Field Marshal Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis (1891-1969). He commanded at Dunkirk, where he was the last to leave French shores, and in Burma (1942). He was appointed commander in chief in the Middle East and his forces defeated those of the Axis in Egypt, Libya and Tunis (1943) and then in Italy (1944). At the end of the war he was Allied Supreme Commander in the Mediterranean and was subsequently Governor General of Canada (1946-52).
Anecdotes
General (later Field Marshal) Alexander had quite a unique qualification amongst the Allied Commanders in World War II. He was probably the only Allied Commander to have commanded German troops in War. In 1919, as an Acting Lieutenant-Colonel he had been sent to Latvia to command a Battalion fighting the Bolsheviks. Most of the men in this Battalion were Germans.
Alexander had a most remarkable talent for impressing even the most Anglophobic of the American Generals during World Wat II. Not only did his military skills win over both Eisenhower and Patton, but ever the crochety old 'Brit-Hater' Stilwell was once heard to exclaim "I like him-He calls me Joe".
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