraft Corps. Liddell Hart speaks of his “forceful direction” in this latter position: there seems no doubt that General Brooke is a man of great organizing ability as well as a widely experienced soldier. Sir John Dill, the retiring Chief of

the Imperial General Staff, said in a statement that he was always anxious for young men in the Army to get on and that this could happen “only if the older men give way to them.” This is an altogether admirable sentiment, and one that is being given effect to increasingly as the war goes on. The average age of the military chiefs is gradually being reduced. Although General Brooke at 58 is only 18 months younger than General Dill, Lieutenant-General B. C. T. Paget, who succeeds General Brooke, is 53 and the new ViceChief of the Imperial General Staff, Major-General E. A. Nye, is 46. Major-General Nye’s appointment at this age is probably unprecedented. He was commissioned from the ranks during the last war and received his first battalion command only in 1937. British people have suffered so many disillusionments about their military leaders since the outbreak of war that they will probably not expect the present shake-up to be the last. But even if time proves that the soldiers who will lead the Empire along the final path to victory have not yet been found, the rapid promotion of officers “with a technical knowledge of modern warfare and a more youthful viewpoint” is a move in the right direction.