Part VII
In this part . . .
Here you can find ten successful generals, ten important and decisive British battles, and ten military museums worth visiting if you want to learn more about British military history, the British Army, its soldiers, and their weapons.
Chapter 26
In This Chapter
● Spotting Britain’s most able soldiers
● Figuring out what they did, and when
Some warriors appear to be born to lead, and here’s a list of those I believe to be the ten greatest British military commanders of all time. This is just my opinion, of course, and you may have your own thoughts on the subject. Each entry directs you to a chapter of this book to find out more.
King Edward 1 (Chapter 4)
As far as medieval generals went, Edward was in a class of his own. He not only understood the finer points of strategy when planning a campaign, he was also a sound tactician when he came to fighting battles. In addition, he understood an aspect of war that his contemporaries sometimes neglected. The castles of Conway, Caernarfon, and Beaumaris that Edward built in North Wales, each costing the medieval equivalent of a modern nuclear submarine, were actually the citadels of walled towns. Towns meant business, business meant prosperity, and prosperity meant that the Welsh were less likely to rise in revolt against the English. As Sun Tsu said, the best generals defeat their opponents without ever having to fight them.
Oliver Cromwell (Chapter 6)
Our image of Cromwell is of an unpleasant, warty man who left England strewn with ruined castles, had Charles I executed, and massacred Irish Catholics. But he was also a sound general who believed in thorough training and strict discipline. He was also an early practitioner of what is now called C3: Command, Control, and Communication. In brief, he was in complete control of his troops in action and they knew what he required of them. His Ironside cavalry, for example, did not go chasing after their beaten opponents in the style of Prince Rupert’s cavaliers. Instead, they rallied and returned to the battlefield, where their arrival was often decisive.
The Duke of Marlborough (Chapter 8)
John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, was responsible for restoring the international reputation of the British soldier to levels it had not reached since the days of the English archers. An expert strategist and tactician, he enjoyed an excellent working relationship with Prince Eugene of Savoy, forming a partnership that achieved numerous successes. He impressed on his officers that the most important part of their duties was looking after the welfare of their men. In this respect he paid such attention to detail that he became known as ‘Corporal John’ to the rank and file, with whom he was popular. He demonstrated his forward planning ability during the long march that ended with the Battle of Blenheim, when he arranged for fresh supplies of shoes to be available at various places along the route. Marlborough had political enemies at home, but as long as his wife Sarah remained on good terms with Queen Anne he was safe from their interference. Unfortunately, the two women fell out and Marlborough was recalled to England, receiving Blenheim Palace as a reward for his services.
The Duke of Wellington (Chapters 10 and 11)
Arthur Wellesley, later the Duke of Wellington, belonged to the Anglo-Irish aristocracy. It was while serving in India that he began to demonstrate his tactical ability. During the Peninsular War he developed his own distinctive way of fighting battles. This involved fighting defensively, preferably using the crest of a ridge for cover, followed by a swift but controlled counterattack when the enemy attack failed. He did not undertake a general pursuit until it became obvious that the enemy was beaten. In this way he won the decisive victory of Waterloo, in which only a portion of his army was British. His troops respected him and were uneasy when he was not about, but cannot be said to have loved him. After his military career, Wellington’s political opposition to the Reform Bill of 1832 made him unpopular for a while. In due course his popularity returned and huge crowds attended his state funeral in 1852.
General Sir Colin Campbell (Chapters 13 and 14)
Colin Campbell, later Field Marshal Lord Clyde, was the son of a Glasgow carpenter and served under Sir John Moore and Wellington during the Peninsular War. He later served in America, China, and India. During the Second Sikh War he commanded an infantry division with the local rank of brigadier general. He retired after spending three years on the North West Frontier, but his best years lay ahead of him.
Aged 61, he was recalled to duty on the outbreak of the Crimean War, promoted to major general, and given command of the Highland Brigade. Colin Campbell’s world was made up of two sorts of people - those who were Scots and those who were not. A strong empathy existed between him and his Highlanders, who broke the will of the Russians at the Alma; at Balaklava it was the 93rd Highlanders who, under Campbell’s direct command, formed the original ‘thin red line’. During the Indian Mutiny Campbell finally drove the rebels from Cawnpore and Lucknow. Queen Victoria ennobled him and gave him his field marshal’s baton. The carpenter’s son had come a very long way by the time he died in 1863.
