Claude John Eyre Auchinleck

Born June 21, 1884, in Aldershot, Hampshire, England. British field marshal (1946). Son of an officer.

Auchinleck graduated from the Royal Military College in Sandhurst in 1903. He served in the British colonial forces in India, in Egypt and Mesopotamia in World War I (1914–18), and again in India until 1940. In May-June 1940 he commanded the Anglo-French troops in northern Norway and then the troops of the English Southern Command. He was commander of the British troops in the Near East from July 1941 to August 1942. Auchinleck was removed from his command for his retreat in 1942. His direction of the British troops was severely criticized as a consequence of the failures of 1942. He was commander in chief of the British troops in India from 1943 to 1947. Auchinleck directed military actions against the Japanese troops in Burma from 1943 to 1945.