Wavell: Scholar & Soldier

This volume takes the story of Wavell's life from his youth to the time when he handed over command in the Middle East to go to India as commander-in-chief. It describes his early years: soldiering with his beloved Black Watch in India and during the South African War; learning Russian in Moscow before 1914; on the staff in France, and with his hero Allenby in Palestine. It traces his career between the wars, when he developed from a brilliant staff officer into a commander of authority and originality.
With the outbreak of war in 1939, all his intelligence and experience, and above all, his reserves of energy, were called upon. It found him in command of the huge Middle Eastern theatre stretching from Iraq to Libya and Kenya to the Balkans. It was an independent command in the sense that perhaps no other theatre of the last war was - something which Winston Churchill found irksome when he became Prime Minister and did his inimitable best to restrict. It was also a truly Imperial command, probably the last, and, serving under him, Wavell had not only British troops, but also Australians, New Zealanders, Indians, South Africans, West and East Africans, Poles and Free French.

"The only British General who showed a touch of genius was Wavell." Erwin Rommel

John Connell
Hardcover with d/w 574 pages Collins 1964 1st Ed

Vg/Near Vg