William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim

William Joseph Slim

William Joseph Slim, 1st Viscount Slim , KG , GCB , GCMG , GCVO , GBE , DSO , MC (born August 6, 1891 near Bristol ; †  December 14, 1970 in London ) was a British field marshal and the 13th Governor General of Australia .

Early years

At the outbreak of World War I , Slim became a lieutenant in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He was badly wounded at Gallipoli and later served in France and Mesopotamia . In 1919 Slim was promoted to captain in the British Indian Army . There he served in Gurkha regiments until 1934 . From 1934 to 1937 he taught at Staff College Camberley . In 1939 he was promoted to brigadier general and at the same time head of the staff officers' school in Belgaum , India .

At the outbreak of World War II , Slim was sent to Sudan to command India's 10th Brigade . From there he took part in the East Africa campaign that drove the Italians out of Ethiopia . He was wounded again in Eritrea . He was then transferred to the staff of General Archibald Wavell at the Middle East Command . Promoted to temporary major general, he was given command of the Indian 10th Infantry Division, which he led in the 1941 campaigns in Iraq, against the Vichy-loyal French forces in Syria and in the invasion of Iran .

Burma campaign

In March 1942, Slim was given command of Burma in Burma , which at that time consisted of the Indian 17th Division and the Burmese 1st Division. Burma was attacked by Japan at this time. The units were outnumbered by the Japanese armed forces and soon had to retreat to India.

Slim managed to get most of his beaten forces out of Burma. Then he took over the XV. Corps that protected the coastal areas from Burma to India east of Chittagong . During this time he developed a new method of warfare aimed at depriving the Japanese of their greater mobility on the offensive and depth of defense. He also set about training the rapidly growing Eastern Army and strengthening its morale, self-confidence and skills.

However, he was given command of the XV. Corps withdrawn by the incompetent leader of the Eastern Army, Noel Irwin . Slim had been planning the XV for more than a year. Corps to advance to the Arakan Peninsula. His plan included an indirect approach, air supply, concentrated attack and defense, and cooperation at all levels between air forces and ground forces. Irwin ignored all of this and instead chose the traditional form of direct attack, which failed, however. Irwin then stepped back and ordered Slim to regain command of the XV. Corps to take over.

Again Slim had to step in in a critical situation because significant parts of his corps had been destroyed by the Japanese. Once again Slim managed to free the majority of his armed forces from a difficult situation. Irwin initially blamed Slim for the disastrous attack on the Arakan Peninsula, but Slim was later given supreme command of the new 14th Army .

He quickly tackled the task of training his new army to attack the enemy. The principle was that mobility away from paved roads was of the utmost importance: Instead of using heavy equipment, lighter materials were used that could be transported by mules and by air. Attempts were made to get by with a minimum of supplies by vehicles. If this was unavoidable, only those vehicles were used that could cope with this terrain, which was most adverse to warfare. From now on there was no longer any distinction between combat troops and combat support troops. All soldiers were trained to fight as infantrymen. The new doctrine assumed that once the Japanese cut the lines of communication, they too would be cut. In this case, all units should take up a defensive position ( box ) that should be supplied from the air. The trapped troops were to be supported by armored units and tactical air force units. The Japanese were then to be crushed between the defensive positions and the reserve units.

This theory was put to the test in January 1944 when the second offensive on the Arakan Peninsula was countered by a Japanese counter-offensive that quickly included the Indian 7th Infantry Division, parts of the 5th Indian and West African 81st Divisions. The defense of the 7th Division was largely based on the administration box, which initially consisted of drivers, cooks, supply troops, etc., who now fought as "Uncle Bill", as Slim was called, had ordered them to. They were supplied with supplies from the air, so the lost supply lines were of little importance. This meant that the Japanese armed forces could be almost completely wiped out by the reserve divisions hurrying to aid that rushed in from the north.

