Alternative to Alexander for Auchinleck, in 1942?

Status
Not open for further replies.
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.)
 
Butterfly William Gott's death, especially given that he was killed when taking up his new command? You get to milk all the "Mein Gott!" jokes you want to if puns are your thing. :p
 
How about keep Auchinleck in the job. I've always felt he kind of got a raw deal by Churchill. That and his wife cheated on him and eventually left him for Richard Pierse. Write a TL where things go better for him. He deserves it...
 
The problem is Tobruk...

How about keep Auchinleck in the job. I've always felt he kind of got a raw deal by Churchill. That and his wife cheated on him and eventually left him for Richard Pierse. Write a TL where things go better for him. He deserves it...
The problem is Tobruk has still fallen in this timeline, so I suspect that Churchill would have difficulty keeping those responsible (Ritchie in the 8th Army, and Auchinleck in the overall Middle-East command) in their places even if he wanted to do so.
Now Auchinleck seems to have handled the 8th army fairly satisfactorily, as far as I can see, during the retreat from Tobruk, so absent Montgomery/Alexander (and if Gott whom was originally intended for the 8th Army command still catches the original timeline air-attack) I could see Churchill 'demoting' Auchinleck from the Middle East to the 8th Army, but that still leaves the overall Middle East theatre command vacant.
 

Driftless

Donor
How about keep Auchinleck in the job. I've always felt he kind of got a raw deal by Churchill. That and his wife cheated on him and eventually left him for Richard Pierse. Write a TL where things go better for him. He deserves it...

Yup, I'd like to seem him get a better deal. He was unrealistically expected to fix problems overnight and when that didn't happen on Winston's timeline, he got sacked. He deserved better.
 
AIUI Gott was pretty tired and worn-out. I don't know if he would be a great replacement---not for lack of skill or ability, but because a fresh pair of eyes would be better suitedd
 
What about Slim? Just a thought.:)

He is still quite junior (learning fast) in 1942 and IIRC he had been wounded in East Africa when his Brigade was nearly routed (A situation where the Italians had planes the British didn't)

He still has to earn his spurs before he can be considered as an Army commander.

Bloody good soldier (Ex NCO) though and was undoubtedly up-to the task even then - now if you can come up with a POD where he get noticed earlier - maybe taking over a corps when a more senior commander(s) is killed / captured / has a nervous breakdown in the middle of a battle and turns things around in short order.

Still before all that - the Auk was a damn fine commander as well.

He took over the Desert Army twice both times in the midst of a lost battle - and in both occasions stopped the rot and was the first man to beat Rommel.

So how about you don't replace him at all and instead provide him the same level of support, as well as supplies etc and freedom from Whitehall interference as Monty got?
 
He is still quite junior (learning fast) in 1942 and IIRC he had been wounded in East Africa when his Brigade was nearly routed (A situation where the Italians had planes the British didn't)

He still has to earn his spurs before he can be considered as an Army commander.

Bloody good soldier (Ex NCO) though and was undoubtedly up-to the task even then - now if you can come up with a POD where he get noticed earlier - maybe taking over a corps when a more senior commander(s) is killed / captured / has a nervous breakdown in the middle of a battle and turns things around in short order.

Still before all that - the Auk was a damn fine commander as well.

He took over the Desert Army twice both times in the midst of a lost battle - and in both occasions stopped the rot and was the first man to beat Rommel.

So how about you don't replace him at all and instead provide him the same level of support, as well as supplies etc and freedom from Whitehall interference as Monty got?

So now we have three votes for keeping the Auk....
 
He is still quite junior (learning fast) in 1942 and IIRC he had been wounded in East Africa when his Brigade was nearly routed (A situation where the Italians had planes the British didn't)

He still has to earn his spurs before he can be considered as an Army commander.

Bloody good soldier (Ex NCO) though and was undoubtedly up-to the task even then - now if you can come up with a POD where he get noticed earlier - maybe taking over a corps when a more senior commander(s) is killed / captured / has a nervous breakdown in the middle of a battle and turns things around in short order.

