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Field Marshal Claude Auchinleck
Field Marshal Claude Auchinleck
Field Marshal Claude Auchinleck
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Field Marshal Claude Auchinleck

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This military biography explores the life and service of a British Indian Army officer who served with distinction across both world wars.

During the First World War, Field Marshal Claude Auchinleck was awarded a Distinguished Service Order for his efforts in Egypt and the Mesopotamian Campaign. Afterward, he aided the pacification of the Northwest Frontier, now Pakistan. In the Second World War he briefly led a division in the ill-fated Norway campaign before being appointed Commander-in-Chief, India.

Auchinleck is best remembered for his time as Commander-in-Chief of the Middle East Theatre, where he halted Rommel at the First Battle of El Alamein. He then resumed command in India, where his leadership was vital to success in Burma. In the post-war years, he planned and oversaw the Partition of India and the British withdrawal.

In this extensively researched biography, historian Evan McGilvray examines Auchinleck’s long career as well as the transformations of the British military and the Empire itself.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateSep 30, 2020
ISBN9781526716118
Field Marshal Claude Auchinleck
Author

Evan McGilvray

Evan McGilvray has written several books on Polish military history for Helion and is writing a book about Poland, NATO and the failure of democracy in Poland since joining the European Union.

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Sometimes I find reviews difficult to write, and this was one of those cases. I have a couple of other books from this author about the Polish forces in the Second World War, and I rate them very highly, so I was looking forward to this biography on Claude AUCHINLECK. There is another biography on AUCHINLECK by Philip WARNER dating from 1981, so it was inevitable that I made comparisons between the two. In addition, there is the biography by GREENWOOD that was reprinted in 1990.It appears this author relied heavily on these two biographies for the three early chapters on AUCHINLECK’s life. There are some misunderstandings on some aspects of the military, such as the Brevet rank, and the author misses out AUCHINLECK’s promotion the rank of Major General and the two years he spent as Deputy Chief of the General Staff and Director of Staff Duties.From the fourth chapter onwards, the focus is on AUCHINLECK’s wartime career, for which the author refers frequently to the Auchinleck Papers held at the John Rylands Library of the University of Manchester. It is good to see primary sources utilised in this manner, and they do provide some interesting issues, in particular, the dynamics and personalities of some of the senior officers of the British Army during the Second World War. Chapters six to eight inclusive cover the war in the Middle East, and I believe that the author gives a sympathetic analysis of the situation, and the demands placed on AUCHINLECK.The last two chapters feature what to many was the pinnacle of AUCHINLECK’s career, as C.-in-C. of the Army in India, when he had the steer the Indian Army through the trauma of partition. His position has to be seen in the context of the politics of British India from the 1930’s, through the Second World War, to independence on 15 August 1947. Once again, the author covers this well, and makes sensible conclusions from the evidence available.My concerns about the book is that sometimes the narrative can be difficult to follow, and even having read it twice, I still found confusing. The other issue which I feel lets down the standard of the book are comments originating from the author which I feel are ill-informed and unjustified. One example are comments made about CHAMBERLAIN on page 34 and 55, which I feel are unnecessary. In my opinion, these detract from the overall content of the book.There are eight pages of photographs in the centre of the book, all of which are attributed to the National Army Museum. Most do not have any direct relevance to the content of the book, and they are poorly captioned. There is an error in naming the Jat Regiment in one caption. The photographs add little to the book in my view.In conclusion, this book is not of the same standard as the previous books by this author, and personally I prefer the other two biographies on AUCHINLECK. The author is to be congratulated, however, on choosing AUCHINLECK as the subject of his book, as his service in the British Indian Army is fascinating, and worthy of a higher profile. Generally, the author provides a meaningful and well-researched biography, and I feel generally he reaches objective conclusions. I am left with the view that AUCHINLECK has suffered in the historiography of the Second World War because of the acerbic and unwarranted criticism from MONTGOMERY, who for his own reasons, felt it necessary to comment upon and denigrate other officers of this period. This book provides some balance to this aspect of the Second World War, and I do recommend it to readers to broaden their understanding on AUCHINLECK and his place in history.

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Field Marshal Claude Auchinleck - Evan McGilvray

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