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Field Marshal 1st Viscount Slim
6 August 1891 - 14 December 1970
Sir William Slim (as he then was) as Governor-General of Australia
Nickname	Uncle Bill
Place of birth	Bristol, England
Place of death	London, England
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Rank	Field Marshal
Commands	Fourteenth Army Chief of the Imperial General Staff
Battles/wars	World War I Battle of Gallipoli World War II East African Campaign Syria-Lebanon campaign Burma Campaign Battle of Kohima Battle of Imphal
Awards	Knight of the Garter Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire Distinguished Service Order Military Cross
Other work	Governor-General of Australia

Field Marshal Sir William Joseph Slim, 1st Viscount Slim, KG, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, GBE, DSO, MC (6 August 1891 – 14 December 1970) was a British military commander and the 13th Governor-General of Australia. He fought in both World War I and World War II. He was wounded in action three times during his career.

Contents 1 Early years 2 Burma campaign 3 After World War II 4 Slim's place in history 5 Bibliography 6 Sources 7 References

Slim was born in Bristol to John and Charlotte Slim (nee Tucker), a lower-middle class family. He grew up in Birmingham and attended St. Philip's School and King Edward's School. After leaving school, he taught at an elementary school and worked as a clerk in Steward and Lloyds, a metal-tube maker, between 1910 and 1914. He joined Birmingham University Officers' Training Corps in 1912, and was thus able to be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment at the outbreak of World War I; in later life, as a result of his modest social origins and unpretentious manner, he was sometimes wrongly supposed to have risen from the ranks. He was badly wounded at Gallipoli. On return to England, he was granted a regular commission in a West Indian Regiment. In October 1916, he returned to his regiment in Mesopotamia. He was wounded a second time in 1917 and was awarded the Military Cross. Evacuated to India, he transferred to the British Indian Army in 1919. Slim was given the rank of captain and was posted to the 1st Battalion of the 6th Gurkha Rifles. He became adjutant of the battalion in 1921.

He married Aileen Robertson in 1926 (died 1993), with whom he had one son and one daughter.

In 1926, Slim was sent to the Indian Staff College at Quetta. His performance at Staff College resulted in his appointment first to Army Headquarters India in Delhi and then to Staff College, Camberley in England, where he taught from 1934 to 1937. In 1938 he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and given command of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Gurkha Rifles. In 1939 he was given the temporary rank of brigadier and became head of the Senior Officers' School at Belgaum, India.

On the outbreak of World War II Slim was given command of the Indian 10th Brigade of the Indian 5th Infantry Division and was sent to Sudan. He took part in the East African Campaign to liberate Ethiopia from the Italians. Slim was wounded again during the fighting in Eritrea.

Slim joined the staff of General Archibald Wavell in the Middle East Command. Given the rank of acting major-general, he commanded British forces in the Middle East Campaign, leading the Indian 10th Infantry Division as part of Iraqforce during the Syria-Lebanon campaign and the invasion of Persia.

See South-East Asian Theatre of World War II and Burma Campaign

In March 1942, Slim was given command of 1st Burma Corps also known as BurCorps (consisting of the 17th Indian Infantry Division and 1st Burma Division) in Burma, which was being attacked by the Japanese. Heavily outnumbered, he was soon forced to withdraw to India.

He then took over XV Corps under the command of the Eastern Army. His command covered the coastal approaches from Burma to India, east of Chittagong. He had a series of disputes with Noel Irwin, commander of Eastern Army and, as a result, Irwin (although an army commander) took personal control of the initial advance by XV Corps into the Arakan Peninsula. The operations ended in disaster, during which Slim was restored to command of XV Corps albeit too late to salvage the situation. General Irwin and Slim blamed each other for the result but in the end Irwin was removed from his command and Slim was promoted to command the new Fourteenth Army—formed from IV Corps (Imphal), XV Corps (Arakan) and XXXIII Corps (reserve)—later joined by XXXIV Corps.

He quickly got on with the task of training his new army to take the fight to the enemy. The basic premise was that off-road mobility was paramount: much heavy equipment was exchanged for mule- or air-transported equipment and motor transport was kept to a minimum and restricted to those vehicles that could cope with some of the worst combat terrain on earth. The new doctrine dictated that if the Japanese had cut the lines of communication, then they too were surrounded. All units were to form defensive 'boxes', to be resupplied by air and assisted by integrated close air support and armour. The boxes were designed as an effective response to the tactics of infiltration practiced by the Japanese in the war. Slim also supported increased offensive patrolling, to encourage his soldiers to lose both their fear of the jungle and also their belief that Japanese soldiers were better jungle fighters.

