Publisher's Synopsis
A.P. Wavell's two-volume biography of Allenby recounts the study of a remarkable and innovative soldier. Commencing with Allenby's formative years in the South African campaigns alongside such contemporaries as Haig, Smith-Dorrien, Plumer, Rawlinson and Gough, Wavell moves on in "Allenby: A Study in Greatness" to analyze his subject's role as a Commander of the Third Army in France, where he became known as the "last Cavalry General". Allenby, however, was always prepared to accommodate new ideas and it was partly this adaptability which led to his transfer to the Egyptian command in 1971. It was in this theatre of operations that he planned and saw through his brilliant campaigns in Palestine and Syria upon which his fame as a soldier rests.;Volume II, "Allenby in Egypt" deals with the aftermath of the Palestine victories and Allenby's six troubled years as Special High Commissioner for Egypt. Faced with a breakdown of law and order, Allenby strove to restore calm and handle the question of Egyptian nationalism through a deliberate policy of consultation rather than confrontation. For this he won the respect and trust of the Egyptians, but persistent hostility from the British Government. Ultimately, however, he laid the foundations for Egypt's relatively peaceful move to independence from Britain.
