Page 110 - They Also Served

British forces in North Africa, where Montgomery, as Eighth Army commander, was, once again, his subordinate. As the desert campaign reached its climax, Alexander commanded US troops, with General Omar Bradley remarking that his patience ‘helped the inexperienced Americans to mature and come of age’.
Later in the war, Alexander commanded the 15th Army Group in the successful invasions of Sicily and mainland Italy. Here, he dealt with the monumental egos of Montgomery and the US generals George Patton and Mark Clark with his usual charm, diplomacy, and large measures of letting the three get on with it. Alexander was Eisenhower’s choice to command British forces during the Normandy Invasion as he was popular with the Americans and less prickly than Montgomery. However, Brooke, as chief of the general staff, insisted that Alexander remained in Italy. Later responsible for all Allied operations in the Mediterranean theatre, he was promoted to field marshal, backdated by a few months to ensure he remained senior to Montgomery.
After the war, and elevated to the peerage as Viscount Alexander of Tunis, he became governor-general of Canada. In five years, he travelled extensively throughout the country, took a keen interest in ice hockey, and he and his wife were great social hosts. Returning to the UK in 1952, Churchill made Alexander his defence minister, a post he held for two years. In later life, Alexander split his retirement between homes in the UK and Canada and became an accomplished watercolour artist.
Alexander, who died in 1969, was, like Gort before him, a man of immense personal bravery who commanded large forces by simply letting his subordinates get on with their job. This is the very essence of what we now call mission command. He was almost universally liked and skilful at building coalitions, such as when he integrated the newly-arrived Brazilian contingent during the Italian campaign. However, unlike most of his contemporaries, he left virtually no papers or memoirs. His detractors argue that the comment from Brooke at Staff College – ‘He has no brains!’ – held true, and were it not for surrounding himself with brilliant staff officers, he could not have succeeded. Nevertheless, Alexander is widely regarded as one of the best Allied commanders of the war.
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