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Sir Alan Gordon Cunningham, (1 May 1887 – 30 January 1983), was a senior officer of the British Army noted for his victories over Italian forces in the East African Campaign during the Second World War. He then commanded Eighth Army in the desert campaign, but was relieved of command during the Crusader battle against Erwin Rommel. Later he served as the seventh and last High Commissioner of Palestine. He was the younger brother of Admiral of the Fleet Lord Cunningham of Hyndhope.
After graduating from the Royal Naval College, Greenwich in 1925, followed by the Imperial Defence College in 1937, Cunningham was appointed as the Commander, Royal Artillery of the 1st Infantry Division. However, he never took up this post as he was promoted in 1938 to major-general and given the task of forming and commanding the 5th Anti-Aircraft Division. Cunningham's headquarters was in Reading and the division covered Bristol, Portsmouth and Southampton. This area of operation in South-West England was aligned with the RAF 10 Group.
During the East African Campaign General Sir Archibald Wavell, the Commander-in-Chief of the British Middle East Command, directed Cunningham to retake British Somaliland and free Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from the Italian Empire whilst forces under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir William Platt would attack from Sudan in the north through Eritrea. Cunningham commanded three divisions in East Africa Force, the 1st (South African) Division commanded by Major General George Brink, the 11th (African) Division commanded by Major General Harry Edward de Robillard Wetherall and the 12th (African) Division commanded by Major General Reade Godwin-Austen . Operation Canvas started with the Battle of the Juba prior to which he issued his famous order of the day 'Hit them. Hit them hard and hit them again'. The Indian Ocean port of Kismayu () was quickly captured and Cunningham realized that the Italians had no depth to their defence. He therefore ordered a rapid advance to Mogadishu (Italian: Mogadiscio) by the 23rd Nigerian Brigade who covered 275 miles in only three days. When General Wavell asked Cunningham when he might capture Mogadishu, he simply replied 'got it'. The Italians were then pursued and fought a number of covering actions at the Marda Pass and the River Awash. On 6 April 1941, Cunningham's forces entered Addis Ababa having advanced 1,687 miles at an average rate of 75 miles a day. On the 5 May 1941, Cunningham believed that it was safe for Emperor Haile Selassie to return to Addis Ababa, five years after he was forced to flee from the Italian forces. On 11 May, the northernmost units of Cunningham's forces, under South African Brigadier Dan Pienaar linked with Platt's forces under Major-General Mosley Mayne to besiege Amba Alagi. On 20 May, Mayne took the surrender of the Duke of Aosta, at Amba Alagi. Cunningham continued to lead his forces in mopping-up operations against the 40,000 Italian troops in the Galla-Sidamo region. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath and awarded another Mention in Dispatches for his actions in East Africa. For this campaign he was also awarded Order of the Brilliant Star of Zanzibar, 1st class and Order of Menelik II, 1st class by Emperor Haile Selassie and the Order of the Crown, 1st class by the King of Belgium.
His success in East Africa led to Cunningham's appointment to form, train, and command the new Eighth Army in North Africa in August 1941. The Eighth Army was to consist of two Corps, XIII Corps (United Kingdom) was mainly infantry and was to be commanded by Lieutenant General Godwin-Austen, whom Cunningham had commanded in East Africa. XXX Corps was to be armoured and commanded by Lieutenant General Vyvyan Pope, the British armoured expert. However, Pope was killed with his staff in a plane crash on 6 October 1941 and he was replaced by the inexperienced cavalry officer Major General Charles Willoughby-Norrie. Cunningham had to form and train the Eighth Army in time to lead General Sir Claude Auchinleck's Libyan Desert offensive which under pressure from Churchill was due to begin in early November, but actually began on 18 November. It was called Operation Crusader.
Cunningham's offensive achieved complete surprise and the Axis were slow to react. This resulted in Willoughby-Norrie convincing Cunningham to amend the plan and allow him to strike for Tobruk. This resulted in the destruction of the British armour as it engaged the Afrika Korps as brigades, rather than Cunningham's plan for a concentrated Eighth Army fighting what Pope had termed 'the Big Tank Battle'. due to the heavy losses, there was a chance that Rommel could break through to Egypt, and Cunningham sought strategic advice from Auchinleck to either continue the offensive or to defend and rebuild the tank formations. Auchinleck, who had access to secret Ultra intelligence, ordered Cunningham to continue and Cunningham issued orders that XIII Corps was to take up the offensive and relieve the Siege of Tobruk.
