The Political‐Military Interface: Friction in the Conduct of British Army Operations in North Africa 1940–1942

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Notes

1 Carl von Clausewitz (trans. and ed. by Michael Howard and Peter Paret), On War. (Princeton UP 1976) p.111.

2 Mungo Melvin and Stuart Peach, ‘Reaching for the End of the Rainbow: Command and the RMA’, in G. Sheffield and G. Till (eds.), The Challenges of High Command: The British Experience (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2003) p.189.

3 Winston Churchill, The Second World War Volume II :The Grand Alliance (London: Cassell 1950) p.8.

4 Melvin and Peach, ‘Reaching for the End of the Rainbow’ in Sheffield and Till (note 2) p.189.

5 Clausewitz, On War (note 1) p.87.

6 Ibid.

7 Eliot Cohen, Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen and Leadership in Wartime (New York: The Free Press 2002) p.226.

8 Ibid. p.227

9 Samuel Huntington, The Soldier and the State: The Theory and Politics of Civil‐Military Relations (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP 1957) p.308.

10 Hew Strachan, The Politics of the British Army (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1997) p.9.

11 Ibid. p.18.

12 John Keegan (ed.), Churchill’s Generals (London: Weidenfeld 1991) p.xvi.

13 Cohen, Supreme Command (note 7) p.239.

14 Christopher Dandeker, ‘The Military in Democratic Societies: New Times and New Patterns of Civil Military Relations’ in J. Kuhlmann and J. Callaghan (eds.), Military and Society in 21^st Century Europe (Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers 2000) p.37.

15 Cohen (note 7) p.236.

16 Ibid.

17 Ibid.

18 Christopher Tuck, Lecture to Advanced Command and Staff Course 8, UK Defence Academy, Shrivenham, 21 March 2005.

19 Joint Doctrine and Concepts Centre, British Defence Doctrine, JWP 01, 2nd Edition (London: MoD 2001) p.1–2

20 Ibid. pp.1–4.

21 Dandeker, ‘The Military in Democratic Societies’ (note 14) p.39.

22 Michael Handel, Masters of War: Classical Strategic Thought (London: Frank Cass 2001) p.74.

23 See Niall Barr, Pendulum of War: The Three Battles of El Alamein (London: Jonathan Cape 2004).

24 David French, Raising Churchill’s Army: The British Army and the War Against Germany 1919–1945 (Oxford: OUP 2000) p.212.

25 J.R.M. Butler, History of the Second World War. Grand Strategy, Volume II September 1939–June 1941 (London: HMSO 1957) p.582.

26 Keegan, Churchill’s Generals (note 12) p.6.

27 Butler, Grand Strategy, Volume II (note 25).

28 Barr, Pendulum of War (note 23) p.3.

29 Butler (note 25) p.448.

30 As named by Correlli Barnett, The Desert Generals, 2nd edn. (London: Allen & Unwin 1983).

31 Ibid. p.77

32 Barrie Pitt, The Crucible of War 2: Auchinleck’s Command (London: Papermac 1986) p.310.

33 David Reynolds, In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War (London: Penguin Books 2004) p.190.

34 Ibid.

35 Ibid.

36 Pitt, Crucible of War 2 (note 32) p.62.

37 Ibid.

38 Ronald Lewin, Churchill as Warlord (London: Batsford 1973) p.76.

39 Bernard Montgomery, The Path to Leadership (London: Collins 1961) p.129.

40 Alex Danchev and Daniel Todman (eds.), War Diaries 1939–1945: Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke (London: Weidenfeld 2001) p.335.

41 Ibid. p.xvi.

42 Ibid. p.515.

43 Montgomery, Path to Leadership (note 39) p.129.

44 Danchev and Todman, War Diaries (note 40) p.293.

45 Maj.‐Gen. I.S.O. Playfair et al., History of the Second World War: The Mediterranean and the Middle East Volume III (London: HMSO 1960) p.367.

46 Montgomery (note 39) p.132.

47 Reynolds, In Command of History (note 33) p.191.

48 Brian Holden Reid, ‘Gort’ in Keegan (note 12) p.104.

49 W.G.F. Jackson, Alexander of Tunis as Military Commander (London: Batsford 1971) p.164.

50 Barr (note 23) p.256.

51 Quoted in Harold Raugh, Wavell in the Middle East 1939–1941: A Study in Generalship (London: Brassey’s 1993) p.120.

52 Ibid.

53 Barnett, Desert Generals (note 30) p.64.

54 Gen. Richard O’Connor, quoted in Barnett (note 30) p.63.

55 Raugh, Wavell (note 51) p.122.

56 Cohen (note 7) p.115.

57 J.M.A. Gwyer, History of the Second World War: Grand Strategy Volume III June 1941–August 1942 (Part I) (London:HMSO 1964) p.224.

58 Ibid. p.226.

59 Ibid.

60 Keegan (note 12) p.76.

61 Playfair, Mediterranean and the Middle East (note 45) p.5.

62 Gwyer, Grand Strategy (note 57) p.219.

63 Ibid.

64 Barnett (note 30) p.172.

65 Ibid.

66 Reynolds (note 33) p.243.

67 Churchill quoted by Brooke in Danchev and Todman (note 40) p.279.

68 Churchill to Auchinleck, 24 June 1942, PREM 3/290/6,TNA, quoted from Barr.

69 Barr (note 23) p.33.

70 Quoted from Lewin (note 38) p.73.

71 Available at ⟨www.mod.uk/linked_files/publications/whitepaper2003/volume1.pdf⟩. Accessed 3 March 2005.

72 Strachan, Politics (note 10) p.34.

73 Gen. Sir Mike Jackson in Sheffield and Till, Challenges of High Command (note 2) p.142.

74 Available at ⟨www.mod.uk/linked_files/publications/whitepaper2003/volume1.pdf⟩ p.5 accessed 3 March 2005.

75 David Jablonsky, Churchill and Hitler: Essays on the Political‐Military Direction of Total War (Ilford: Frank Cass 1994) p.31.

76 Gen. Sir Peter de la Billière, Looking for Trouble (London: HarperCollins 1994) p.371.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

James De La Billière

British Army, Advanced Command and Staff Course No. 8, JSCSC, Shrivenham, Sept. 2004 – July 2005.