London Gazette of TUESDAY, the ^Rd of FEBRUARY, 1948 by Registered As a Newspaper THURSDAY, 5 FEBRUARY, 1948 the War Office, February, 1948
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tRumD. 38196 839 SUPPLEMENT TO London Gazette Of TUESDAY, the ^rd of FEBRUARY, 1948 by Registered as a newspaper THURSDAY, 5 FEBRUARY, 1948 The War Office, February, 1948. THE AFRICAN CAMPAIGN FROM EL ALAMEIN TO TUNIS, FROM IOTH AUGUST, 1942 TO 13x11 MAY, 1943. The following Despatch was submitted to the the defence of the Middle East had become Secretary of State for War on tjhe 2yd May, a purely British responsibility and the forces 1947, by HIS EXCELLENCY FIELD- commanded by General Wavell* and, later, by MARSHAL THE VISCOUNT ALEXAN- General Auchinleckf, were in the nature of a DER OF TUNIS, K.G., G.C.B., G.C.M.G., beleaguered garrison, connected with the mother C.S.I., D.S.O., M.C., former Commander-in- country by a perilous sea route of twelve Chief the Middle East Forces and Eighteenth thousand miles. During those two years the Army Group. garrison, though always outnumbered, had made many sorties; northwards to clear up PART I. THE CONQUEST OF LIBYA their defensive flank in Syria, Iraq and Persia, Situation in August 1942 southwards to overrun the Italian Empire in East Africa and safeguard the vital life-line The summer months of 1942 formed the most through the Red Sea and, above all, westwards critical period in the history of the war on all to destroy the closest enemy threat to their fronts. They witnessed the greatest exertion positions and to lay the first foundations for of strength, both on the part of the European the reopening of the Mediterranean. Twice Axis powers and of the Japanese, of which these westward sorties had cleared Cyrenaica our enemies were ever capable and when these and twice the call of other theatres, the Balkans great efforts were nullified by the Allied vic- in 1941,' and the Far East in early 1942, had tories of that winter, although it was clear that robbed us of the strength to exploit further or the struggle would be hard and long before com- to retain our conquests. On the second occa- plete victory could be attained, we could feel sion the simultaneous reduction in our strength confident that the possibility of an Allied defeat and increase in the enemy's had been too great had now been excluded. It was a tremendous and before the necessary reinforcements in men change in the whole climate of the war from the and, above all, in tanks could arrive the enemy days when the Japanese were hammering at had taken the offensive, defeated the Eighth the eastern gates of India, the German armies Army at Gazala and Tobruk and driven it back in Russia were lapping round the northern bul- to El Alamein. There it stoo*d and, on the warks of the Caucasus and a tired and battered critical day of 2nd July, defeated the enemy's British army turned at bay among the sandhills most desperate efforts to break through. By of El Alamein, only sixty miles from this stand the survivors of the old Desert Army Alexandria. gained the vital time necessary for the arrival At the centre of these three thrusts stood the of the fresh divisions and improved tanks British Middle East Forces. For over two years which were to turn the scale of battle. this small but battle-hardened army had stood I arrived in Cairo by air on 8th August, on guard at the centre of communications of 1942 and on the morning of the same day I the three great continents of Europe, Africa and had a private interview with the Prime Minister, Asia. It was originally intended as part only * Now Field-Marshal The Earl Wavell, PC., of a larger Anglo-French force, under com- G.C.B , G C.S.I, GCIE, C M.G., M.C. mand of General Weygand; but with the defeat t Now Field-Marshal Sir Claude J E. Auchinleck, of France and -the entry of Italy into the war GCB, GCIE, CSI, DSO, QBE, ADC 840 SUPPLEMENT TO THE LONDON GAZETTE, 5 FEBRUARY, 1948 Mr. Winston Churchill, and General Sir Alan moment when the balance of power had at Brooke,* Chief of the Imperial General Staff last swung favourably to our side. I was who had arrived there from Moscow some days fortunate in being able to replace him at once previously. At this interview I was notified that by Lieut.