On 25 November, the Axis counterattack into Egypt during Crusader had been repulsed, Cunningham was dismissed by Auchinleck. His replacement was Auchinleck's deputy chief of the general staff, Major-General Neil Ritchie, who was chosen due to his familiarity with the Operation Crusader plan. The day after Ritchie took over, XIII Corps relieved Tobruk as planned by Cunningham. Auchinleck had been content when he left Cunningham and it is likely that he was convinced by Air Marshal Arthur Tedder to replace him during the flight back to Cairo. Auchinleck asked Cunningham to go into No. 64 Field Hospital for security reasons, asking him "to agree to being placed on the sick list and to go into hospital for a period. I know that this will be against all your instincts, and that you will hate doing it" and Cunningham agreed. However, he had no health issues apart from being tired after fighting for 9 days as he pointed out "like all the troops fighting in Libya". Once Cunningham was in hospital, Auchinleck wrote again to offer his "forgiveness in having inflicted this indignity on you … I know very well how you disliked having to pretend that you are sick, when you are not." Cunningham was then examined by a consultant Colonel Smallwood on the 29 November who wrote that he was "tired and showed signs of strain’ due to his ‘long and heavy responsibilities" which "had culminated in a period of about a week with practically no sleep", he concluded that,"since admission to hospital he has slept soundly each night… He is composed, and very alert and mentally active. There is no evidence of any “nervous breakdown."" However, whilst Cunningham was in isolated in hospital, the narrative of a nervous breakdown was spread and became the accepted story.
When he return to Britain in December 1941, Churchill refused to give him a role, stating that he was either sick or incompetent, but General Alan Brooke contended that he was neither. However, when Jan Smuts came to Britain the October 1942 he convinced Churchill that Cunningham should be given a role. Cunningham, who was now a Major General again, was appointed as the Commandant of the Staff College, Camberley (1942). In 1943 he was appointed as General Officer C-in-C in Northern Ireland and promoted back to Lieutenant General. In this role he was heavily involved in preparing US troops for D Day and was awarded the Legion of Merit Medal by the US Government for this work. Finally, in 1944 he was appointed as the General Officer C-in-C Eastern Command with the tasks of both training replacements for Europe and disbanding the Home Guard. During these later posts, Cunningham gave a number of important speeches about military leadership, and the eminent academic, Professor John Adair (author), has said of Cunningham words that it "puts him up with Montgomery and Slim as a thinker about leadership in the military context. He was unique, however, in lecturing on the subject actually during the Second World War, whereas they saved their thoughts until the post war years."
On return to Britain, Cunningham was offered the post of Black Rod at the Palace of Westminster, but declined it and retired from public life. He continued to serve, however, as the Colonel Commandant of the Royal Artillery until 1954, as a Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire from 1950, as the President of the Council of Governors at Cheltenham College from 1951 until 1963. Also, in 1954, he was asked to play a major role in the visit to Britain of Emperor Haile Selassie. On 5 April 1951, at the age of 61, he married Margery Snagge.
Cunningham died at the age of 95 in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England. He is buried with his father and mother under a simple monument near the Dean Gallery entrance to Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh.
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Second World War
After Dunkirk, Cunningham was moved from 5th Anti-Aircraft initially to reform the 4th (Infantry) Division, but this was quickly changed and he was ordered to form and train the 66th Infantry Division, in Manchester. He was the moved to Scotland to command the 9th (Highland) Infantry Division, and renamed it 51st (Highland) Infantry Division, when the majority of that Division was lost in the withdrawal from France. At 3 days notice he was informed that he was to take command of the East Africa Force in Kenya and was promoted to acting lieutenant general.
Post-war
After the war, Cunningham, who was promoted to General officer on 30 October 1945, returned to the Middle East as High Commissioner of Palestine; he served in the position from 1945 to 1948. He was in charge of operations against the Hagana, a Zionist militia, Irgun and Lehi terrorists who in this period fought against the Mandate authorities and the Palestinian population, as well as Palestinian militias, with Arab armies poised to invade as soon as the British withdrew. Cunningham had retired from the army in October 1946 when he relinquished the role of Commander-in-Chief Palestine but retained the job of High Commissioner until 1948. He was awarded a second knighthood for his duties and became a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George.
Orders and decorations
Bibliography
(2025). 9781845740672, Naval & Military Press. ISBN 9781845740672
External links
Categories: 1887 Births, 1983 Deaths, British Army Generals, Burials At The Dean Cemetery, Graduates Of The Royal College Of Defence Studies, British Army Generals Of World War Ii, British Army Personnel Of World War I, British High Commissioners Of Palestine, British Military Personnel Of The Palestine Emergency, British People Of Scottish Descent, Commandants Of The Staff College, Camberley, Commanders Of The Legion Of Merit, Companions Of The Distinguished Service Order, Graduates Of The Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, Graduates Of The Royal Naval College, Greenwich, Grand Crosses Of The Order Of The Crown, Knights Commander Of The Order Of The Bath, Knights Grand Cross Of The Order Of St Michael And St George, People Educated At Cheltenham College, Military Personnel From Dublin, Recipients Of The Military Cross, Royal Artillery Officers, Recipients Of Orders, Decorations, And Medals Of Ethiopia
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