In January 1944, when the Second Arakan Offensive was met by a Japanese counter-offensive, the Indian 7th Infantry Division was quickly surrounded along with parts of the Indian 5th Infantry Division and the West African 81st Division. The 7th Indian Division's defence was based largely on the "Admin Box"—formed initially from drivers, cooks, suppliers, etc. They were supplied by air—negating the importance of their lost supply lines. The Japanese forces were able to defeat the offensive into Arakan, but they were unable to decisively defeat the allied forces or advance beyond the surrounded formations. While the Second Arakan Offensive ended in failure, it proved tactics that were very effective against the Japanese. Later in 1944 the Japanese launched an invasion of India aimed at Imphal—hundreds of miles to the north. Slim airlifted two entire veteran divisions (5th & 7th Indian) from battle in the Arakan, straight into battle in the north. Desperate defensive actions were fought at places such as Imphal, Sangshak and Kohima, while the RAF and USAAF kept the forces supplied from the air. While the Japanese were able to advance and encircle the formations of 14th Army, they were unable to defeat those same forces or break out of the jungles along the Indian frontier. The Japanese advance stalled. The Japanese refused to give up even after the monsoon started and large parts of their army were wrecked by conducting operations in impossible conditions. As a result their units took unsupportable casualties and were finally forced to retreat in total disorder, leaving behind a trail of corpses.

In 1945, Slim launched an offensive into Burma, with lines of supply stretching almost to breaking point across hundreds of miles of trackless jungle. He faced the same problems that the Japanese had faced in their failed 1944 offensive in the opposite direction. He made the supply of his armies the central issue in the plan of the campaign. The Irrawaddy River was crossed (with the longest Bailey bridge in the world at the time—most of which had been transported by mule and air) and the city of Meiktila was taken, followed by Mandalay. The Allies had reached the open plains of central Burma, sallying out and breaking Japanese attacking forces in isolation, maintaining the initiative at all times, backed up by air-land co-operation including resupply by air and close air support, performed by both RAF and USAAF units.

In combination with these attacks, Force 136 helped initiate a countrywide uprising of the Burmese people against the Japanese. In addition to fighting the allied advance south, the Japanese were faced with heavy attacks from behind their own lines. Toward the end of the campaign, the army raced south to capture Rangoon before the start of the monsoon. It was considered necessary to capture the port because of the length of the supply lines overland from India and the impossibility of supply by air or land during the monsoon. Rangoon was eventually taken by a combined attack from the land (Slim's army), the air (parachute operations south of the city) and a seaborne invasion. Also assisting in the capture of Rangoon was the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League lead by Thakin Soe with Aung San, the future Prime Minister of Burma and father of Aung San Suu Kyi, as one of its military commanders.

After the war Slim became commander of Allied Land Forces in South-East Asia. In 1948 he returned to England where he became head of the Imperial Defence College and then Chief of the Imperial General Staff (the first Indian Army officer to be so appointed). In 1953 he was promoted field marshal, and accepted the post of Governor-General of Australia, without retiring from the Army.

Slim was a popular choice since he was an authentic war hero who had fought alongside Australians at Gallipoli and in the Middle East. In 1954 he was able to welcome Queen Elizabeth II on the first visit by a reigning monarch to Australia. Slim's duties as Governor-General were entirely ceremonial and there were no controversies during his term. The Liberal leader Robert Menzies held office throughout Slim's time in Australia.

In 1959 Slim retired and returned to Britain, where he published his memoirs, Unofficial History and Defeat Into Victory. In 1960 he was created 1st Viscount Slim, of Yarralumla and Bishopston. After a successful further career on the boards of major UK companies he was appointed Constable and Governor of Windsor Castle. He died in London on 14 December 1970.

He was given a full military funeral at St. George's Chapel, Windsor and was afterward cremated. A remembrance plaque was placed in the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral. A statue of Slim was placed at Whitehall in 1990.

He was awarded the Military Cross, 1916; DSO, 1941; CBE, 1942; GBE, 1946; GCB, 1950; GCMG, 1952; and GCVO, 1954. He was knighted on the battlefield of Imphal (KCB), 1944, and created a Knight of the Garter and Viscount, 1960.

The road William Slim Drive, in the district of Belconnen, Canberra is named after him.