-General Montgomery,* who arrived in I was to assume command of the Middle East Egypt on i2th August from the United King- Forces. Shortly afterwards I was informed that dom. General Montgomery was an old com- my commitments were to be reduced by the rade in arms from the French campaign and, creation of a separate command, to be known had served under me in Southern Command as Persia and Iraq Force, which would assume in 1941; I well knew his capacities as an inspir- responsibility for defending the northern ing leader and an outstanding trainer of men. , frontier of the Middle East block against the He soon won the confidence and the affection of threat from the German armies in the the men of the Eighth Army, many of whom, in Caucasus. I remained responsible for ithe particular the newly arrived formations, had ', defence of Syria, Palestine, Trans-Jordan and already served under him dn England. He Cyprus but the threat of a German advance rapidly made himself familiar with the situa- through Anatolia was now considered re- tion in the desert, and by his frequent visits to mote and it was" reasonably certain, at the the various units disposed along the battle front worst, that Germany would not present an, t he brought to all ranks the inspiration of his ultimatum to Turkey before the spring of 1943. cheerfulness, enthusiasm and confidence. I was free, therefore, to concentrate all my The Alamein position had been constructed attention on the threat to Egypt from the wesl , in 1941 though it had been' recognized long and my task is best described in the words o] before that as offering the best defensive line the Directive, written in his own hand, which in the Western Desert. Its strength lay in the Prime Minister handed to me at a subse- the fact that its southern flank could be quent interview on loth August: covered by the Qattara Depression. This is " i. Your prime and main duty will be to the dried-up bed of a former inland sea which take or destroy at the earliest opportunity stretches from the neighbourhood of Siwa the German-Italian Army commanded by oasis, on the Egyptian frontier, to end at a Field-Marshal Rommel together with all its point about a hundred and sixty 'miles north- supplies and establishments in Egypt and west of Cairo and ninety miles south-west of Libya. Alexandria; the bed of the depression consists 2. You will discharge or cause to be dis- of quicksands and salt marshes, almost every- charged such other duties as pertain to your where impassable even for a loaded camel, and Command without prejudice to the task des- on the northern side at is surrounded by steep cribed in paragraph I, which must be con- cliffs which descend precipitously from an sidered paramount in His Majesty's average height of over six hundred feet above interests." to more than two hundred feet below sea level. At its eastern end the depression approaches I assumed command of the Middle East to within about forty miles of the coast of the Forces from General 'Auchinleck on 15!ti Mediterranean which here has a southerly August. I selected as my Chief of General Staff trend in the large bight known as Arabs Gulf. Lieut.-•General McCreery who had been my GSO i when I commanded I Division -at This was, for the desert, a very short line Aldershot and in France in 1939 and 1940. and it had the enormous advantage that it His scientific grasp of the whole sphere of mili- could not be outflanked to the south which was; tary matters made him of the greatest assist- true of no other position we had ever held.f ance to me throughout my period of command The prepared defences, which had been con- in Africa. My.General Headquarters continued structed by 2 South African Division, were to be located in Cairo, but I established an based on four defended localities: at EL advanced Tactical Headquarters at Burg el Alamein itself on the coast road, Deir el Arab,f adjoining the Headquarters of' the Shein, Qaret el Abd and the Taqa Plateau on- Eighth Army. My predecessor had, as a tem- the edge of the Depression. % These Jour strong porary measure, assumed personal command of positions, thickly surrounded by minefields and Eighth Army but it was intended that he should wire entanglements, with prepared gun posi- be succeeded m that capacity by Lieut.-General tions and cleared fields of fire, extended right Gott,. previously General Officer Commanding across the belt of good going from the Medi- 13 Corps. Before he could assume command the terranean to-the Depression; but when I arrived aircraft in which he was flying to Cairo was in Egypt only one was still in our possession, shot down by enemy fighters over its airfield the so called Alamein " box ". The last sue- ' and he was killed by machine-gun fire on the cess of the German drive into Egypt, on ist ground while assisting the rescue of the other July, had been the capture of the Deir el Shein occupants.