Wednesday, August 09, 2006

More pressure on General Auchinleck from Churchill

The Prime Minister had some very strong opinions strategy in North Africa that were contrary to what General Auchinleck and Air Marshal Tedder thought prudent. Churchill was focused on the fact that while the British forces were rebuilding, they should have kept continuous pressure on the Axis forces, rather than giving them a respite. After all, if the Germans were successful in Russia, it might free more resources to be redeployed to North Africa, so action should be taken immediately. Continuous operations against the Axis forces would use up their valuable resources that would be harder for them to replenish than the British resources. Churchill chafed at the 4-1/2 month build-up period, and constantly pestered Auchinleck during that period. The opinion of the Official History is that it would have been British resources that would have been "used up piecemeal" from July to November 1941. This is based on the account in Vol.III of the Official History.

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