Military Papers of Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck, Volume 1: 1940-42

Claude Auchinleck was a British military leader who served as Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army and of the Middle East Theatre from 1941 to 1942. He was recalled to England in 1939 to command 4 Corps and later 5 Corps in Southern Command. Auchinleck faced challenges in commanding a multi-national force in the Middle East, including Winston Churchill's demands for a major victory. He managed to fight Axis forces to a standstill at the First Battle of El Alamein in July 1942 before being replaced by Field Marshal Sir Harold Alexander and General Bernard Montgomery. This volume contains key documents related to Auchinleck's career up to the First Battle of El Alamein.

Format: Hardback
Length: 448 pages
Publication date: 06 April 2021
Publisher: Army Records Society

The outbreak of war in 1939 saw the then Lieutenant General Claude Auchinleck recalled to England to take command of the newly formed 4 Corps. Between April and June 1940, he commanded British troops in the ill-fated Norway campaign. He then returned to the UK to take command of 5 Corps in Southern Command during the invasion threat of 1940. In January 1941, Auchinleck returned to India and started some much-needed reforms of what was still, very much, a colonial army before becoming C in C Middle East in June 1941.

In the Middle East, Auchinleck faced many challenges in commanding a multi-national force, largely composed of citizen soldiers, and his problems were complicated by the demands of Winston Churchill, an anxious Prime Minister who desperately wanted to show his allies and the British public a major victory. Auchinleck is open to the charges that he did not fully understand armored warfare and that he appointed a number of the wrong men to key posts. However, he did manage to fight Axis forces to a standstill at the First Battle of El Alamein in July 1942 before being replaced by the team of Field Marshal Sir Harold Alexander and General Bernard Montgomery.

This volume is based on the Auchinleck papers held in the John Rylands Library at the University of Manchester and aims to bring these important records to a much wider audience.

Weight: 936g
Dimension: 219 x 148 x 41 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781838387709