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (November 2007)

Slim's achievements in taking over a defeated, dispirited and ethnically diverse army on the run and welding it into a cohesive whole that fought and defeated the Japanese in their natural environment are often overlooked. He achieved this remarkable transformation mainly through personal example and his consummate skill as a communicator.

As a British commander on the Asian mainland, Slim's indirect but enormous contribution to the U.S. war effort in the Pacific has been much undervalued. For three years, Slim's soldiers tied down tens of thousands of Japanese troops in Burma that could have been otherwise redeployed against U.S. forces in New Guinea, the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa.

The spirit of comradeship Slim created within 14th Army lived on after the war in the Burma Star Association, at whose meetings Slim was a frequent and honoured guest.

A statue to Slim is on Whitehall, outside the Ministry of Defence. This was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II in 1990. The statue was designed by Ivor Roberts-Jones. The statue is one of three of British Second World War Field Marshals (the others being Alanbrooke and Montgomery). Fittingly, Slim is the only one shown in a 'service' pose with the pockets of his jungle uniform bulging and a pistol worn on his belt. The fact that he appears to be watching the comings and goings at 10 Downing Street is presumably mere coincidence.

Several critics^{[attribution needed]} have noted that his wartime memoirs (Defeat into Victory) seem to be far more candid about his own mistakes (and offer far fewer excuses) than those of most Allied generals, and discuss in fine detail the lessons that he learned from those mistakes. With the sole and notable exception of Orde Wingate, Slim also goes out of his way to praise other senior officers, even explaining away some common critiques of their actions. Additionally, his memoirs not only avoid placing any blame for a defeat on the front-line soldiers, but he goes out the way to constantly praise the skill, endurance, loyalty and accomplishments of his men, be they British, Indian, Gurkha, African or Chinese.

Slim's papers were collected by his biographer, Ronald Lewin, and given to the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge by Slim's wife, Aileen, Viscountess Slim, and son, John Slim, 2nd Viscount Slim, and other donors, 1977-2001.

• "Defeat into Victory" by Field Marshal Sir William Slim; NY: Buccaneer Books ISBN 1-56849-077-1, Cooper Square Press ISBN 0-8154-1022-0; London: Cassell ISBN 0-304-29114-5, Pan ISBN 0-330-39066-X.
• Early in his career, the Viscount wrote short fiction under the alias of "Anthony Mills".
• Other publications include "Courage and Other Broadcasts" (1957); and "Unofficial History" (1959).

• Churchill's Generals, edited by John Keegan, Grove Weidenfeld Press, New York, 1991.
• Slim - The Standardbearer, Ronald Lewin, Leo Cooper Ltd, London, 1976.
• Burma: The Forgotten War, Jon Latimer, John Murray, London, 2004.
• Slim, Master of War: Burma and the Birth of Modern Warfare, Robert Lyman, Constable and Robinson, London, 2004.
• Slim, War Leader, Mike Calvert, London, 1973 (ISBN 0345097882)
• The British Field Marshals 1736-1997, Tony Heathcote, Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 1999, ISBN 0-85052-696-5

Military offices
Preceded by The Viscount Montgomery of Alamein	Chief of the Imperial General Staff 1948–1952	Succeeded by Sir John Harding
Government offices
Preceded by Sir William McKell	Governor-General of Australia 1953–1960	Succeeded by The Viscount Dunrossil
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New title	Viscount Slim 1960–1970	Succeeded by John Slim
Honorary titles
Preceded by Post Vacant Last held by The Earl of Athlone in 1957	Constable and Governor of Windsor Castle 1964–1970	Succeeded by The Lord Elworthy

v • d • e Chiefs of the Imperial General Staff

Sir William Nicholson • Sir John French • Sir Charles Douglas • Sir James Murray • Sir Archibald Murray • Sir William Robertson • Sir Henry Wilson • Lord Cavan • Sir George Milne • Sir Archibald Montgomery-Massingberd • Sir Cyril Deverell • Lord Gort • Sir Edmund Ironside • Sir John Dill • Sir Alan Brooke • Viscount Montgomery • Sir William Slim • Sir John Harding • Sir Gerald Templer • Sir Francis Festing • Sir Richard Hull

v • d • e Governors-General of Australia
Hopetoun · Tennyson · Northcote · Dudley · Denman · Munro-Ferguson · Forster · Stonehaven · Isaacs · Gowrie · Gloucester · McKell · Slim · Dunrossil · De L'Isle · Casey · Hasluck · Kerr · Cowen · Stephen · Hayden · Deane · Hollingworth · Jeffery