My favourite Slim story - in 1993 I rode on the roof of a bus in Burma until they pointlessly misdirected me and dropped me off in the dark in Meiktila, a town I had absolutely no clearance from the authorities to be in (the bus was supposed to take me to Mandalay). I passed a WW2 Comet tank on display, approached a monastery and asked to stay the night and make a donation. The head monk was very terse and unpleasant with me, and initially I feared that he might work for the regime. The windows were missing, with the window sills about four feet up from the ground, and he warned me to make sure I never put my head up that high. The reason soon became obvious : the Army was rampaging through the night with fixed bayonets, seizing people to be used as human shields in the several counterinsurgency wars the regime was always fighting, and there's no telling what could happen if the soldiers looked over the window sill and saw a white man who shouldn't be in Meiktila at all.... Whoa.... After a while the head monk came back to me with cigarillos and snacks, and was MUCH more pleasant, reminiscing about the great Field Marshall Slim, and the head monk's own service in the "Burma Navy", which was probably the Burma Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, fighting on the Allied side. He said that he had always wanted to know what eventually became of Slim. I told him the foudroyant revelation that Slim had gone on to become Governor-General of my own country, Australia. He beamed with contentment on learning that - and in the back-blocks of Burma thirty years ago, information about the outside world really was acquired by questioning a traveller...! A world that has gone and been buried in the internet now.
One of my favourite stories when it comes to Slim is actually from his autobiography. He tells how he went to visit an Indian unit, I cannot for the life of me remember which one, though he did speak the language. He spoke a number of Indian Languages. He goes out, gives his speech, and afterwards, as he is returning to his vehicle, turns round to his Driver, a Gurkha Havildar (Sergeant) and says: 'Well I thought that went rather well.' 'Yes sahib, other than the fact you slipped into Gurkhali six words in, it went very well indeed.' I love that story, and the fact he recounts it himself is I think a measure of the man. From Defeat to Victory is a remarkable book, there is none of the Grandstanding you would see with your Montgomery's, Patton's or MacArthur's, but a brilliant, humble man who was all too willing to give credit where he felt it was deserved.
My late Father-in-law was a major in the Gurkhas in NE India and Burma from 1942. He heard Gen Slim speaking twice and described him as "the most inspirational leader " that he heard during the war.
Bill Slim is a hero of mine. Along with Adm Sir Bruce Fraser and AM Sir Keith Park. Slim was an incredibly effective leader of men and trusted his men. He made speeches post war to West Point and Sandhurst cadets which are in the Sandhurst Officer Cadet's bible, called Serve to Lead. I still refer to those speeches and that book today when wondering how to deal with a situation.
Really pleased to watch these videos of the excellent & informative presentations at the National Army Museum to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the Battle of Kohima 👏
Field Marshal Slim wrote the foreword to 'Serve to Lead' the standard text given to all officer cadets who attended Sandhurst. That is until the text was 'revised' the text for the 2nd edition at the beginning of this century.
My father's cousin, Hally Brokhurst, Australian, fought i the Sahara, then Burma, then New Guinea. He was a very modest man. Never went to an Anzac Day. A bushman.
That’s not fair. Attlee made him Chief of the Imperial General Staff, he became the governor-general at a time when that title meant something and he received every honour the king, Queen and government could bestow on him: KG, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, GBE, DSO, MC, PC. He was appointed Constable and Governor of Windsor Castle which gave him a free representative grace and favour home to live in. He was actually better treated than Alan Brooke, the chief of imperial staff during the war and the man who had the less than enviable task to keep Churchill grounded.
@@Bullet-Tooth-Tony- We’ll never know it is safe to think that he could have established a good working relationship with Eisenhower, just like Arthur Tedder did. I can respect Montgomery for the way he was careful with his men but based on his biographies, the men was not the easiest to work with.
Respectfully, the war in Burma was a sideshow and the arguments here seem almost absurd. Wellington stopped Napoleon Bonaparte. Resurrecting the martial pride of a defeated and humiliated British imperial force fighting against an expeditionary Japanese army, while most of Japan's best soldiers were in China and the Pacific, was an achievement but nothing like greatness.
The greatest British (Indian) Army of WW2. You've got some reading to do. They were the most culturally diverse army of any war in history- and they fought as one, in the most difficult of conditions; they were magnificent!
@@Conn30Mtenor Sorry my friend, I was watching with a big bell of red wine in my hand and I was playing the fool by paraphrasing Mountbatten's "Let me tell you that this is not 'The Forgotten Front' and you are not 'The Forgotten Army'. In fact, no one has even heard of you."
