William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim
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Categories: 1891 births | 1970 deaths | People from Bristol | Governors-General of Australia | Viscounts in the Peerage of the United Kingdom | Australian peers | Royal Warwickshire Fusiliers officers | West India Regiment officers | British Army personnel of World War I | British Army World War II generals | British Field Marshals | Knights of the Garter | British Indian Army generals | Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George | Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath | Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order | Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire | Companions of the Distinguished Service Order | Recipients of the Legion of Merit | Knights of the Order of St John
Field Marshal William Joseph Slim, 1st Viscount Slim, KG, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, GBE, DSO, MC, (6 August 1891 – 14 December 1970) was a British military commander and the 13th Governor-General of Australia. He fought in both World War I and World War II. He was wounded in action three times during his career.
Early yearsSlim was born in Bristol to John and Charlotte Slim (nee Tucker), a lower-middle class family. He grew up in Birmingham and attended St. Philip's School and King Edward's School. After leaving school, he taught at an elementary school and worked as a clerk in Steward and Lloyds, a metal-tube maker, between 1910 and 1914. He joined Birmingham University Officers' Training Corps in 1912, and was thus able to be commissioned as a Temporary Second Lieutenant in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment at the outbreak of World War I; in later life, as a result of his modest social origins and unpretentious manner, he was sometimes wrongly supposed to have risen from the ranks. He was badly wounded at Gallipoli. On return to England, he was granted a regular commission as a Second Lieutenant in the West India Regiment. In October 1916, he returned to his regiment in Mesopotamia. On 4 March 1917, he was promoted to First Lieutenant (with seniority back dated to October 1915).[1] He was wounded a second time in 1917. Having been previously given the temporary rank of Captain, he was awarded the Military Cross on 7 February 1918 for actions in Mesopotamia.[2] Evacuated to India, he was given the temporary rank of Major in the 6th Gurkha Rifles on 2 November 1918.[3] He was formally promoted to Captain and transferred to the British Indian Army on 22 May 1919.[4] He became adjutant of the battalion in 1921. He married Aileen Robertson in 1926 (died 1993), with whom he had one son and one daughter. In 1926, Slim was sent to the Indian Staff College at Quetta. On 5 June 1929, he was appointed a General Staff Officer, Second Grade[5] On 1 January 1930, he was given the brevet rank of Major,[6] with formal promotion to this rank made on 19 May 1933.[7] His performance at Staff College resulted in his appointment first to Army Headquarters India in Delhi and then to Staff College, Camberley in England (as a General Staff Officer, Second Grade),[8] where he taught from 1934 to 1937. In 1938, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel[9] and given command of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Gurkha Rifles. In 1939 he was briefly given the temporary rank of Brigadier as commander of his battalion.[10] On 8 June 1939, He was promoted to Colonel (again with temporary rank of Brigadier)[11] and appointed head of the Senior Officers' School at Belgaum, India.[12] On the outbreak of World War II, Slim was given command of the Indian 10th Brigade of the Indian 5th Infantry Division and was sent to Sudan. He took part in the East African Campaign to liberate Ethiopia from the Italians. Slim was wounded again during the fighting in Eritrea. Slim joined the staff of General Archibald Wavell in the Middle East Command. Given the rank of acting Major General in June 1941,[13] he commanded British forces in the Middle East Campaign, leading the Indian 10th Infantry Division as part of Iraqforce during the Syria-Lebanon campaign and the invasion of Persia. He was twice mentioned in despatches during 1941.[14] Burma campaignIn March 1942, Slim was given command of 1st Burma Corps, also known as BurCorps, consisting of the 17th Indian Infantry Division and 1st Burma Division). Slim was made acting Lieutenant General on 8 May 1942.[15] The Corp was under attack in Burma by the Japanese and, heavily outnumbered, he was soon forced to withdraw to India. On 28 October 1942, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).