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Harold Raugh


Joined: 25 May 2008
Posts: 211
Location: Heidelberg, Germany (U.S. Army)
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Hi Peter,
Many thanks for this additional information. All of my Wavell material has been in storage in California since early 2006, when I was assigned to Germany (still in Germany).
Another Wavell book which is quite good is The Palestine Campaigns (London: Constable, 1928 and later). Wavell's Allenby, while a good read, is very hagiographic in nature. I went through Wavell's notes and correspondence from his research into this book and Wavell was very selective in the material he used. Wavell had his own agenda at the time, and this can be seen in the book's original subtitle: "A Study in Greatness."
Cheers,
Harold
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Peter Ewart


Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Posts: 1797
Location: Near Canterbury, Kent, England.
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Harold

Difficult to understand why Wavell wanted to produce a hagriography. Perhaps he began by being impartial but didn�t like some of what he found. That would have been the time to put his pen down or consider the �warts & all� approach! With one being a Wykehamist & the other a Haileyburian, it clearly wasn�t the old school tie!

These careers of those who served during the later Victorian campaigns, 2nd ABW and the Great War, as well as some of the later ones who served in the 2nd ABW, Great War & 2nd World War, are so often fascinating. I haven�t read Wavell�s accounts of his Palestine campaigns but the first would, presumably, have been very different from the second! As (very much) an aside, my father (after Wavell had left I think) was arrested in Jerusalem in June 1939 & tried by District Court Martial in August, picking up a 56 day detention which he served at the British Military HQ at the Citadel in Cairo & was still in confinement when war broke out. (Hopefully he redeemed himself by his service against the Italians in the Keren mountains (Eritrea), then against the Germans in N Africa, then as one of Wingate�s original Chindits in Burma � which just about finished him). I suppose he could be said to have served under Wavell�s command in at least two of these theatres. Earlier, his own father had served under Allenby when attached to the 6th Inniskillings in the 2nd ABW, as well as under General Dartnell of earlier AZW fame.

Peter
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Harold Raugh


Joined: 25 May 2008
Posts: 211
Location: Heidelberg, Germany (U.S. Army)
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Hi Peter,
Thank you for your insightful comments.
In June 1917, Wavell became CIGS (Robertson) liaison officer to CinC, Egyptian Expeditionary Force (Allenby), and served in that position until Wavell became BGGS, XXII Corps, in March 1918 (and later of XX Corps). Allenby became Wavell's "mentor," and I believe Wavell truly admired him (especially as a resut of the 3rd Battle of Gaza) and felt he owed Allenby for his success in the last year of the Great War and later.
Allenby's death in 1936 prompted Wavell to write an appreciation of him that was published, if I recall correctly, in Army Quarterly, and he began further research that resulted in Allenby: A Study in Greatness by A. P. Wavell (London: Harrap, 1940), and Allenby in Egypt by A. P. Wavell (London: Harrap, 1943).
I was disappointed in Wavell when I read the recollections of Allenby by others Wavell had collected after Allenby's death -- and ignored when writing his two volumes on Allenby. Wavell should have either put his pen down then, as you rightly suggest, or written an honest and accurate biography of Allenby.
We shoud also remember that Wavell also served as General Officer Commanding British Troops in Palestine and Transjordan in 1937-1938 during the"Arab Revolt," when he encouraged Wingate's formation of the SNS.
Cheers,
Harold
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