Alexander, Field Marshal Sir Harold

Alexander, Field Marshal Sir Harold (1891–1961),British Army officer who, from commanding the 1st British Division during the fall of France rose to become Allied Supreme Commander in the Mediterranean.

Alexander, who was the fourth son of the Earl of Caledon, served with great distinction in the First World War, and by 1937 was the youngest general in the British Army. He took command of the British Expeditionary Force during the Dunkirk evacuation of May– June 1940, was promoted lt-general that December, and succeeded Auchinleck at Southern Command. In March 1942 he was sent to reverse British defeats in the Burma campaign but could only organize the retreat of his forces into India, which he did very ably. Promoted to general in April 1942, he was appointed C-in-C First Army for the North African campaign which started that November. However, in August, Churchill appointed him C-in-C Middle East Command with Montgomery under him. It was a formidable team which turned the tide of war in the Western Desert campaigns. Alexander, with typical generosity, but also as a deliberate policy, always insisted that the victories were Montgomery's; but it was Alexander's tactful handling of his brilliant but difficult subordinate which gave Montgomery the scope and the resources he needed.

In January 1943 Alexander was summoned to the Casablanca conference (see SYMBOL) where he was appointed Eisenhower's deputy and ground commander of the Allied armies then fighting the North African campaign. As C-in-C of the newly formed Eighteenth Army Group, he took command on 20 February 1943, reorganized the confused Allied front and, in a campaign of great panache, forced the surrender of all Axis forces in North Africa that May. He was then appointed C-in-C Fifteenth Army Group, which launched the Sicilian campaign in July 1943. He was later criticized for his handling of the campaign as he appeared rather too ready to accept what Montgomery told him and not ready enough to employ the mobility and striking power of Patton's raw but aggressive Seventh US Army. In the Italian campaign which followed, Alexander served as C-in-C of all Allied forces and then, from 27 November 1944, as Allied Supreme Commander in the Mediterranean. On the same day he was promoted field marshal, back-dated to 4 June 1944, the day his troops had entered Rome. With the main Allied effort taking place in north-west Europe, Italy became a backwater. But instead of allowing the campaign to fade into stalemate, Alexander planned the destruction of the German forces facing him, and on 29 April 1945 he personally accepted their unconditional surrender.

Alexander was no original thinker but he had many virtues, not the least of which were his personal courage, his imperturbability in battle, and his ability to make friends among whom Churchill counted himself one. He was a charming, affable man who, it was said, defeated his enemies without making any. Having been knighted in 1942, he was created a viscount in 1946, and became governor-general of Canada, a post he held until 1952 when he was created Earl Alexander of Tunis. See also land power.

Bibliography

Keegan, J. (ed.), Churchill's Generals (London, 1991).
Nicolson, N. , Alex: The Life of Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis (London, 1973).
North, J. (ed.), The Alexander Memoirs 1940–45 (London, 1962).