Field Marshal Lord Roberts (Chapters 14-16)
William Sleigh Roberts belonged to an Anglo-Irish family. He was born in Cawnpore and spent most of his life in India. The first remarkable thing about Roberts was that he was small, with delicate health and poor vision in one eye. Today, he would probably not pass his medical examination. The second remarkable thing was that he was as brave a lion and loved a fight, especially if it was hand to hand. In this sort of fight he won the Victoria Cross during the siege of Delhi, saving the life of a loyal sowar (Indian cavalryman), recapturing a regimental Colour, and cutting down two mutineers.
Following the suppression of the Indian Mutiny, Roberts served in many of the Indian army’s campaigns. His battles around Kabul and his march from Kabul to Kandahar during the Second Afghan War first earned him fame. The little man with a lot of fight in him caught the imagination of the press and public, who nicknamed him ‘Bobs’. He became Commander-in-Chief India in 1885 and held the post for seven years. In 1892 he became Baron Roberts of Kandahar and Waterford. Roberts became a field marshal in 1895 and an earl and viscount in 1901. During the Second Boer War he was appointed the commander of British troops in South Africa. He achieved success at once, relieving Kimberley and obtaining the surrender of a Boer army at Paardeberg. He then went on to capture both Boer capitals before handing over command to Kitchener. Roberts was the last of Queen Victoria’s heroes to be honoured personally by his Sovereign. He succeeded Wolseley as the Army’s Commander-in-Chief, and died in the winter of 1914, having contracted pneumonia while visiting troops on the Western Front.
Field Marshal Lord Wolseley (Chapters 15 and 16)
Garnet Wolseley, the son of an army officer, was born at Golden Bridge, County Dublin. He first saw action during the Second Burma War, where he was severely wounded and mentioned in despatches. During the Crimean War he took part in the siege of Sevastopol. He served under Sir Colin Campbell during the Indian Mutiny, taking part in numerous actions, and was frequently mentioned in despatches. In April 1859 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel, achieving the rank in a remarkably short space of time. He next served in China and was present at the storming of the Taku Forts.
After spending some years in Canada, Wolseley was appointed Assistant Adjutant General in 1871 and worked on the practical details of the Cardwell reforms. In 1873-1874 he brought the Ashanti War to a successful conclusion. For this he received the thanks of Parliament, a grant of £25,000, and promotion to major general. Promotion to lieutenant general followed in 1868 and the next year, following reverses in Zululand, he was sent to South Africa to relieve Lord Chelmsford. However, by the time he arrived, the Zulu War was all but over. In May 1880 Wolseley was appointed the British army’s Quartermaster General then, two years later, Adjutant General. He held this post for only a few months before conducting a short but brilliant campaign in Egypt against Arabi Pasha. He again received the thanks of Parliament and became Baron Wolseley. 1884 saw his return to Egypt as commander of an expedition up the Nile for the relief of General Gordon, besieged in Khartoum. Gordon, however, was dead by the time that the expedition’s leading elements set eyes on Khartoum. The failure of the expedition depressed Wolseley, but the causes of that failure lay beyond his control. Once more, Parliament formally thanked him and he became a viscount. He did not see active service again, but served as Commander-in-Chief Ireland 1890-1895 and Commander-in-Chief of the Army 1895-1900.
Field Marshal Lord Allenby (Chapter 19)
Edmund Allenby’s first career choice was the Indian Civil Service, but he had problems with the entrance examination and decided to become a soldier instead. Having passed out of Sandhurst, he joined the 6th Dragoon Guards. He saw active service during the Second Boer War and in 1914 he commanded the British Expeditionary Force’s Cavalry Division. He was appointed commander of the Third Army, which he handled efficiently during the Battle of Arras in 1917. Allenby did not get on with General Haig, who posted him to Egypt as Commander-in-Chief in June 1917. He became known as ‘The Bull’, partly because of his build and partly because he was inclined to bellow when angry.
