Middle East Command
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During World War II the British Middle East Command was based in Cairo with responsibility for the Middle East theatre which included North Africa, East Africa, Persia, the Middle East, and the British forces in the Balkans and Greece.
The Commanders-in-Chief (C-in-C)s of the Middle East Command were:
- Sir Archibald Wavell July 1939 – July 1941
- Sir Claude Auchinleck July 1941 – August 1942
- Sir Harold Alexander August 1942 – February 1943
For the first nine months of World War II, the Middle Eastern theatre was quiet. This was until Italy's declaration of war on 10 June 1940 and the start of the East African Campaign. However, in spite of his inferiority in troop numbers, Wavell was able to not only defend against the Italian attacks but by May 1941, he was able to defeat the Italians and occupy their east African colonies of Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Italian Somaliland.
In the meantime, Wavell had sent a force to Iraq to suppress a coup d'etat by elements sympathetic to the Nazi Germany (the Anglo-Iraqi War) and in June 1941 had ordered the invasion and occupation of Syria and Lebanon to prevent further support of Iraq by the Germans through these Vichy French controlled territories. In July he had ordered Iraqforce to invade Persia (modern Iran) in conjunction with Soviet forces from the north to safeguard the oilfields. Persia and Iraq were transferred out of Middle East Command into a separate Persia and Iraq Command in August 1942.
In the Western Desert by February 1941, the British had appeared to be on the verge of overrunning the last Italian forces in Libya. This would have ended Axis control in all of Africa. Then the tide of war turned against the British as the Germans attacked through the Balkans and continued on to occupy Crete. The Germans reinforced the Italians in Libya with the Afrika Korps and the British suffered further setbacks. Wavell and Auchinleck exchanged positions, Auchinleck becoming C-in-C Middle East and Wavell becoming C-in-C in India.
While Auchinleck was in command, the British Eighth Army confronting the German Afrika Corps and the Italian Army was commanded successively by General Sir Alan Cunningham and General Sir Neil Ritchie. General Richie was dismissed after defeats at the hands of General Erwin Rommel. Auchinleck assumed the field command himself and the German/Italian advance was halted the at the First Battle of El Alamein.
The "Auk," as he was known to his troops, was unfortunate in some of his subordinate senior officers in North Africa: some were incompetent, some were killed and some were captured. He struggled with the innate conservatism of the army establishment to get the armoured and infantry wings of the army to fight together on the German pattern, but had only limited success.
Like his foe Rommel (and his predecessor Wavell), Auchinleck was subjected to constant political interference. He had to weather a barrage of hectoring telegrams and instructions from Prime Minister Churchill throughout late 1941 and the spring and summer of 1942. Churchill constantly sought an offensive from Auchinleck, and was (understandably) downcast at the military reverses in Egypt and Cyrenaica. Churchill was desperate for some sort of British victory before the planned American landings in North Africa ("Torch") scheduled for November 1942. Again he badgered Auchinleck, immediately after the Eighth Army had all but exhausted itself after First Alamein. He flew to Cairo in August 1942, purportedly for consultations with Auchinleck, but it is now obvious that Churchill had made up his mind before he left Britain. Auchinleck was sacked by Churchill in August 1942, almost certainly because he refused to be bullied by Churchill into ordering a major offensive before he and his troops were properly prepared. He was replaced as C-in-C Middle East by General Alexander and as GOC Eighth Army by Lieutenant-General William Gott, who was killed in Egypt before taking up command. On Gott's death, Lieutenant-General (later Field Marshal Viscount) Bernard Montgomery was appointed commander of the Eighth Army. Auchinleck was offered the command of a newly-created Persia and Iraq Command which was being split out from Middle East Command but felt unable to accept the appointment, which was then taken by General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson.
Alexander presided over Montgomery's victory at the Second Battle of El Alamein. After the Anglo-American forces from Operation Torch and the Western Desert forces met in Tunisia in January 1943, he became deputy to Dwight Eisenhower in AFHQ.
