GENERAL ALEXANDER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 May 1943, Page 3

GENERAL ALEXANDER

NOW MAN OF THE HOUR IN BRITAIN HAILED AS REAL CONQUEROR OF NORTH AFRICA. COMPLETE MASTERY OF JOB. (Special P.A. Correspondent.) LONDON, May 11. “History’s new Alexander the Great” and “the real conqueror of North Africa” are descriptions given to General Sir Harold Alexander. He is the man of the hour in Britain today, and the newspapers, after devoting columns to General Montgomery for months, are focusing attention on General Alexander. Typical headlines are: “How Alexander Did It,”-“Our Greatest General,” and “Some Talk of Alexander.” General Alexander, who is 51, was a lieutenant-colonel at 25 in the last war, and at 45 was the youngest majorgeneral in the British Army. He took over the command from Lord Gort on the Dunkirk beaches and was the last man to leave. He organised the retreat from Burma, and then took over from General Auchinleck when the Eighth Army’s fortunes were at a low ebb.

Alan Moorehead, writing in the “Daily Express” on General Alexander’s arrival at El Alamein, says: “He suddenly arrived one day, a slight dusty figure, wearing corduroy trousers, a battledress jacket, and an ordinary field-service cap. I doubt if half the Allied troops had ever heard of their new commander, but suddenly you began to see him everywhere. “The general's headquarters were moved out into the open country. Signals began to pass back and forth at a tremendous rate. Tens of thousands of men found themselves lifted from one place and dumped in another. Guns, tanks and workshops were switched along the line, little by little, and Alexander’s order of battle plan went into action. Now, three months later, you will understand that there is great respect for this 51-year-old Irishman, who brought up to Tunis the largest Allied force assembled on the Mediterranean since the war began. “Alexander is not a historical accident or a surpassing genius, but he has an extension of all the normal qualities of the regular fighting soldier. There are no violent contrasts in him, no marked idiosyncracies or prejudices. His will-power and physical stamina are tougher than in most commanders. He is not an ascetic; he both drinks and smokes. He has a warm sense of humour. It would be impossible to flurry him. I doubt if the public will ever get to know him intimately. I “In the last resort he is a professional, and to him the war is more important than the general.” lan Hay, in a tribute, says: “When the British and Americans landed at Casablanca and in Algeria, there was a delicate problem as to who should be supreme commander. Eisenhower was chosen. It was the only selection possible, first because the gesture was immensely appreciated in America and did much to establish cordial relations between the Allied troops; secondly, because Alexander, with vast experience and complete mastery of his job, could be just as effective as Eisenhower’s chief of staff as in supreme command.”