Fnurban #41: General Knowledge

Among the worryingly large backlog of unread volumes on my bookshelves (worrying because one starts to compare the probable time required to read them all, to average life expectancy), there is a small but distinct category - that of biographies of  prominent British army commanders. This is a direct result of my reading John Keegan's  1991  Churchill's Generals a couple of years ago.  Keegan acted as editor for a collection of 17 biographical essays  by various authors, covering no less than 20 British generals from the Second World War. 

 I'll freely admit that I really knew very little about any of the subjects, so this book was a very nice introduction to the subject - and of course it left me wanting to know more about quite a few of them! In second-hand bookshops and charity shops I tend to find myself looking at the history/military sections of the bookshelves, and guess what?  Yes, you got it, I have been picking up biographies  and memoirs of some of these commanders. Here is the harvest so far: 

I found Alex , Nigel Nicholson's authorised biography of Field Marshal Alexander, in the excellent  Harris and Harris Books at Clare - and actually managed to read it! Well worth it, and very relevant given my interest in the 'D-Day Dodgers' Italian Campaign 1943-45, in which Alexander was allied C-in-C, and highly successful in commanding truly multinational forces. 

Viscount William Slim's Defeat Into Victory (an abridged, but still substantial tome)  came from Cuirassier Books, I think at the Re:Play show at the Royal Engineers Museum a couple of years ago. I like the 'career arc' of Slim : certainly not the usual public school educated product of a family of soldiers,  he was the son of a Birmingham ironmonger, working as a junior clerk before 'joining up' in 1914.  Defeat Into Victory is his account of his command in the Burma campaign, and according to Duncan Anderson in Churchill's Generals,  reveals 'an ordinary man, one often assailed by self-doubt, who made mistakes.. and did not consider himself particularly brave'.  

A charity shop find next:  Horrocks: The General Who Led From the Front by Philip Warner (1984).  I'll let the cover blurb give a flavour.  'Sometimes described as 'Britain's answer to Rommel', Sir Brian Horrocks was not only a charismatic and courageous leader of men but one of the most successful commanders of the Second World War'. His career spanned  Ypres 1914 (and 4 years as a POW) , Russia 1919, Dunkirk 1940, North Africa 1942/43 and North-West Europe 1944-45 (despite being seriously wounded in 1943), with 'retirement' involving the post of Parliament's  Black Rod, journalism and even presenting military history on 1950s  TV!   

On a recent trip to the National Trust's property at Calke Abbey (well worth a visit!), another little find came up in their second-hand bookshop : John Connell's 1964  Wavell:Scholar and Soldier (to June 1941) .  Much more than a simple soldier, Archibald Wavell was 'also a man of scholarly interests and attainments;  a biographer; an outstanding administrator...; and a Viceroy of India'. He may be better known as compiler of a best-selling poetry anthology Other Men's Flowers than as a soldier.  His misfortune was to be unable to build a good relationship with Churchill, perhaps partly  due to his taciturnity - eventually Churchill relieved him of command in the Middle East, at which point this volume ends.    His Middle East command was much more than just the Western Desert, also covering East Africa, Iraq and Syria, Greece and Crete - a huge responsibility with action in all areas, much of which will probably be new to me.  

 

And finally, the joker in the pack, so to speak - Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart's Happy Odyssey (1950).  An addendum sticker inside the front cover records that 'in this book General Carton de Wiart makes no mention of the fact that he was awarded the Victoria Cross'.  I think this may give an idea of the character of the man. In contrast to Wavell, he clearly had a very good relationship with Churchill, who has provided a foreword, and also appointed de Wiart  as his personal representative to Chiang Kai-Shek,  'to which he was not entirely suited' , as professor Gary Sheffield puts it in Churchill's Generals.  Multiply wounded (note the eye-patch) and famously courageous in 1914-18, in WW2 he led a British  military observers mission to Poland in 1939,  had an independent command in Norway 1940, and was captured by the Italians after a 'plane crash en route to Yugoslavia in 1941,  subsequently (aged 63) escaping from a POW camp via a tunnel and evading capture, in the company of fellow General O'Connor,  for several weeks. I think this is going to be a roller-coaster ride.. I had never heard of this gentleman until I read Churchill's Generals, and I was pleasantly surprised when a copy if this book turned up in Sudbury RSPCA shop a few weeks ago - snapped up for £5.  Amazingly, last week I was browsing  in our local Oxfam, and found another copy  - but they want considerably more money!        

Now it's very easy to buy books, especially if kidding yourself you are 'rescuing' them from charity shops, but the proof is in the reading, and I have all too many unread books. But I have a good feeling about these, and I think I will start with what looks to be the most straightforward and positive story, that of Horrocks. This is also a rather long-term project, and I won't be trying to get through them all in quick succession, more likely pick up one every so often, in between other reads.  Let's see how it goes.. 

The recent heatwave has driven away any thoughts of hobby painting, or hobby anything much! (in Suffolk we managed to have the record-breaking highest June temperature)  Now we seem to be cooling down a bit, today I managed a tiny amount of painting - here 'on the bottletops' we have four Garrison command figures for my French 7YW infantry unit Volontaires Étrangers de la Marine.   

 They've had a coat of grey primer, and their uniform base colour of white - it's a start. at least. There's some 'real life' stuff coming up this week which means I might not get them finished  until the weekend, but I should get some of the basic details done. There are also various 6mm units for Risorgimento 1859 wanting finishing, and.. and.. and... just like the books, the painting backlog never ends!

I hope everyone reading this  in the UK has got through the hot spell without too much discomfort - I think we all need some decent sleep! Hopefully we can all get back to our hobby now, and I can report a little more progress next  time. Until then keep well, everyone.