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Sir Leslie James Morshead (September 18, 1889 -
September 26, 1959) was an Australian soldier with
a distinguished career in both world wars. He is
considered to rival John Monash for the
appellation of "Australia's greatest general".
During World War II, Morshead was known to his
soldiers, in part affectionately, as "Ming the
Merciless", after the villain in Flash Gordon
comics. 

Morshead was born in Ballarat, Victoria,
Australia|Victoria and became a schoolteacher,
first at The Armidale School and later Melbourne
Grammar School. By July 1914 he was appointed
temporary assistant housemaster of School House.

His teaching career was interrupted by the
outbreak of the Great War 1914. He travelled to
Sydney, from Melbourne, to join the 2nd Battalion 
First Australian Imperial Force(AIF). On 19th
September he was commissioned as platoon
commander. He served in Battle of
Gallipoli|Gallipoli, fighting in the Lone Pine
offensive (after which he was hospitalized in
England), and in France commanding the 33rd
Battalion, reaching the rank of Lieutenant Colonel
and having been mentioned in dispatches six times.

After leaving the AIF, at the end of the Great
War, Morshead tried farming - accepting a soldier
settlement block of 23000 acres (93 km²) near
Quilpie, Queensland. This venture was a failure.
After working odd jobs he joined the Orient Line
in Sydney on 24 October 1924. In 1926 he was
appointed passenger manager of the Sydney office.
Many Orient Line appointments followed including:
publicity manager - January 1927; acting manager
of the Melbourne office - May 1928; passenger and
publicity superintendent; temporary business
manager Brisbane - April 1931; temporary manager
of the Melbourne office, permanent, December 1933.
 Throughout the inter-war years he remained active
in the Australian Citizens Military Forces, as the
army's reserve force was then known.

When World War II broke out, Morshead was sent to
North Africa as commander of the 18th Brigade in
the Second Australian Imperial Force|Second AIF.
In February 1941, the Australian 9th Division was
formed, with Morshead as its commander. 

The 9th Division was pitched into the thick of the
action almost immediately, steadying the retreat
of Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth forces
from the newly-arrived Nazi  Germany|German Afrika
Korps, under Erwin Rommel, and occupying the vital
port of Tobruk in Libya. Morshead was given
command of the Tobruk garrison which, as the
retreat continued, became surrounded, hundreds of
miles behind enemy lines.

General Archibald Wavell instructed Morshead to
hold the fortress for eight weeks, while the
remaining forces reorganised and mounted a relief
mission. With the 9th Division and supporting
forces from various Allied nations, Morshead
decisively defeated Rommel's powerful initial
assaults, and retained possession of the fortress.
His strategy for the defence of Tobruk is still
mentioned in officer training colleges around the
world as an example of how to arrange and conduct
in-depth defences against a superior armoured
force. 

An important part of Morshead's strategy was
offensive operations when these were possible. His
attitude was summed-up in a reported remark, made
when his attention was drawn to a British
propaganda article entitled "Tobruk can take it!"
Morshead commented: "we're not here to take it,
we're here to give it.". The 9th Division held
Tobruk not for eight weeks, but for eight months,
during which time three separate relief campaigns,
by the main Allied force in Egypt failed. The Axis
Powers|Axis troops learned to fear the aggressive
patrolling of the Australian infantry who
dominated no-man's-land and made constant raids on
enemy forward positions for intelligence, to take
prisoners, to disrupt attack preparations and
minelaying operations, even to steal supplies that
were not available in Tobruk.

Axis propagandists described him as "Ali Baba
Morshead and his 20,000 thieves" and branded the
defenders of the port as the "Rats of Tobruk", a
sobriquet that they seized on and wore as a badge
of pride.

At this point, political considerations came into
play. The newly installed John Curtin|Curtin
government in Australia wanted to relieve the 9th
Division before the next election, and the overall
Australian commander in the Middle East, General
Thomas Blamey wanted to have all the Australian
forces in that theatre serve in one corps. Over
several months between August and October 1941,
Morshead and most of the 9th Division was replaced
by the British 70th Division and the Polish
Independent Carpathian Brigade|Polish Carpathian
Brigade. The 9th moved to Syria to serve as an
occupation force, as well as resting, re-equiping
and training replacement troops.  

The outbreak of Pacific War|war with Japan, in
December 1941, and the imminent threat of invasion
saw Blamey and the Australian 6th Division|6th and
the main bodies of the Australian 7th Division|7th
Division transferred to Ceylon and Australia
respectively, in early 1942. In March that year,
Morshead was given command of all Australian
forces in the Mediterranean Theatre of World War
II|Mediterranean theatre. Morshead was one of only
a few Allied divisional commanders with a distinct
record of success at this stage of the war, but he
was overlooked in favour of General Bernard
Montgomery when the time came to name a leader of
the British Eighth Army|Eighth Army. Various
theories regarding this have been floated,
including an alleged prejudice within the British
Army against non-professional officers.

When the Second Battle of El Alamein began,
responsibility for a prolonged and difficult phase
of preliminary raiding and probing operations was
given to the 9th Division.

After El Alamein, Morshead and the 9th Division
were recalled to the South West Pacific Area
— re-organising in Australia before joining
the New Guinea campaign. Morshead was made
commander of the Australian I Corps in 1944, and
also commanded Allied forces in the Borneo
campaign (1945).

After the war Morshead returned to civilian life,
becoming the Orient Line's Australian general
manager on 31 December 1947.

==References==
Book reference|Author=Coombes,
David|Year=2001|Title=Morshead — Hero of
Tobruk and El Alamein|Publisher=Oxford University
Press|ID=ISBN 0195513983

Book reference|Author=Moore,
John|Year=1976|Title=Morshead|Publisher=Haldane
Publishing Co Pty Ltd, Sydney|ID=