Archibald Percival Wavell

British Field Marshal.

Wavell served in the Second Boer War, the Bazar Valley Campaign of 1908 and World War I, during which he was wounded in the Second Battle of Ypres.

In July 1939, he was named as General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Middle East Command with the local rank of full General. Subsequently, on 15 February 1940, to reflect the broadening of his oversight responsibilities to include East Africa, Greece and the Balkans, his title was changed to Commander-in-Chief Middle East.

He proved highly capable, leading British forces to victory over the Italians in western Egypt and eastern Libya during Operation Compass in December 1940.

Sadly, his command was ruined by disastrous interference by Winston Churchill, who bullied him into taking actions with which he disagreed. In February he was ordered to halt his advance into Libya and send four divisions to Greece where the Germans and Italians were attacking. General Wilson's Force W was unable to set up an adequate defence on the Greek mainland and were forced to withdraw to Crete, suffering 15,000 casualties and leaving behind all their heavy equipment and artillery. Crete was attacked by German airborne forces on 20 May and as in Greece, the British and Commonwealth troops were forced once more to evacuate.

Meanwhile, in North Africa the Germans were given the opportunity to reinforce the Italians in North Africa with Rommel’s Afrika Korps and by the end of April the massively weakened Western Desert Force had been pushed all the way back to the Egyptian border, leaving Tobruk under siege. Here too, Churchill had interfered disastrously, ordering Wavell to make a stand there (rather than withdrawing to safety after making Tobruk unusable to Rommel.)

Churchill was obsessed by Tobruk and in mid-June, Wavell was again bullied by him into staging Operation Battleaxe, intended to relieve Tobruk. This too was a disaster – Rommel was waiting for the British forces in strong defensive positions and with excellent armour and artillery. On the third day of the battle, the British forces narrowly avoided disaster by withdrawing just ahead of a German encircling movement; they lost half their tanks in the action.  

Churchill was oblivious to his role in these disasters and on June 20th told Wavell he was to be replaced by Auchinleck. Wavell took Auchinleck's position as Commander-in-Chief, India. From 1943 he then served as Viceroy of India until his retirement in February 1947.

Interestingly, Rommel rated Wavell highly.

This is a fine letter, handwritten and signed in ink on two sides of a 6.75" x 5.5" sheet of headed notepaper (Churchill House, Farnborough, Hants, 6.11.36) to Britten Austin*. It reads (in full):

"Thank you very much indeed for 'The War God Walks Again'. I always wanted to read it and remember putting it down on a list of books to read when it first came out, and I read reviews of it. But I suppose I was too busy and I never did read it. I look forward to doing so now.

I enclose a letter from the D.S.D. I hope this is what you wanted, it seems to be all that is possible at the W.O.

With many thanks

Yrs sincerely

A.P Wavell

CB CMG MC

One horizontal correspondence fold and some light foxing spots, but otherwise in very good condition. (the writing on the second page is sharper and bolder than suggested by my scanner)

* Britten Austin (1885-1941) was an English author