Description:
In January 1948, a despatch written by Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck<br />was published in London. These detailed military operations involving British<br />Commonwealth forces had taken place between November 1941 and August 1942 in<br />the Western Desert of North Africa. Initially submitted to the War Office (WO) five<br />years before, a complex and often bitter political dispute helped ensure that the path<br />of this despatch towards publication would prove a tortuous one. The key reason<br />behind the delay was the South African government’s complaints about references to<br />the Tobruk garrison, which, in June 1942, whilst under the command of a South<br />African general, had been forced to surrender to German forces. The drafting of the<br />despatch had begun almost as soon as the final battles had concluded. As a result of<br />his reverses at the hands of General Erwin Rommel and the latter’s Afrika Korps, the<br />then General Auchinleck had been dismissed by the British Prime Minister Winston<br />Churchill in August 1942, during the so-called ‘Cairo Purge’, to be replaced by<br />General Sir Harold Alexander. Alexander declined the offer of the newly created<br />Persia and Iraq command and departed for India, where he later became<br />Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army, turning his focus to the completion of his<br />account of recent events.