Name that MWiF counter - 29

[Greyshaft]

Which MWiF leader had won five military medals BEFORE World War One and then lost an eye during that war?

[terje439]

Archibald Wavell

[Greyshaft]

Aged 56 in 1939. Field Marshal The Right Honorable Sir Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl of Cyrenaica and Winchester spent much of his childhood in India before attending Sandhurst Military College in England where he graduated as first in his class. He won five medals during the Boer War, saw action in the Bezar Valley in India in 1908 and lost an eye during the Battle of Ypres in WWI. In 1916 he served as a liaison officer with the Russians before serving on Sir Edmund Allenby's staff from 1918 in Palestine. In July 1939 he was appointed as the head of the Middle East Command and after the June 1940 Italian declaration of war he co-ordinated General O'Conner's December 1940 offensive into Libya and the January 1941 invasion of Italian East Africa. Wavell's plans were proceeding well until the German invasions of Yugoslavia and Greece in early 1941 forced him (albiet under protest against Churchill's orders) to halt his attack in Libya and divert his forces into the Balkans. Wavell's fears were proven correct as the halt in Libya allowed the Axis to regroup under the direction of the recently arrived General Rommel and the British forces sent to Greece were severely mauled and thrown off the mainland and out of Crete. By mutual agreement with Churchill, Wavell was replaced General Auchinleck in July 1941and was appointed as Commander-in-Chief in India. Five months later this backwater area became a warzone when the Japanese declared war and Wavell was put in charge of the multinational ABDA (American-British-Dutch-Australian) Command. The pace and force of the Japanese advance soon occupied the ADBA command area and Wavell resigned in February 1942 to be replaced (once again) by General Auchinleck. Wavell became the Viceroy of India and was promoted Field Marshal in January 1943 and resumed command of operations to clear the Japanese out of Burma. The failed Burma operation was Wavell's last campaign and from that point he was more heavily involved with the political issues of preparing India for self-rule. He returned to England in 1947 after being replaced as Viceroy of India by Lord Louis Mountbatten in 1947 and in became Lord Lieutenant of the County of London. Wavell found time to write during his career and completed 'The Palestine Campaigns' (1928), 'Allenby' (1940), 'Generals and Generalship' (1941), 'Allenby in Egypt' (1943) and 'The Good Soldier' (1947). He died in May 1950. Wavell was a competent General although he lacked the flair of a Montgomery or the inspired genius of a Rommel and his age placed limits on the work he could accomplish. It was his misfortune to be active during the years of British defeats and, apart from O’Conner’s 1940 offensive into Libya, Wavell’s name is not associated with British triumphs. (461)