Still before all that - the Auk was a damn fine commander as well.

He took over the Desert Army twice both times in the midst of a lost battle - and in both occasions stopped the rot and was the first man to beat Rommel.

So how about you don't replace him at all and instead provide him the same level of support, as well as supplies etc and freedom from Whitehall interference as Monty got?

The Auk has been treated badly by history, but he also had a very bad habit of picking poor subordinates. Alan Cunningham lost his nerve, Ritchie should never have been promoted past Corps or even Divisional command and Gott was not a good choice for commander of 8th Army at that time as he was desperately tired and also out of ideas. Dorman-Smith was a menace and Corbett shouldn't have been let anywhere near senior command.
 

Driftless

Donor
How about helping the Auk by giving him Slim in place of Neil Ritchie? Aukinleck had effectively used Slim in Iraq shortly before.
 
How about helping the Auk by giving him Slim in place of Neil Ritchie? Aukinleck had effectively used Slim in Iraq shortly before.

Depends on when you appoint him. Slim (and not Alexander) was the bloke who got BurCorps out of Burma, in what is still an epic fighting retreat. The highest compliment I can pay to Slim is that according to the last biography of him that I've read ('Uncle Bill', by Russell Miller, which I highly recommend) when the men saw him on the retreat, despite their ragged uniforms, despite their poor physical shape, despite the fact that they hadn't been able to shave or bathe in days and looked terrible - they tried to march in step and look as if they were on parade. That moves me to tears.
 
Depends on when you appoint him. Slim (and not Alexander) was the bloke who got BurCorps out of Burma, in what is still an epic fighting retreat. The highest compliment I can pay to Slim is that according to the last biography of him that I've read ('Uncle Bill', by Russell Miller, which I highly recommend) when the men saw him on the retreat, despite their ragged uniforms, despite their poor physical shape, despite the fact that they hadn't been able to shave or bathe in days and looked terrible - they tried to march in step and look as if they were on parade. That moves me to tears.

This would be after that because the Auk's victory at First Alamein was not until July. What about keeping the Auk in overall command of the Middle East and appointing Slim 8th Army Commander?
 
This would be after that because the Auk's victory at First Alamein was not until July. What about keeping the Auk in overall command of the Middle East and appointing Slim 8th Army Commander?

Aha. Interesting. That would be... well, fascinating. Slim, in my opinion, was better than Monty by a country mile. He was flexible, innovative and above all not an egotistical twit. The only problem would be that I don't think he had wide experience in armoured warfare. That said, exercises aside, neither did Monty.
 
He is still quite junior (learning fast) in 1942 and IIRC he had been wounded in East Africa when his Brigade was nearly routed (A situation where the Italians had planes the British didn't)

He still has to earn his spurs before he can be considered as an Army commander.

Bloody good soldier (Ex NCO) though and was undoubtedly up-to the task even then - now if you can come up with a POD where he get noticed earlier - maybe taking over a corps when a more senior commander(s) is killed / captured / has a nervous breakdown in the middle of a battle and turns things around in short order.

Still before all that - the Auk was a damn fine commander as well.

He took over the Desert Army twice both times in the midst of a lost battle - and in both occasions stopped the rot and was the first man to beat Rommel.

So how about you don't replace him at all and instead provide him the same level of support, as well as supplies etc and freedom from Whitehall interference as Monty got?

Small point of order, Slim never served in the ranks, although how he managed to join the University of Birmingham OTC in 1912 on the strength of his older brother being at the university (while he was a clerk) is something that isn't immediately obvious from any sources I've read.
 
Small point of order, Slim never served in the ranks, although how he managed to join the University of Birmingham OTC in 1912 on the strength of his older brother being at the university (while he was a clerk) is something that isn't immediately obvious from any sources I've read.

Just had to dig out my Robert Lymans "Slim master of War" -and....your right

Don't know where I got the idea from that he was an NCO before getting a commission from?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top