ABSTRACT
As i drove in the ambulance to the station on my way to hospital in Sarafand, Palestine, I bought a copy of the Egyptian Gazette in which was the news of the change in command in the Middle East. General Auchinleck was to be replaced as Commander-in-Chief by General Alexander and the new commander of the Eighth Army was to be General Montgomery. I do not remember being particularly struck by the news. General Auchinleck had certainly endeared himself to most people by his fighting command of the Eighth Army on the Alamein Line. His intellectual powers were always as evident as his robustness and moral courage. Indeed he seemed to have every characteristic required of a general with the possible exception of the ability to choose wisely in his subordinates and staff. In this too may be seen not so much a fault as an excess of the virtue of loyalty. I remember many years afterwards hearing Sir Winston Churchill in private speak with admiration of Auchinleck and saying how remorseful and hesitant he had felt when he informed him of the decision to supersede him. I do not know that morale in the Eighth Army itself demanded this change; perhaps opinion at home was thought to require it and it may be that the numerous reinforcements now arriving from Britain felt happier at the change. In truth these reinforcements were changing the very appearance of Eighth Army. The Army that fought at El Alamein in October was in a high proportion a paleface army.
