Jul

6

As officers, you will neither eat, nor drink, nor sleep, nor smoke, nor even sit down until you have personally seen that your men have done those things. If you will do this for them, they will follow you to the end of the world. And if you do not, I will break you.

– Field Marshal William Slim, British Army

Bud Conrad is skeptical:

Of course, they all SAY things like that. But they have their own Officers' Quarters, that "Rank has privilege" and fat retirement on the boards of suppliers. Is there a specific application you're trying to comment on with this quote?

Stefan Jovanovich responds:

At age 16 Slim went to work as a clerk for Stewarts & Lloyds, a supplier of metal tubes. (Slim was able to get the job because he had grown up in the business; his father was an ironmonger.) In 1910, at age 19 he enlisted in the University of Birmingham Officer Training Corps. Because he had the money to buy a regular commission, he was given a temporary rank with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in 1914. He served in Turkey (Gallipoli), Mesopotamia (Iraq) and France, was wounded twice and earned the Military Cross in 1916. In 1919 he was transferred to the Gurkha Rifles of the British Indian Army and served in the Northwest Frontier (Afghanistan). He was able to attend the Camberley Staff College in 1926; despite his inferior social background, he was invited to stay on and become an instructor. He returned to India in the 1930s and became commander of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Gurkha Rifles. After a year at the Imperial Defence College, he was promoted to brigadier and led the 10th Indian Brigade. In 1940 he was promoted to major general to command the 10th Indian Infantry Division, which operated in Iraq, Syria and Iran in 1940-1941. In March 1942 Slim was appointed commander of the Burma Corps. He led them in a 900-mile retreat from Rangoon to India. In May 1942 the Burma Corps was reorganized into XV Corps of the Eastern Army and Slim as appointed lieutenant general. In October 1943 Slim became commander of the Fourteenth Army.

The rest of the story is easy. The 14th (which became known as the Forgotten Army because they were last in the supply chain for everything) would defeat the Japanese 15th Army at Imphal and Kohima in 1944 and reconquer Burma in 1945. The Japanese would suffer 180,000 casualties; the 14th 24,000.

Slim suffered from the effects of malaria throughout his life; his nickname among the troops was "Uncle Bill".


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