While not a name that comes instantly to mind to those outside of Australia, Lieutenant General Sir Leslie James Morshead (Ming the Merciless) was the General who held North Africa together in those early days of 1941 by denying Rommel the port of Tobruk for eight months. Morshead was a teacher when WW1 broke out and eventually took over the 33rd battalion which was part of the 3rd Division and therefore developed under the eye of Sir John Monash. A successful leader in the battles of Messines (June 1917) and Passchendaele (October) in Belgium, and Villers Bretonneux (April 1918) and Amiens (August) in France, Morshead was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (1917) and mentioned in dispatches five times; in 1919 he was appointed C.M.G. and to the French Légion d'honneur. Morshead and the Australian 9th Division played a pivotal role in the El Alamein battles which saw the beginning of the end of the Afrika Corps. Morshead was very protective of his troops and there are many accounts of him standing up to his superiors if he thought such orders were detrimental to the outcome of the operation. Of middle height, trim in build, and dark haired, Morshead was vigorous and resolute. His insistence on discipline and hard work brought him the nickname, 'Ming the Merciless', which in time became 'Ming'. While it was rare for him to remove an officer, he could be hard and unforgiving. He had a capacity for dealing bluntly with senior officers. On one occasion he tackled Neame about the anti-Australian tone of a letter on the behaviour of Australian soldiers in Cyrenaica. When he met General Sir Archibald (Earl) Wavell, the commander-in-chief, Morshead spoke frankly about the dangerous position allotted to his leading brigade and suggested moving back to a defensible position east of Benghazi. Wavell ordered Neame to make the change. During the withdrawal to Tobruk in April 1941, Morshead was the only general officer of Cyrenaica Command to avoid capture. That his division reached Tobruk almost exhausted but still an organized force and eager 'to have a go', was a commendable performance. Initially, he came under the command of Major General Sir John Lavarack. Morshead's task was to hold the perimeter defences which he had inspected closely in January. 'There'll be no Dunkirk here', he told his principal officers, 'There is to be no surrender and no retreat'. He also issued instructions that, if German tanks penetrated the perimeter, the infantry should not engage them but deal with enemy infantry following the tanks which would be stopped by his own artillery. These tactics, new to the Germans, led to the failure of their assault on 14 April. That day Morshead succeeded Lavarack as commander of the fortress at Tobruk. He maintained an aggressive defence, based on ceaseless patrolling and—in the early days—frequent raids, and made it clear to all that 'we should make no-man's land our land'. Whenever the enemy gained ground, he refused to leave it in their hands. His policy sometimes proved costly and was disliked at brigade and unit level. Morshead had to fight for essential equipment and transport, and to resist the penchant of senior British officers for breaking up divisions. In a famous confrontation with General Sir Claude Auchinleck in early July, Morshead flatly refused to give him one of his brigade groups. Only when it was agreed that the entire 9th Division would move to El Alamein under his command would Morshead permit the temporary detachment of a single brigade group. He closely watched how the British prepared to use that brigade in operations and remonstrated with Auchinleck about its lack of artillery protection. On 15 July, when he learned that his 20th Brigade had been moved without any reference to him, Morshead protested vehemently to Auchinleck who agreed to its return. July 1942 was a testing time for Morshead and his men who in three searing weeks tasted everything from triumph on the 10th to disaster on the 27th when the whole 2nd/28th Battalion was lost. Nevertheless, the spirit of the division was strong, and there was a growing trust between the troops and their commander. Morshead was critical of Auchinleck and his staff, and, like all the infantrymen, had a deep distrust of the armoured regiments and brigades. After the initial assault, Morshead's series of attacks northwards threatened to cut off and destroy a German division. This pressure drew upon the 9th Division almost the whole Afrika Korps, thus helping to create a situation favourable to Lieutenant General (Sir) Bernard (Viscount) Montgomery's final thrust. Montgomery visited Morshead on 4 November to congratulate him. Morshead was appointed K.C.B. a few weeks later. Like Monash, Morshead drove 'his troops to the extreme limit of their endurance'. His own practical, undramatic outlook was revealed at his conference after the battle when he urged his commanders not to forget 'to say a good word to the cooks'. To a corps commander's congratulations, he replied: 'Thank you, General. The boys were interested'. In February 1943 Morshead and the 9th Division came home. Next month he was appointed commander of II Corps and went to New Guinea. Read about his life and career here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Morshead