But you can take vocal fies or that fake California thing that the Kardashians popularised? This man's accent is completely natural. I think you're just a bigot, and probably racist. .
I disagree. Slim cannot be Britain greatest general of the 2nd world war. He never fought the 1st 11. The German army. Slim never faced Tiger , Panther or Mark IV tanks. Never faced the Panzerfausts,MG 34 or 42. He only ever fought the Turks, Italians, Iraqis,French . This does not mean I do not appreciate the many qualities of general Slim his subordinates or the high quality of many Indian Army soldiers. Cheers.
@anselmdanker9519 He is a candidate though. It's a classic underdog story. Slim can be compared to the inspirational coach that in a sports movie helps the failing sports team build team spirit and skill which over the course of the movie helps them finally win the championship. One of his strategies was similar to what Alexander the Great did before his battle with King Porus during the Battle of Hydaspes river. At the Battle of Irrawaddy, considered by many to be Slim’s masterpiece battle alongside the greatest in history, Slim was faced with ill suitable material to mount an assault against entrenched opposition. Yet, despite being outnumbered and outgunned, while also conducting an operation in the middle of a monsoon season with raging rivers. Slim masterfully deceived his enemy by dividing his army, using regiments and sentries to cause confusion as to where he would actually strike ( like Alexander when he placed tents and camp fires in front of King Porus to make him believe he would attack in front of him) To do this, Slim sent his 33 Corps over the Irrawaddy in front of Mandalay. This was an open attack so as to give the impression that this was the entire 14th Army coming through. Slim would then secretly manoeuvre the 4 Corps further down the Irrawaddy river. Slim managed to hide an entire corps marching down Burma. The crossing of the 4 Corps and the taking of Meiktila, effectively outflanking the Japanese while taking an important point of communications and supply. Through this move, the Japanese found themselves in an imaginative pincer move between British forces in the Meiktila area and British forces in the Mandalay area.
Different enemies, different wars. Kohima was won because the garrison held out long enough that engineers could build a dirt track up to the residence and get A (one/singular) tank up into Japanese positions.I doubt Manstein ro Rommel could have coped with Jungle warfare, the Germans barely coped with Ukrainian mud never mind monsoon and malaria season. Japanese tchnical warfare was weak but we are talking abut an army that would attack until they ran out of food, then attack till they were crippled with dysentery and starvation then eat their own dead (and any prisoners) before they would give up.
Ofc he can be the greatest general of WW2, indeed he can easily be seen as the best in the british armies history... It all depends on what you look for. If you only look at equipment, you are blind to the real issues, like logistics, how to travel accrose the terrain, reinforcements, coopporations with allies, and then look at the enemy, what sort of operations and so on. As for the equipment, that is not really that important (on the level we are talking), an MG 34 or 42 is not more deadly than the Japanese MGs, and those dealt with easy enough. As for tanks, well they also have their issues (like fuel, spare parts and so on), and again he commanded tankforces, had he been in Western Europe, there are no reason to believe that he couldn't command the forces that took on Tigers, Panthers and all the rest. Also the German army was not a one-fit-all sort of orgenization. They were generally good, but then so where the Japanese in early 1942-44, and he destroyed them, nothing really points to the Germans as being (in general) more of an enemy than the Japanese.
The Germans never fought in the jungle and the Japanese were not exactly Boy Scouts. The Germans had terrible logistics and a dysfunctional command structure. They may have had some good kit but that is at the end of the day, meaningless.
My favourite Slim story - in 1993 I rode on the roof of a bus in Burma until they pointlessly misdirected me and dropped me off in the dark in Meiktila, a town I had absolutely no clearance from the authorities to be in (the bus was supposed to take me to Mandalay). I passed a WW2 Comet tank on display, approached a monastery and asked to stay the night and make a donation. The head monk was very terse and unpleasant with me, and initially I feared that he might work for the regime. The windows were missing, with the window sills about four feet up from the ground, and he warned me to make sure I never put my head up that high. The reason soon became obvious : the Army was rampaging through the night with fixed bayonets, seizing people to be used as human shields in the several counterinsurgency wars the regime was always fighting, and there's no telling what could happen if the soldiers looked over the window sill and saw a white man who shouldn't be in Meiktila at all.... Whoa.... After a while the head monk came back to me with cigarillos and snacks, and was MUCH more pleasant, reminiscing about the great Field Marshall Slim, and the head monk's own service in the "Burma Navy", which was probably the Burma Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, fighting on the Allied side. He said that he had always wanted to know what eventually became of Slim. I told him the foudroyant revelation that Slim had gone on to become Governor-General of my own country, Australia. He beamed with contentment on learning that - and in the back-blocks of Burma thirty years ago, information about the outside world really was acquired by questioning a traveller...! A world that has gone and been buried in the internet now.
