Henry Maitland Wilson
gigatos | January 30, 2022
Summary
Henry Maitland Wilson (London, September 5, 1881 – Chilton, December 31, 1964) was a British general.
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Early years
Wilson was the son of Captain Arthur Maitland Wilson, and his wife, Harriet Kingscote, a descendant of Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe. Lieutenant Henry Fuller Maitland Wilson (1859-1941), who commanded the XII Corps during World War I, was his uncle. Wilson was educated at Eton College and after attending the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst gained admission to the Rifle Brigade as a second lieutenant in March 1900, and served in South Africa in the Second Boer War, earning the Queen”s South Africa Medal and the King”s South Africa Medal both with two bars.
Promoted to captain in 1908 he served in Ireland and in 1911 became adjutant at the OTC in Oxford. In October 1914 he was appointed Brigadier Major of the 48th Brigade of the 16th Irish Division, with which he was sent to France in December 1915. His skills as a staff officer allowed him to join the 41st Division with which he participated in the Battle of the Somme and then move to the XIX Corps with which he took part in the Battle of Passchendaele. In October 1917 he was assigned to the New Zealand Division. For his war services he received the Distinguished Service Order in 1917 and was mentioned three times in dispatches.
At the end of the First World War he attended staff courses at the Staff College in Camberley and then returned to his regiment. He then spent three years as chief of the second staff division under General Philip Chetwode who helped him develop his professional career. He subsequently obtained command of the first battalion of his regiment and served three years on the Northwest Frontier.
He returned to Camberley in 1930 and lived on half pay for a time, but then became involved in the process of motorizing the infantry and armed forces, spearheading the motor battalion concept.
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The Egyptian campaign (1939-1941)
In June 1939, Wilson was appointed General Officer Commanding (GOC) of British troops in Egypt, in addition to being responsible for directing troops in Abyssinia and the Persian Gulf. He placed his headquarters in Cairo and obtained good negotiations with the Egyptian government and the summer headquarters in Alexandria. The treaty signed in 1936 allowed the Egyptian army to fight under the command of the British one as an additional force and contributing to the formation of the 7th Armored Division. He concentrated his defensive forces at Mersa Matruh 100 miles from the Libyan border.
At the beginning of August 1936, General Archibald Wavell was appointed Commander-in-Chief at Middle East Command, and sent reinforcements to Wilson: initially the 4th Indian Infantry Division and then also the 6th Australian Division. As the fighting at Mersa Matruh continued, Richard O”Connor and his staff at the 7th Infantry Division in Palestine moved into Egypt to reinforce Wilson”s ranks. When the 6th Infantry Division was decommissioned in November of that year, Wilson became responsible for the troops at Mersa Matruh and by June 1940 redesignated the Western Desert Forces.
When World War II broke out, Egypt and Italy unexpectedly declared their neutrality to the conflict. In the meantime, however, Germany was conducting heavy radio propaganda in Egypt in an attempt to raise the Egyptians against the British, so Wilson became responsible for ensuring that good relations between the local government and the British army continued. To prove the good intentions of the United Kingdom towards the Egyptians he personally directed the construction of some roads.
On June 10 1940 Benito Mussolini declared the entrance in war of Italy and immediately Wilson”s forces invaded Libya. However their advance was opposed when on June 17 France had to surrender the passage of Tunisia which facilitated to the Italians the entry of reinforcements in North Africa. The Italian forces advanced in Egypt in 1940 occupying the city of Sidi Barrani since Wilson”s forces were outnumbered (31,000 British men, 80,000 Italians, 120 British tanks against 275 Italians, 120 British cannons against 250 Italians). To resolve the situation he decided with his staff to interrupt the enemy advance by attacking in several concentrated points. After a conference with the Secretary of the Ministry of War Eden in October of that year, Wilson launched Operation Compass on December 7, 1940. The strategy was successful and in a short time the Italians were driven back from the Egyptian borders.
Wilson, having secured the Egyptian borders, advanced into Libya and for the success of the operation obtained the Order of the Bath.
After the capture of Tobruk, Wilson was recalled to Cairo where he was offered the position of Military Governor of Cyrenaica which he accepted. On February 22, 1941, he met with Wavell, Eden and Dill who were looking for a commander for reinforcements in Greece.
Operation Compass continued with success and in 1941 led to the complete defeat of the Italian armies in North Africa. Wilson, who enjoyed the full confidence of the secretary of state for war Anthony Eden, and of Churchill himself, saw his fame grow considerably.
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Greece (April 1941)
Wilson was appointed head of the Commonwealth expedition with two infantry divisions and an armored brigade to Greece to break Italian resistance in the Aegean islands and to counter the subsequent German invasion in April 1941. After several insurrections, however, Wilson was forced into a strategic retreat to Crete.
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Syria, Iraq and Palestine (1941-1943)
In May 1941, upon his return from Greece, Wilson was appointed to head the British forces in Palestine and Transjordan leading the campaign in Syria that was conducted mainly by Australian, British, Indian and French forces against the Vichy government. Wilson was awarded the Order of the British Empire in March of that year and was promoted to the rank of general in the following May. In October 1941 he obtained command of the 9th Army in Syria and Palestine and became aide-de-camp general to the king.
Given his reputation as a good soldier and excellent commander, Churchill had initially decided to appoint Wilson in place of General Claude Auchinleck as commander of the Middle East theater in August 1942. Later Wilson was instead appointed commander of the new “Persia-Iraq Command” which included the 10th Army led by General Edward Quinan.
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Middle East (1943)
In February 1943, after Montgomery”s victory at the Second Battle of El-Alamein and the expulsion of Axis forces from Libya, Wilson was appointed Commander-in-Chief in the Middle East. Wilson was then ordered in September 1943, after the failure of the Dodecanese campaign, to occupy the small Greek islands of Kos, Leros and Samos. The British forces had great losses due to air attacks by the Germans and the action was heavily criticized in the motherland.
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Comandante Supremo degli Alleati nel Mediterraneo (1944)
Wilson succeeded General Dwight D. Eisenhower as Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the Mediterranean theater on January 8, 1944. As such he exercised strategic control over the Italian campaign, and strongly recommended the invasion of Germany across the Danube; this did not happen as the armies in Italy were too weakened to support other theaters of war.
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Mission to Washington (1945-1947)
In December 1944, after the death of Field Marshal John Dill, Maitland Wilson was promoted to field marshal and sent to Washington as head of the British military mission and held this post until January 1945. At the command of the Mediterranean theater was replaced by General Harold Alexander. Wilson continued in his service until 1947 to the satisfaction of the United Kingdom and the United States. President Truman decorated him with the Distinguished Service Medal in November 1945.
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The post-war period
In January 1946 he was appointed aide-de-camp to King George VI and was created Baron Wilson of Libya and Stowlangtoft in Suffolk County. From 1955 to 1960 he was constable of the Tower of London. Wilson had married Hester Wykeham in 1914 and had a son and a daughter.
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