Page
THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 1958.
I WOULD NOT HAVE
HAD
On November 18, 1941, Gonoral Auchinlock began his long-awaited offensive in the Western Dosort. The same day Kennedy was told that General Sir Alan Brooke was to succeed Gonoral Dill as Chief of the Imporial General Staff.
Brooke took over on December 1.. By then it was clear that the offensive had failed.
On the 7th nows of Pearl Harbour came in. But Amorica was now in the war on our side. there was much bad nows from the Far East culminating in the loss of Singapore on February 16, 1942.
THIS was a trying time for the Prime Minister and for the Chiefs-of-Staff. Brooke was standing up well to the strain, supported by his sense of humour. He was rapidly acquiring an effective technique for dealing with Churchill. He told me, one day in February, that he no longer attempted to reply when the Prime Minister declaimed. "I just sit silent," he said, "and put up an umbrella." When Churchill found that he could not start an argument, he always became more reasonable.
so
cally indulged in from the War Office. And whereas Dill was sensitive to a fault, Brooke was able to grow a thick skin in which the Prime Minister's banderillas did not stick.
I was myself becoming something of a connoisseur in the various ways of deal ing with the Prime Minis ter, having witnessed many different approaches.
The course of the operations Lord Salisbury seemed to
in the desert, since Auchinleck be the most expert per had taken over, had failed to former.
Government He had a gentle, inspire the
with almost diffident, manner. great confidence in his leader- But behind his gentleness ship; but his position was sill was a quality of steel and overybody, including the Prime Minister, knew that it was impossible to deflect
from whatever
him
⚫ thought right.
irong.
of
Now, at the beginning, March, there began a chain of events which culminated in his It
removal Ave months later. he was in
Bluntopinions
March that he sent tis an appreciation of the situation. which indicated that his out look had become defensive. It was true that Rommel's forces had been strengthened, while Auchinleck's had been depleted
By totally different by withdrawals to the Far East,
But the view 'we took in London
ISMAY'S
FOR ANYTHING
IN THE WORLD
were
with me We were
JOB
was to act as whipping boy, and as a person to whom Church could blow off steam ob hours of the night any day.
all
We all felt we would not have had his job for anything In the world. He was, in his ewn right, one of the most remarkable men of the war.
On the morning of June 10 the Prime Ministër sent me telephono
that message
he wished to see me at No. 10.
He got up and walked to and exclaiming fro as ho spoke, repeatedly: "I don't know what wo can do for that Army, All our efforts to help them seem to be in vain." fle went over all the attempte he had made to strengthen the Middle East- he had sent fresh divisions out. to them, he had got Sherman tanks out of the President for them, and so on. "Nothing seems And I am the to help them. one who gets his neck wrong when things go wrong."
Under June 10, there is a nelo 10 my diary, The Mediterranean situation La rather a mess,"
In
courteous language. We agreed War Cabinet, dined with tho tenor of the Prime at the Carlton Grill, Minister's draft, but we thought Indeed fortunate to have Ismay it better to emit such remas to take so much of the initial as that "armies were not in shock of the Prime Minister's
The Arst half-hour was spent Lo cland tended
about doing impact on the Staffs. He never nothing." that "oldiers
claimed
influenced in going over recent reports of that he
and reinforce extent, and German lossea to fight," and so on. Churchill to any meani Auchinleck sent unsatis probably he did not. No inen ments,
the He argued that with
Inclination nrd factory reply.
Churchill then held forth for. His influence which he faced was capacity to deal seriously with the Issue
retained early an hour about post far bigger than the security of Churchill could have
talla, and that a premature Lamay's port for very long. He events in the Middle East, and offensive would jeopardise our was always charmingly frank in about the situation of Auchin-
Middie admitting that his chief function lock's forces. whole position in the East. In fact he stuck to his previous opinion,
00
a month
In the end Brooke said he fel inclined to hold Auchinleck to his climate that the offensive might be possible in the middle of June, which was inter than the original date we had almed of. A convoy was into Malta in due to be run mid-June, and an offensive then would provide some .cover for 1.
Brooke's view was accepted by the other Chiess-of-Staff and the Cabinot. Churchill drafted a telegram to Auchinleck in which ho was given a direct order to engage Hommel in time tu assist the passage of the Malta convoy at latest.
May
Churchill broadcast an 10. I thought it his best up to dale, although he seemed to me to stress the importance of bombing Germany rather
too much. We were always sensitive about this, because it increased cur difficulties in our altempis to provide for the essential
of the Navy and
needs
the
methods Mr Bevin could was that, the longer he walled Army. All the saine, it was an
achieve almost the same before he attacked Rommel, the effect; in his case, his per- suasiveness was due to the combination of blunt and bluft
opinions, allied to honesty, courage and com- mon sense, Mr Attlee's staccato, matter-of-fact, ap- proach was different from both of these, but was also Some extremely effective. other Ministers, although acutely intelligent and of strong character, rarely carried their points in these open discussions.
Brooke was quick, decisive and methodical; he was 1.01 afraid to decentralise, and he was so little seen in the War Office that it was said
GENERAL SIR ALAN
BROOKE
of him nosing round the bookshops.
that he knew his way to only two rooms there: his awR, and the lavatory, Не quickly adjusted
routine Lo poorer would be his chances of
and
excellent speech,
tho general impression in White- rail was that his prestige was waxing again. There woa also a feeling that his judgment was growing more balanced. Looking back on this period, I have a suspicion that it was Brooke's influence beginning
bear frult,
to
On May 25 I mode a note in my diary: "The Parliamentary debutea on the Combined General Staff and the higher direction of the war have Azzied out....In the end Winston has been left supreme, and stronger than before, and it has been demonstrated again that all the other politicians are pigmies that compared with him, ankl his hold on the country and his place in the eyes of our allies, Bre such that archange in leadership at this time unthink- abic. And
doubt there is no that
desplie his strategical vagaries, he is a great leader."
