William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim

Field Marshal William Joseph "Bill" 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 years

Slim was born in Bishopston, near 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 on 22 August 1914, 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 lieutenant (with seniority back dated to October 1915).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. Evacuated to India, he was given the temporary rank of major in the 6th Gurkha Rifles on 2 November 1918. He was formally promoted to captain and transferred to the British Indian Army on 22 May 1919. 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. On 1 January 1930, he was given the brevet rank of major, with formal promotion to this rank made on 19 May 1933. 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), where he taught from 1934 to 1937. In 1938, he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel 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. On 8 June 1939, He was promoted to colonel (again with temporary rank of brigadier) and appointed head of the Senior Officers' School at Belgaum, India.

East African Campaign

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. On 21 January 1941, Slim was hit when his position was strafed during the advance on Agordat.

Middle East Campaign

Slim joined the staff of General Archibald Wavell in the Middle East Command. Given the rank of acting major-general in June 1941, he commanded British forces in the Middle East Campaign, leading the Indian 10th Infantry Division as part of Iraqforce during the Anglo-Iraqi War, the Syria-Lebanon Campaign, and the invasion of Persia. He was twice Mentioned in Dispatches during 1941.

Burma campaign

In 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. 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).

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.

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. 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). 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, and, on 28 September 1944, he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB).

Legacy

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" Slim's 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.

As a British commander on the Asian mainland, Slim's contribution to the U.S. war effort in the Pacific has often been undervalued. For three years, Slim's soldiers tied down tens of thousands of Japanese troops in Burma that could have been otherwise redeployed against U.S. forces in New Guinea, the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa with horrific results.

Military historian Max Hastings:

In contrast to almost every other outstanding commander of the war, Slim was a disarmingly normal human being, possessed of notable self-knowledge. He was without pretension, devoted to his wife, Aileen, their family and the Indian Army. His calm, robust style of leadership and concern for the interests of his men won the admiration of all who served under him.... His blunt honesty, lack of bombast and unwillingness to play courtier did him few favours in the corridors of power. Only his soldiers never wavered in their devotion.

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.

A statue to Slim is on Whitehall, outside the Ministry of Defence, was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II in 1990. Designed by Ivor Roberts-Jones, the statue is one of three of British Second World War Field Marshals (the others being Alanbrooke and Montgomery).

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.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Calvert, Mike. 1973. Slim, War Leader. London: ISBN 0345097882
• Keegan, John. 1991. Churchill's Generals. NY: Grove Weidenfeld Press, New York
• Lewin, Ronald. 1976. Slim - The Standardbearer. London: Leo Cooper Ltd.
• Lattimer. John. 2004. Burma: The Forgotten War. London: John Murray.
• Lyman, Robert. 2004. Slim, Master of War: Burma and the Birth of Modern Warfare. London: Constable and Robinson.
• Heathcote, Tony. 1999. The British Field Marshals 1736-1997. Pen & Sword Books. ISBN 0-85052-696-5
• Evans, Geoffrey Charles. 1969. 'Slim as Military Commander.London: London, 1969, (ISBN 81-8158-099-0)
• Slim, William Defeat into Victory, NY: Buccaneer Books ISBN 1-56849-077-1, Cooper Square Press. ISBN

Military offices
Preceded by: The Viscount Montgomery of Alamein	Chief of the Imperial General Staff 1948–1952	Succeeded by: Sir John Harding
Government offices
Preceded by: Sir William McKell	Governor-General of Australia 1953–1960	Succeeded by: The Viscount Dunrossil
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New Title	Viscount Slim 1960–1970	Succeeded by: John Slim
Honorary Titles
Preceded by: Post Vacant Last held by The Earl of Athlone in 1957	Constable and Governor of Windsor Castle 1964–1970	Succeeded by: The Lord Elworthy

Template:Chief of the General Staff Template:Governors-General of Australia

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