But Arakan was just a red herring. The main Japanese thrust, Operation U-gō , was aimed at Imphal , hundreds of kilometers to the north. Slim was initially surprised, but he was able to regroup his powers. He had two complete battle-tested infantry divisions, the 5th and 7th Divisions, transferred by air from the combat area in Arakan straight into the new battle in the north. There what had just happened in Arakan was repeated on a much larger scale - defensive operations were carried out in places like Imphal, Sangshak and Kohima. The supplies were flown in by the Royal Air Force and the USAAF . Again the Japanese could be defeated. This inflicted severe defeats on the Imperial Japanese Army .

In 1945, Slim took his greatest risk to date - a blitzkrieg offensive into Burma. The supply lines stretched over hundreds of kilometers through impassable jungle. The Irrawaddy was crossed by a long Bailey Bridge , most of which had been carried by mules and by air. The city of Meiktila and a short time later Mandalay were taken. The Allies then went into a mobile defense, breaking out of their positions and trapping and wearing out the Japanese attackers. They kept the initiative at all times. The Allied armed forces benefited from the almost ideal type of good air support, both for air supplies and for air attacks on enemy ground targets. This destroyed all major Japanese units in Burma; Rangoon was recaptured in May 1945 by means of a combined amphibious operation.

post war period

Statue in Westminster, London

After the war, Slim became Commander in Chief of the Allied Land Forces in Southeast Asia. In 1948 he returned to England, where he became head of the Imperial Defense School (Imperial War College) and then head of the Imperial General Staff . In 1953 he was promoted to field marshal . He took over the post of Governor General of Australia without leaving the army. His correct address as Governor General was therefore Field Marshal Sir William Slim.

Although public opinion in Australia towards a British Governor General was not as positive as it was before the war, Slim was a popular choice. He was a true war hero who had fought side by side with Australian ANZAC troops in Gallipoli and the Middle East . In 1954 he welcomed Queen Elizabeth II as the first ruling monarch to visit Australia.

Slim's duties as governor general were purely ceremonial and there was no controversy during his tenure. Liberal leader Robert Menzies remained head of government throughout Slim's tenure. In 1959 Slim retired and returned to the UK . He published his memoirs entitled Unofficial History and Defeat Into Victory . In 1960 he was awarded the title Viscount Slim , of Yarralumla and Bishopston. He died in London on December 14, 1970.

Slim in leadership research

In addition to its popularity with the troops and his military achievements also Slims approach was to leadership respected a lot and is still in the leadership research discussed. His calm and humble demeanor in a variety of one-on-one meetings, as well as his integrity and fairness, created trust while at the same time fundamentally reforming his army. Slim made a clear distinction between leadership and management ; The latter lacks the emotional component.

He defined morality as an “invisible force” that enables people to work towards a goal with conviction. The foundations of morality are - in order of importance - spiritual , intellectual and material . Spiritually means to create an emotional connection to the goal, intellectually, to transfer this enthusiasm to the factual circumstances. The material level was rather low for Slim, as he believed that the greatest achievements and the highest morale were often achieved in materially cramped circumstances. He warned against the use of stereotypes and prejudices, e.g. B. he took decisive action against racial discrimination in his army. Stereotypes are dangerous because they can easily lead to illusions and, ultimately, arrogance in the leadership and subordinates. Self-portrayal and self-portrait are not helpful to the leadership in practice; In the end, every leader would only have his own personality at his disposal:

"If I were asked to define leadership, I should say it is the projection of personality. It is the most intensely personal thing in the world because it is just plain you. "

- Sir William Slim

literature

• William Slim: Defeat into Victory. Buccaneer Books, New York NY 1991, ISBN 1-56849-077-1 .
• Ronald Lewin: Slim. The standardbearer. A biography of Field-Marshal The Viscount Slim. Reprint. Cooper, London 1978, ISBN 0-85052-218-8 .

Web links

Commons : William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Newspaper article about William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim in the press kit 20th Century of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Financial Times: Leadership while in the line of fire
2. ^ Philip Sadler: Leadership. Kogan Page Publishers, London 2003, ISBN 0-7494-3919-X , pp. 141ff.

predecessor	Office	successor
Bernard Montgomery	Chief of the Imperial General Staff 1948–1952	John Harding
New title created	Viscount Slim 1960-1970	John Slim