In the end, Rommel moved
Churchill's, and used to dis- holding his position, And the in the desert before Auchinleck. Dypear for three hours, in the Navy were desperately anxious He advanced on May 26, and
which afternoon, during
he that Auchinleck should regain avocations, airflelds own
from Cyrenaica pursued his chiefly nosing round the book which our alrerait might be able shops for bird books.
lo cover the passage of convoys
As a rule, he never came back to the War Office after
in
into Malto.
.The
Chlafs-of-Staff sun! dininer. In these respects he Auchinleck a telegram. They was far better equipped for fald tum their consklered the rigours of his job than opinion: that he should adopt a
the same mere
This Dill, who had not
offensive attitude. factilty for skimming the telegram was sent instead of one cream off the work, and whose that Churchill had drafted him- only pastime-riding-was not self, and was couched in more
IN
COMMENTARY
BY FRANK OWEN
TN his instalment today, Minister on the elements of General Kennedy tells strategy into the late hours how General Sir Alan Brooke, of the night,
newly appointed Chief of the Imperial General Staff. de-
Perhaps this saved him For
drove D wedge Into our positions. Auchinleck sent us fairly optimistic reports and we formed the impression that ho was much happier now that the period of suspense was over.
Starvation
A fortnight later the battle still dragged on and we rew mained on the defensive, whlic Rommel retained the initiative. It was now clear that the course of the fighting would not help us much with the May convoya, and the prospect was growing dim of gaining air bases, farther to the West, from which to protect our ships. We were
even getting anxious for Malta. It was decided to try to run in two convoys in June simul taneously, one from each end of the Mediterranean.
Churchill's personal position
months back, though
a fer
veloped a more successful further valuable time.
If no ships got in, we cal- technique of handling the Winston Churchill, as Gen- Prime Minister, Winston eral Kennedy says, though culated that Malta would starve
he was wrong in some in a month or so. Churchill, than certain other previous Chief-of-Staff. He things, happened to be dead simply did not enter into right on several other issues. provocative argument with in which he opposed the was stronger than it had been advice of the Chief-of-Staff. perhaps still not strong enough "the Old Man."
The sending of tanks both to to survive great reverses. Prime Alan Brooke also found a Russia and to Egypt was Miniators need luck as well as method of dealing with justified in each event, and Generals; Prime Ministers who Churchill's habit of taking an his insistence on saizing the usurp the role of Commanders hour's slesta in the after- French-owned Isle of Mada-in-Chief need a double dose of His blodness had curtainly Justified on severat посл He just went off on gascar in the Indian Ocean been his own (for three hours!) secured the Allles' naval occasions, and had strengthened pursuing his hobby of scour command of that ocean, and his position vis-a-vis the Chiefs-
of-Staff. He
sent' 4 ing the London bookshops possibly prevented a Japanese hundred tanks to Wavell and -the May convoy do Russia for works on birdlore. And sea assault on India.
against naval advice: the first
it,
had
·! he did not return to the Wor On these three questions, ind” got through, and only five
Office after dinner.
certainly, the Civilian appre- or six ships out of forty had lost from the Russları while the CIGS thus ciation turned out to be been
COEVOY,
The captura 'ot found some time, too, for his shrewder than that of the
due to its insistence. And there other literary interests. 1.e., Service chiefs,
composing his War Diaries, "And these,” notes General
he also avoided having to Kennedy, "were not the only Largue with the Prime Instances."
Madagascar had been largely
were not the only instances.
On June 4. General. Ismay, the Military Secretary to the
THE BUSINESS OF WAR
By Major-General
SIR JOHN KENNEDY
Director of Milliaty Operations 1940-43, Assistant Chief *af Imperial General Staff [Operations and Inteligenta)
1942-45.
“a person to whom Churchlif
GENERAL 16MAY.. could blow off steam at all hours of the night and day,"
that
Our operations appeared to have been plecemen in the operations would be unduly has described how he heard the character, and there seemed to influenced by the personality of news Churchill in the presence
the Prime Minister, & wrote in of Roosevelt. Brooke in have been no real effort to
On June 25 gir organise a concentrated counter. my diary at the time, It is such of Marshall.
Winston's fine John Wardlaw-Milne, MP, put stroke afler
pity that Rommel's first
and drive cannot be down his Vole of Consure on attack. We fully realised the courage
the conduct of the war; and lieavy disadvantage Auchinleck harnessed to the war effort in a
more rational way."
Churchill dealt with in the suffered in the poor quality of
House of Commors on July 2. our tanks, which were inferior
He carried the House by 470 We to those of the Germans.
votes to 25. had sent him tanks in large numbers; but quantity was no substitute for quality.
On June 21 we received telegram from Auchinleck in which he stated that the Tobruk garrison was adequate, and that he would be able to slage 4 counter-offensive from Sollum As the battle developed, in such way 01 10 make Churchill sent a succession of Tobruk secure. telegrams of advice and exhort- was laid on my table simul- atlon to Auchinleck, These aneously with another which
were
usually
read over the
NEXT WEEK
This telegram Winston's eyes flashed
telephone to the Chiots-of-Staff reported the fall of Tobruk. before being despatched, but, At this black moment despite this precaution, it seem- Churchill and Brooke were both
-"This is a soft job,"
ed certain that the conduct of away in Washington, and each he said.
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