One of my favourite stories when it comes to Slim is actually from his autobiography. He tells how he went to visit an Indian unit, I cannot for the life of me remember which one, though he did speak the language. He spoke a number of Indian Languages.
He goes out, gives his speech, and afterwards, as he is returning to his vehicle, turns round to his Driver, a Gurkha Havildar (Sergeant) and says: 'Well I thought that went rather well.'
'Yes sahib, other than the fact you slipped into Gurkhali six words in, it went very well indeed.'
I love that story, and the fact he recounts it himself is I think a measure of the man. From Defeat to Victory is a remarkable book, there is none of the Grandstanding you would see with your Montgomery's, Patton's or MacArthur's, but a brilliant, humble man who was all too willing to give credit where he felt it was deserved.
He should have been prosecuted for child rape.
My late Father-in-law was a major in the Gurkhas in NE India and Burma from 1942. He heard Gen Slim speaking twice and described him as "the most inspirational leader " that he heard during the war.
That is quite the relation. Any more info?
@@belbrighton6479 Unfortunately not. F-i-L died over thirty years ago and much of what he told me has faded from my memory now.
My father fought under Slim in Burma, he was in the 14th army in the royal artillery, 134 jungle field regiment 19th Indian division.
Bill Slim gave a talk at my mum's school in the 1950s...she still remembers it.
Bill Slim is a hero of mine. Along with Adm Sir Bruce Fraser and AM Sir Keith Park.
Slim was an incredibly effective leader of men and trusted his men. He made speeches post war to West Point and Sandhurst cadets which are in the Sandhurst Officer Cadet's bible, called Serve to Lead. I still refer to those speeches and that book today when wondering how to deal with a situation.
Good choices.
Really pleased to watch these videos of the excellent & informative presentations at the National Army Museum to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the Battle of Kohima 👏
Brilliant lecture about a quite brilliant man,. Thank you Dr Lyman, a wonderful presentation.
The British armies greatest ever General so said my uncle who served under him.
Being such a great and yet humble man puts Slim above those who wanted the glory and fame
A brilliant general.
He was a nonce.
@@Jeremy-y1t Liar
Great presentation. I will have to read more about General Slim.
As stated above: "From Defeat to Victory is a remarkable book".
Field Marshal Slim wrote the foreword to 'Serve to Lead' the standard text given to all officer cadets who attended Sandhurst. That is until the text was 'revised' the text for the 2nd edition at the beginning of this century.
I rather enjoy Dr Lyman’s delivery. A very warm and engaging manner.
His army required 58 different sets of ration packs. 58. No other army in history had that problem and Slim made it happen.
Bill Slim. Master of War.
My father's cousin, Hally Brokhurst, Australian, fought i the Sahara, then Burma, then New Guinea. He was a very modest man. Never went to an Anzac Day. A bushman.
My dad was a WW2 veteran, lasted about a week in the Royal Canadian Legion. Never went to a Remembrance Day event, never felt the need to.
Must have been the only General in history who didn’t want more resources
Certainly the most underrated general. A man who should nave been honoured more.
That’s not fair. Attlee made him Chief of the Imperial General Staff, he became the governor-general at a time when that title meant something and he received every honour the king, Queen and government could bestow on him: KG, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, GBE, DSO, MC, PC. He was appointed Constable and Governor of Windsor Castle which gave him a free representative grace and favour home to live in.
He was actually better treated than Alan Brooke, the chief of imperial staff during the war and the man who had the less than enviable task to keep Churchill grounded.
@@peterpluim7912 I wonder what Slim could've done in Europe.
@@Bullet-Tooth-Tony- We’ll never know it is safe to think that he could have established a good working relationship with Eisenhower, just like Arthur Tedder did. I can respect Montgomery for the way he was careful with his men but based on his biographies, the men was not the easiest to work with.
@@peterpluim7912 He should have been prosecuted for abusing children in Australia.
You had another successful British maneuver general in WW2 : Richard McCreery.
@tarjeijensen7237 Richard O Connor too. Haha two of them are called Richard.
True, but (to me) he was far ahead of Monty, all those accolades occurred after he saved India. Maybe underexposed? Monty got all the exposure.
Monty, like MacArthur, had his own publicity machine.
@@Conn30Mtenor Rommel, Patton and Mark Clark also loved the Camera's.
Respectfully, the war in Burma was a sideshow and the arguments here seem almost absurd. Wellington stopped Napoleon Bonaparte. Resurrecting the martial pride of a defeated and humiliated British imperial force fighting against an expeditionary Japanese army, while most of Japan's best soldiers were in China and the Pacific, was an achievement but nothing like greatness.
