Middle East Command

Middle East Command, British Army HQ activated in Cairo in August 1939 with General Wavell as C-in-C. Egypt, the Sudan, and Palestine-Jordan, which had all been separate army commands, now came, with Cyprus, directly under Wavell's control. With his naval and air force opposite numbers Wavell formed a High Command responsible to the British Chiefs of Staff. In early 1940 his fief was extended to include the British land forces in East Africa and British Somaliland, and any that might be dispatched to operate in Turkey, the Balkans, Iraq, Aden, or the shores of the Persian Gulf. His responsibilities were therefore vast. At one time he was fighting three separate campaigns—the Western Desert, the Balkan, and East African ones—as well as commanding the forces being used to quell the revolt in Iraq, and he had quasi-political and diplomatic commitments as well. These burdens were lightened for Wavell's successor, Auchinleck, with the appointment of a minister of state in the Middle East, who represented the War Cabinet, and the formation, in August 1941, of East Africa Command which came directly under the War Office.

In the autumn of 1941 Middle East forces were reorganized. Two Army commands were created under Auchinleck—troops in Syria and Palestine became the Ninth Army while those in the Western Desert became the Eighth Army—and, on orders from Churchill, the Commandos were reconstituted (see UK, 7(e) for description of special forces in the Middle East). In January 1942 Persia and Iraq were detached from C-in-C India and put under Middle East Command, and the same month the troops there were designated the Tenth Army. From 11 March to 15 May 1942, at the height of the siege of Malta, the island also came under Auchinleck.

In August 1942, when Auchinleck was replaced by Alexander, Persia and Iraq were formed into a separate command (see Paiforce). In February 1943 Maitland Wilson succeeded Alexander. By then Middle East Command had become mainly an administrative HQ, though Wilson did mount the abortive invasion of the Dodecanese. In January 1944 Wilson was succeeded by Paget who remained in the post until the end of the war.