Allenby demonstrated his tactical flexibility during the Third Battle of Gaza/Beersheba, exploiting the success of what was originally intended as a feint attack. He took Jerusalem - the first Christian commander to do so since the Crusades - and probably could have finished off the Turkish army in Palestine in the spring of 1918 if he was not forced to send many of his experienced troops to counter German offensives in France.
Once his army’s strength had been restored Allenby began to plan the Battle of Megiddo. The course of the battle is easily recognisable as an early application of the blitzkrieg technique used by the Germans in the Second World War. Allenby was promoted to field marshal and made Viscount Allenby of Megiddo. He subsequently served as British High Commissioner in Egypt, virtually ruling the country until it gained its independence. In the opinion of Field Marshal Earl Wavell, who served on his staff, Allenby was the best British General of the First World War.
Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery of Alamein (Chapters 21-23)
Bernard Law Montgomery, a clergyman’s son, joined the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in 1908 and served with it during the early months of the First World War. In October 1914 he was badly wounded and served in staff appointments for the rest of the war.
Montgomery commanded the 3rd Division in France 1939-1940, and after Dunkirk he was promoted to lieutenant general and commanded first V Corps and then XII Corps, followed by South East Command. In August 1942 he went to Egypt to take over the Eighth Army. He restored its morale and instituted thorough training. Montgomery virtually destroyed Rommel’s Axis army during the Second Battle of Alamein, then conducted a long advance across North Africa to Tunisia, bringing the campaign to a successful conclusion. Invasions of Sicily and Italy followed, before he left the Eighth Army to return home and prepare for the Normandy landings as commander of the 21st Army Group. Montgomery received his field marshal’s baton in 1944. Following the campaign in Normandy he led his army group to victory in northwest Europe, receiving the enemy’s surrender in May 1945 on Luneburg Heath.
Montgomery enjoyed the confidence of his troops, but he was a difficult man to like. His sharp, confident manner grated on some senior American commanders, and his attitude to his immediate superior, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, bordered on the insubordinate at times. Like all great commanders, including Allenby, he was utterly ruthless in sacking commanders whose conduct of operations fell short of his expectations. He became Viscount Montgomery of Alamein in 1946. After commanding the British
Army of the Rhine, Montgomery served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff between 1946 and 1948 before playing an important role in the development of NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation). He received many honours and awards, and after his retirement he wrote extensively on military matters. He died in 1976.
Field Marshal Viscount Slim (Chapters 21 and 24)
Like Montgomery, William Joseph Slim began his military career in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. When the First World War broke out he was serving as a lance corporal in one of the regiment’s territorial battalions. A minor misdemeanour cost him his stripe, but he was commissioned shortly afterwards. He was wounded in France and later served in Mesopotamia. When the war ended, the toss of a coin decided whether Slim stayed in the army or became a journalist. He joined the 6th Gurkha Rifles, remarking later that it is harder to become a good journalist than a good general.
During the Second World War Slim was wounded while serving as a brigade commander in the Sudan and Eritrea. In 1941 he commanded the 10th Indian Division during the Iraq revolt and the campaign in Syria. The following year he was promoted to lieutenant general and commanded I Burma Corps during the long retreat from Burma to India. His victories at Kohima, Imphal, Mandalay, Meiktila, and Rangoon cost Japan a complete army group and were a unique achievement in the Far Eastern theatre of war.
Slim became a Field Marshal and a Viscount shortly after the Second World War ended. He served as Chief of Imperial General Staff 1948-1952 and then as Governor General and Commander-in-Chief Australia 1953-1960. With his burly build he resembled a prosperous farmer, but the determined set of his jaw said that if he had indeed been a farmer, he would always have got top price for his produce. Admiral of the Fleet Earl Mountbatten, the Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia, believed that Slim was the war’s best general. His men thought the world of him. They knew that he had learned the business of soldiering from the bottom upwards. They also knew he understood them and was aware of their thoughts. And they respected the way he talked to them, man to man, with no punches pulled. When Bill Slim died in 1970, his old Gurkhas and the members of the Burma Star Association felt that they had lost a member of their family.