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Field Marshal Sir Claude John Eyre Auchinleck,
Order of the Bath|GCB, Order of the Indian
Empire|GCIE, Order of the Star of India|CSI,
Distinguished Service Order|DSO, Order of the
British Empire|OBE (June 21 1884 - 1981),
nicknamed The Auk, was a British army commander
during World War II. 

Born in Aldershot, he grew up in impoverished
circumstances, but was able through hard work and
scholarships to graduate from the Royal Military
Academy, Sandhurst. Claude Auchinleck was a career
soldier who spent much of his military career in
India, where he developed a love of the country
and an affinity for the ordinary soldiers under
his command. 

Early in World War II Auchinleck was given command
of the Allied forces in Norway in May 1940, a
military operation that was doomed to fail. After
the fall of Norway, in July 1940 he became briefly
General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern
Command, and then Commander-in-Chief of the
British Indian Army|Indian Army.

Following the see-saw of Allied and Axis successes
and reverses in North Africa, Auchinleck was
appointed to succeed General (later Field Marshal)
Sir Archibald Wavell as C-in-C of the Allied
Forces in the Middle East in July 1941; Wavell
took up Auchinleck's post as C-in-C of the Indian
Army, swapping jobs with him.

General Auchinleck was C-in-C based in Cairo, with
responsibility not just for North Africa but also
for Iran|Persia and the Middle East; the British
Eighth Army|Eighth Army confronting the Afrika
Korps|German Afrika Corps and the Italian Army was
commanded successively by Generals Sir Alan
Cunningham and Sir Neil Ritchie. Initial success
at El Agheila (January 1942) was followed by
defeat by Colonel-General (later Field Marshal)
Erwin Rommel at Bir Hacheim (June 1942).
Auchinleck withdrew his forces 400km back into
Egypt; Tobruk (which was of great political
significance to Winston Churchill but of limited
military importance to Auchinleck) fell on 21
June.  The German/Italian advance was finally
halted at the First Battle of El Alamein by the
Eighth Army, Auchinleck having dismissed Ritchie
and assumed the field command himself. 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 (inspired by
Sir Basil Liddell-Hart, as read by Guderian), but
had only limited success. 

Like his foe Rommel (and his predecessor Wavell),
Auchinleck was subjected to constant political
interference, having 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 Allied landings in North Africa, Operation
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 Sir Harold Alexander
(later Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis) and
as GOC Eighth Army by Lt-General William Gott, who
was killed in Egypt before taking up command. On
Gott's death,  Lt-General (later Field Marshal
Viscount) Bernard Montgomery was appointed
commander of the Eighth Army. Auchinleck's
reputation (along with that of many other
officers) subsequently suffered unfairly at the
hands of the Montgomery publicity machine, a
disservice that was repeated by Churchill in his
own war memoirs. Indeed, Montgomery launched his
Second Battle of El Alamein|El Alamein offensive
on 23 October 1942, even later than the date
proposed by Auchinleck while still in command. 

Churchill offered Auchinleck command of Allied
Forces in Iran|Persia and the Middle East (this
having been hived off Alexander's command), but
the Auk declined this post, possibly as it was
held by his Indian Army friend and colleague
General Sir Edward Quinan. Instead he returned to
India, where he spent almost a year "unemployed"
before in 1943 becoming again C-in-C of the Indian
Army, Wavell meanwhile having been appointed
Governor-General of India|Viceroy. Much against
his own convictions, Auchinleck helped prepare the
future Indian and Pakistani armies prior to
Partition scheduled for August 1947. In 1946 he
was promoted to field marshal but he refused to
accept a peerage, lest he be thought associated
with a policy (i.e. Partition) that he thought
fundamentally dishonourable. Having disagreed
sharply with Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of
India, he resigned as C-in-C and retired in 1947.
In 1948 the Auk returned to Britain. Sadly, his
wife had left him for a brother officer in 1946.

Although a somewhat dour character, he was known
as a generous and welcoming host. Despite being a
general for longer than almost any other soldier,
he was never pompous, and hated all forms of
display and affectation. Above all, he was a
soldier of the utmost integrity who was popular
with his troops, and respected by his foes. Rommel
considered him to be one of the greatest generals
of the war. In retirement, the Auk moved to
Marrakesh, where he lived quietly in a modest flat
for many years, befriended and cared for by
Corporal Malcolm James Millward, a serving
soldier, up until the death of Sir Claude in 1981.

start box
succession box | title=Commander-in-Chief, India |
before=Robert Archibald Cassels|Sir Robert
Archibald Cassels | after=Archibald Percival
Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell|Archibald Wavell |
years=1941
succession box | title=Commander-in-Chief, India |
before=Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl
Wavell|Archibald Wavell | after=Robert
Lockhart|Sir Robert Lockhart |
years=1943–1947
end box