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British Field Marshal Archibald Wavell

Archibald Wavell (5 May, 1883 in Colchester, Essex, United Kingdom – 24 May, 1950, London, United Kingdom) was a British Field Marshal, British Army commander of the Second World War and the Indian Governor-General during 1943 – 1947.

James Foster
James Foster
Oct 15, 20133.8K Shares64K Views
British Field Marshal Archibald Wavell

Archibald Wavell (5 May 1883 in Colchester, Essex, United Kingdom – 24 May 1950, London, United Kingdom) was a British Field Marshal, British Army commander of the Second World War and the Indian Governor-General from 1943 – 1947.

Colchester-born Wavell spent much of his childhood in India. He followed his career choice, Major General, in his father’s footsteps. He studied at the Summer Fields boarding school near Oxford, Winchester College, and Sandhurst Military Academy.

He joined the Black Watch regiment in 1900 and fought in the Boer War. In 1903, he was transferred to India and participated in the Bazar Valley of the battles of 1908. Wavell spent a year as a military observer with the Russian army in 1911.

First World War broke out, Wavell was a staff officer. He was transferred to combat units, and he was wounded in one eye and lost the Battle of Ypres in 1915. After he recovered, he was appointed to the Russian army in 1916. In 1918, he was transferred to Sir Edmund Allenby's headquarters in Palestine.

Wavell held several positions during the interwar period. In 1937, he was transferred back to Palestine, where the unrest grew. In August 1939, he was appointed Middle East Force Commander. He served in this task after the Second World War began.

The Middle East Theater was quiet in the first few months. In June 1940, Italy joined the war. Although the number of Italian troops in North Africa was much larger than the British force, Wavell not only rejected the threat posed by the Italians but also destroyed them. He captured the Italian bases in Ethiopia and Somalia. In February 1941, the British seemed to be winning the last Italian forces in Libya and the Axis; the future of Africa looked threatened.

Meanwhile, German and Italian forces began a joint attack on Greece. Wavell was ordered to stop his progression in Libya and send troops to Greece. He did not support the command but succumbed to abide by it – which, as a result, was a disaster. The Germans had thus an opportunity to strengthen the Italian troops in Africa; the British had time to turn to Greece only to suffer from losses and were eventually forced to withdraw from southern Europe to Crete and Iraq.

While Wavell was not responsible for the losses, he was traded to Sir Claude Auchinleck in July 1941. He was transferred to India, where he was again appointed as the operations commander of the undermanned war zone when the Japanese declared war on Great Britain in December 1941. He was made ABDA (American-British-Dutch-Australian) the Force Commander.

The Japanese drove the Allies out of Java, and Wavell also had to evacuate its headquarters on the island. As a result of the loss, the ABDA alliance fell apart. While Wavell was a talented director, he did not have sufficient resources to prevent the Japanese from taking over Singapore, Malay and Burma.

Wavell was replaced again by Auchinleck, who was also personally experienced setbacks in the North African fronts. Wavell in 1943 was India’s governor-general, and his task was to maintain the political status quo in the country in wartime. One of his first acts in office was to help the Bengal famine distressed faint of rural Bengal. He tried, albeit with mixed results, to increase rice stocks to calculate the price of food. He remained in office until 1947, when Lord Mountbatten succeeded him.

Wavell returned to England. He was appointed to the top of the Colchester manager, and he was made Earl in 1947. He died in London in 1950 and was buried at Winchester College in the medieval cloister circling the yard next to the Chantry Chapel. Her tombstone reads, “Wavell”. His son inherited his earldom. Wavell was known as a great friend of poetry. He assembled an anthology called Other Men’s Flowers, which was published in 1944. A collection of the last poem was written by himself. He also remembered okay poems, and was able to rule on external memory.

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