Churchill's Generals

406 Pages·1991·65.083 MB·English

by  Keegan, John

GENERALS
EDITED BY JOHN KEEGAN
I
Brilliant as both a politician and a writer,
Winston Churchill was at heart awarrior.
While his foe Hitler hoarded information,
Churchill shared all intelligence with his
generals. Who, then, were these menwho
made up Churchill's inner circle? In
Churchill's GeneralsJohn Keegan, author
of such combat classics as The Face of
Battle and The Mask of Command,
has assembled an outstanding group of
military historianstoexaminethecareers
of twenty of Churchill's leading
commanders.
The opening chapters look at three
generals—Ironside, Gort and Dill-
all unsuited by outlook, age and tempera-
ment to the caldron of warfare in
1940-41. Then, in December 1941,
Churchill replaced Dill with Alanbrooke,
probablythegreatestChiefoftheImperial
General Staff ever produced by the
British Army—and the only brother of-
ficer Montgomery could bring himself to
admire.
It took longer to identify the effective
field commanders. Wavell had brains but
lacked battlefield ruthlessness. For atime
he was served in the Middle East by a
junior, O'Connor, who was a superlative
leader of troops. But the replacements
—
for O'Connor Ritchie, Cunningham,
even Leese—were not of the same class.
Churchill experimented with a variety of
successors, notably Auchinleck. Eventu-
ally he hit upon a winning combination
—Alexander as theatre commander,
Montgomery asbattle chief.
Britain'sotherwar, inthe Far East, nec-
essarily took second place to the war in
the West. Percival, who should not have
been appointed to high command, was
never forgiven for his surrender ofSinga-
pore, andChurchillwasslowtoappreciate
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CHURCHILL'S GENERALS

CHURCHILL'S
GENERALS
EDITED BY
John Keegan
^V
GROVE WEIDENFELD
NEWYORK
© &
Copyright 1991byGeorgeWeidenfeld NicolsonLtd.
Allrightsreserved.
Nopartofthisbookmaybereproduced, stored inaretrievalsystem, ortransmitted in
anyform,byanymeans, includingmechanical,electronic, photocopying, recording,or
otherwise,withoutpriorwrittenpermissionofthepublisher.
PublishedbyGroveWeidenfeld
AdivisionofGrovePress, Inc.
841 Broadway
NewYork,NY 10003-4793
First published in Great Britain in 1991 by George Weidenfeld cv Nicolson Limited,
London.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-Publication I)ata
Churchill'sgenerals/editedbyJohn Keegan—1st American ed.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographical referencesand index.
ISBN0-8021-1309-5
1.WorldWar, 1939-1945-Great Britain-Biography 2. Generals-
GreatBritain—Biography. I. Keegan, John, 1934-
D750.C53 1991
940.54'0941-dc20 91-11536
CIP
Manufactured intheUnitedStatesofAmerica
Printedonacid-freepaper
FirstAmericanEdition 1991
987654321
10
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations vii
List of Contributors ix
Glossary of Acronyms and Abbreviations xv
INTRODUCTION
i
John Keegan
IRONSIDE
i 17
Brian Bond
GORT
2 34
Brian Bond
DILL
3 51
Alex Danchev
WAVELL
4 70
Ian Beckett
ALANBROOKE
5 89
David Fraser
CONTENTS
ALEXANDER
6 104
Brian Holden Reid
AUCHINLECK
7 130
Philip Warner
MONTGOMERY
8 148
Michael Carver
WILSON
9 166
Michael Dewar
O'CONNOR
10 183
Barrie Pitt
CUNNINGHAM, RITCHIE LEESE
and 200
11
Michael Craster
HORROCKS
12 225
Alan Shepperd
HOBART
13 243
Kenneth Macksey
PERCIVAL
14 256
Keith Simpson
WINGATE
15 277
JohnW. Gordon
SLIM
16 298
Duncan Anderson
CARTON DE WIART SPEARS
17 and 323
G. D. Sheffield
Index 351
VI