@englishandthebeautyoflangu3610
Slim was outnumbered though.
14th Army? Never heard of them nor of the front they fought on.
The greatest British (Indian) Army of WW2. You've got some reading to do. They were the most culturally diverse army of any war in history- and they fought as one, in the most difficult of conditions; they were magnificent!
@@Conn30Mtenor Sorry my friend, I was watching with a big bell of red wine in my hand and I was playing the fool by paraphrasing Mountbatten's "Let me tell you that this is not 'The Forgotten Front' and you are not 'The Forgotten Army'. In fact, no one has even heard of you."
@@exharkhun5605 Don't post while drunk
@@Conn30Mtenor Japan ended colonialism forever.
Might have been an interesting talk but I just can't stand that Blimpish accent.
That says rather more about you than about him
@@HardThrasher Yawn.
@@HardThrasher
A HardThrasher broadside
makes a battleship's look insignificant!
Take note!
/
But you can take vocal fies or that fake California thing that the Kardashians popularised? This man's accent is completely natural. I think you're just a bigot, and probably racist. .
Sounds nothing like Colonel Blimp….
I disagree.
Slim cannot be Britain greatest general of the 2nd world war.
He never fought the 1st 11.
The German army.
Slim never faced Tiger , Panther or Mark IV tanks.
Never faced the Panzerfausts,MG 34 or 42. He only ever fought the Turks, Italians, Iraqis,French .
This does not mean I do not appreciate the many qualities of general Slim his subordinates or the high quality of many Indian Army soldiers.
Cheers.
@anselmdanker9519 He is a candidate though.
It's a classic underdog story. Slim can be compared to the inspirational coach that in a sports movie helps the failing sports team build team spirit and skill which over the course of the movie helps them finally win the championship.
One of his strategies was similar to what Alexander the Great did before his battle with King Porus during the Battle of Hydaspes river.
At the Battle of Irrawaddy, considered by many to be Slim’s masterpiece battle alongside the greatest in history, Slim was faced with ill suitable material to mount an assault against entrenched opposition. Yet, despite being outnumbered and outgunned, while also conducting an operation in the middle of a monsoon season with raging rivers.
Slim masterfully deceived his enemy by dividing his army, using regiments and sentries to cause confusion as to where he would actually strike ( like Alexander when he placed tents and camp fires in front of King Porus to make him believe he would attack in front of him)
To do this, Slim sent his 33 Corps over the Irrawaddy in front of Mandalay. This was an open attack so as to give the impression that this was the entire 14th Army coming through. Slim would then secretly manoeuvre the 4 Corps further down the Irrawaddy river.
Slim managed to hide an entire corps marching down Burma. The crossing of the 4 Corps and the taking of Meiktila, effectively outflanking the Japanese while taking an important point of communications and supply. Through this move, the Japanese found themselves in an imaginative pincer move between British forces in the Meiktila area and British forces in the Mandalay area.
Different enemies, different wars.
Kohima was won because the garrison held out long enough that engineers could build a dirt track up to the residence and get A (one/singular) tank up into Japanese positions.I doubt Manstein ro Rommel could have coped with Jungle warfare, the Germans barely coped with Ukrainian mud never mind monsoon and malaria season.
Japanese tchnical warfare was weak but we are talking abut an army that would attack until they ran out of food, then attack till they were crippled with dysentery and starvation then eat their own dead (and any prisoners) before they would give up.
I think you'll find that Tigers, Panthers and even Mark III's and IV's would have been pretty useless in the jungles of India, Burma & Malaya...
Ofc he can be the greatest general of WW2, indeed he can easily be seen as the best in the british armies history... It all depends on what you look for.
If you only look at equipment, you are blind to the real issues, like logistics, how to travel accrose the terrain, reinforcements, coopporations with allies, and then look at the enemy, what sort of operations and so on.
As for the equipment, that is not really that important (on the level we are talking), an MG 34 or 42 is not more deadly than the Japanese MGs, and those dealt with easy enough. As for tanks, well they also have their issues (like fuel, spare parts and so on), and again he commanded tankforces, had he been in Western Europe, there are no reason to believe that he couldn't command the forces that took on Tigers, Panthers and all the rest.
Also the German army was not a one-fit-all sort of orgenization. They were generally good, but then so where the Japanese in early 1942-44, and he destroyed them, nothing really points to the Germans as being (in general) more of an enemy than the Japanese.
The Germans never fought in the jungle and the Japanese were not exactly Boy Scouts. The Germans had terrible logistics and a dysfunctional command structure. They may have had some good kit but that is at the end of the day, meaningless.