[16] He then took over XV Corps under the command of the Eastern Army. His command covered the coastal approaches from Burma to India, east of Chittagong. He had a series of disputes with Noel Irwin, commander of Eastern Army and, as a result, Irwin (although an army commander) took personal control of the initial advance by XV Corps into the Arakan Peninsula. The operations ended in disaster, during which Slim was restored to command of XV Corps, albeit too late to salvage the situation. General Irwin and Slim blamed each other for the result but in the end Irwin was removed from his command and Slim was promoted to command the new Fourteenth Army—formed from IV Corps (Imphal), XV Corps (Arakan) and XXXIII Corps (reserve)—later joined by XXXIV Corps. On 14 January 1943, Slim was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for his actions in the Middle East during 1941.[17] He quickly got on with the task of training his new army to take the fight to the enemy. The basic premise was that off-road mobility was paramount: much heavy equipment was exchanged for mule- or air-transported equipment and motor transport was kept to a minimum and restricted to those vehicles that could cope with some of the worst combat terrain on earth. The new doctrine dictated that if the Japanese had cut the lines of communication, then they too were surrounded. All units were to form defensive 'boxes', to be resupplied by air and assisted by integrated close air support and armour. The boxes were designed as an effective response to the tactics of infiltration practiced by the Japanese in the war. Slim also supported increased offensive patrolling, to encourage his soldiers to lose both their fear of the jungle and also their belief that Japanese soldiers were better jungle fighters. At the start of 1944, Slim held the official rank of Colonel with a war-time rank of Major General and the temporary rank of Lieutenant General.[18] In January 1944, when the Second Arakan Offensive was met by a Japanese counter-offensive, the Indian 7th Infantry Division was quickly surrounded along with parts of the Indian 5th Infantry Division and the 81st (West Africa) Division. The 7th Indian Division's defence was based largely on the "Admin Box"—formed initially from drivers, cooks, suppliers, etc. They were supplied by air—negating the importance of their lost supply lines. The Japanese forces were able to defeat the offensive into Arakan, but they were unable to decisively defeat the allied forces or advance beyond the surrounded formations. While the Second Arakan Offensive ended in failure, it proved tactics that were very effective against the Japanese. In early 1944, Slim was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB).[19] Later in 1944 the Japanese launched an invasion of India aimed at Imphal—hundreds of miles to the north. Slim airlifted two entire veteran divisions (5th & 7th Indian) from battle in the Arakan, straight into battle in the north. Desperate defensive actions were fought at places such as Imphal, Sangshak and Kohima, while the RAF and USAAF kept the forces supplied from the air. While the Japanese were able to advance and encircle the formations of 14th Army, they were unable to defeat those same forces or break out of the jungles along the Indian frontier. The Japanese advance stalled. The Japanese refused to give up even after the monsoon started and large parts of their army were wrecked by conducting operations in impossible conditions. As a result their units took unsupportable casualties and were finally forced, in July 1944, to retreat in total disorder, leaving behind many dead. On 8 August 1944, Slim was promoted to Lieutenant General,[20] and, on 28 September 1944, he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB).[21] He was also mentioned in despatches.[22] In 1945, Slim launched an offensive into Burma, with lines of supply stretching almost to breaking point across hundreds of miles of trackless jungle. He faced the same problems that the Japanese had faced in their failed 1944 offensive in the opposite direction. He made the supply of his armies the central issue in the plan of the campaign. The Irrawaddy River was crossed (with the longest Bailey bridge in the world at the time—most of which had been transported by mule and air) and the city of Meiktila was taken, followed by Mandalay. The Allies had reached the open plains of central Burma, sallying out and breaking Japanese attacking forces in isolation, maintaining the initiative at all times, backed up by air-land co-operation including resupply by air and close air support, performed by both RAF and USAAF units. In combination with these attacks, Force 136 helped initiate a countrywide uprising of the Burmese people against the Japanese. In addition to fighting the allied advance south, the Japanese were faced with heavy attacks from behind their own lines. Toward the end of the campaign, the army raced south to capture Rangoon before the start of the monsoon. It was considered necessary to capture the port because of the length of the supply lines overland from India and the impossibility of supply by air or land during the monsoon. Rangoon was eventually taken by a combined attack from the land (Slim's army), the air (parachute operations south of the city) and a seaborne invasion. Also assisting in the capture of Rangoon was the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League lead by Thakin Soe with Aung San (the future Prime Minister of Burma and father of Aung San Suu Kyi) as one of its military commanders. On 1 July 1945, Slim was promoted to General.