Any thoughts on a replacement for Auchinleck as commander of the Middle-East in mid 1942, other than the OTL Alexander?
I'm working on a timeline where due to the complications of Malaya holding, the following figures are unavailable for one reason or another:
Wavell (still running ABDA)
Alexander (engaged in a life-and-death struggle with the Japanese for Burma)
Montgomery (about to get seconded to be a chief-of-staff doing his logistics stuff in South East Asia)
Brooke-Popham (doing Air Chief Marshal stuff and civilian liaison in Singapore/Malaya)
XYZ (?) The butterfly of this timeline who is the source of much Japanese grief. Definitely not being moved from Malaya
In theory Percival might be 'spared' but he's convinced nobody in Malaya that he would be able to cope with high command without a lot of hand-holding and it seems a bit implausible to me that he would be appointed to the Middle East command.
At the moment, I have Churchill pencilled in as likely to 'move Auchinleck closer to the frontline' (i.e. remove him from Middle East command and put him directly in charge of the 8th Army) but this leaves the Middle East command vacant. (And Churchill is uninclined to make it a swap, putting Ritchie into Auchinleck's place.)
So far the only idea I've been able to come up with is Churchill getting all co-operative with the Free French and inviting Leclerc to take the Middle East command position, if de Gaulle would allow that.
I'm open to recommendations for UK/Empire alternatives.
(Excluding South East Asia, events are assumed up until June 1942 to have gone largely as in the original timeline.)
I'm working on a timeline where due to the complications of Malaya holding, the following figures are unavailable for one reason or another:
Wavell (still running ABDA)
Alexander (engaged in a life-and-death struggle with the Japanese for Burma)
Montgomery (about to get seconded to be a chief-of-staff doing his logistics stuff in South East Asia)
Brooke-Popham (doing Air Chief Marshal stuff and civilian liaison in Singapore/Malaya)
XYZ (?) The butterfly of this timeline who is the source of much Japanese grief. Definitely not being moved from Malaya
In theory Percival might be 'spared' but he's convinced nobody in Malaya that he would be able to cope with high command without a lot of hand-holding and it seems a bit implausible to me that he would be appointed to the Middle East command.
At the moment, I have Churchill pencilled in as likely to 'move Auchinleck closer to the frontline' (i.e. remove him from Middle East command and put him directly in charge of the 8th Army) but this leaves the Middle East command vacant. (And Churchill is uninclined to make it a swap, putting Ritchie into Auchinleck's place.)
So far the only idea I've been able to come up with is Churchill getting all co-operative with the Free French and inviting Leclerc to take the Middle East command position, if de Gaulle would allow that.
I'm open to recommendations for UK/Empire alternatives.
(Excluding South East Asia, events are assumed up until June 1942 to have gone largely as in the original timeline.)