[23] After World War IIAfter the war Slim became commander of Allied Land Forces in South-East Asia. On 1 January 1946, he was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE).[24] On 7 February 1947 he was made an Aide-de-camp (ADC) to the King.[25] In 1948 he returned to England where he became head of the Imperial Defence College and then Chief of the Imperial General Staff (the first Indian Army officer to be so appointed). Also in 1948 the United States awarded Slim the Commander of the Legion of Merit.[26] Slim retired as ADC and from the army on 11 May 1948.[27] On 4 January 1949, he was promoted to Field Marshal;[28] In September 1949, he was appointed to the Army Council.[29] On 2 January 1950, he was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB)[30] and later that year was made a Chief Commander of the Legion of Merit by the United States.[31] On 1 November 1952, he relinquished the position of Chief of the Imperial General Staff[32] and, on 10 December 1952, was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (GCMG) on his appointment as Governor-General of Australia.[33] On 2 January 1953, he was appointed a Knight of the Order of St. John (KStJ).[34] On 8 May 1953, he took-up the post of Governor-General of Australia. On 27 April 1954, he was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO).[35] Slim was a popular choice for Govenor-General since he was an authentic war hero who had fought alongside Australians at Gallipoli and in the Middle East. In 1954 he was able to welcome Queen Elizabeth II on the first visit by a reigning monarch to Australia. Slim's duties as Governor-General were entirely ceremonial and there were no controversies during his term. The Liberal leader Robert Menzies held office throughout Slim's time in Australia. In 1959, Slim retired and returned to Britain, where he published his memoirs, Unofficial History and Defeat Into Victory. On 24 April 1959, he was appointed a Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter (KG).[36] On 15 July 1960, he was created Viscount Slim, of Yarralumla in the Capital Territory of Australia and of Bishopston in the City and County of Bristol.[37] After a successful further career on the boards of major UK companies, he was appointed Constable and Governor of Windsor Castle on 18 June 1964.[38] He died in London on 14 December 1970. He was given a full military funeral at St. George's Chapel, Windsor and was afterward cremated. A remembrance plaque was placed in the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral. A statue of Slim was placed at Whitehall in 1990. The road William Slim Drive, in the district of Belconnen, Canberra is named after him. Slim's place in historyImage:General W Slim statue.jpg
Statue of General Slim on Whitehall
Lieutenant General Sir John Kiszely has recommended Slim's memoirs (Defeat into Victory) describing Slim as "perhaps the Greatest Commander of the 20th Century" and commenting on Slim's "self-deprecating style"[39] This judgement is sound, 14th Army was composed of an amalgam of Indian (Hindu, Sikh and Muslim troops), British, African, and other troops; he was on the far end of a long logistical pipeline and generally had the oldest equipment of any Allied army. By all accounts, he was a superb logistician, imaginative in his tactics and operational concepts, and -- unusually -- very popular with his troops. The spirit of comradeship Slim created within 14th Army lived on after the war in the Burma Star Association, of which Slim was a co-founder and first President.[40] A statue to Slim is on Whitehall, outside the Ministry of Defence. This was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II in 1990. The statue was designed by Ivor Roberts-Jones. The statue is one of three of British Second World War Field Marshals (the others being Alanbrooke and Montgomery).[41] Slim's papers were collected by his biographer, Ronald Lewin, and given to the Churchill Archives Centre by Slim's wife, Aileen, Viscountess Slim, and son, John Slim, 2nd Viscount Slim, and other donors, 1977-2001.[42] Bibliography
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