COMPETITION - Greatest Commanders : Bill Slim

[Ageing_Gracefully]

This next competition is for the book from Osprey Publications in their Greatest Commanders series and deals with probably Britain’s best General of the 20th Century – Field Marshall Bill Slim.

​

This is your chance to get a copy of this book about the great man, a review of which has been done by OldSnowy and can be found here : Bill Slim. To enter this competition all you have to do is go to the entry form and complete the three simple questions correctly along with your contact details and you will have the chance to win a copy of this book. 5 copies are up for grabs as prizes courtesy of Osprey Publications.

The competition will last until I get round to closing it sometime on Sunday 17th September.

 

[Ageing_Gracefully]

This comp has been running for a week now and has a good number of entries. Still room for more though.

If you are going to take part, read the question and when you go to look at Google for the answers, just remember that wikipedia is not the most complete or accurate of sources!!! There are going to be a few disappointed people who read wikipedia, but did not notice the obvious gap in his early career.

Over to you lot.

p.s. Rule 1 [as amended for Rum Ration] will be in operation during this (and any other) competition!

 

[Ageing_Gracefully]

Last bump - closes tonight.

There was a bit of discussion over on ARRSE about multiple entries - are they allowed, especially if realisation dawns that one has answered incorrectly? Well here is the response I gave to ARRSE:

I don't see why not, its a free competition after all.

If I said no then people could just log in using a different username (not that any ARRSER would do that though!).

If anyone has major issues with that please say so - with reasons.

What I will say is that people will only be able to win one prize in each competition.

Now this came about when I pointed out that wiki does not necessarily hold all the information and is sometimes not as accurate or full as one would want!!

If you wish to re-visit your answer and try again, please do so.

 

[wet_blobby]

Done. Top General that Slim, better than Monty.

 

[Ageing_Gracefully]

Q1 Bill Slim was commissioned in 1914 into which Regiment?

A = 6th Foot – Royal Warwickshire Regiment. At the time of Slim’s commission 22nd Foot were the Cheshires and 24th were the South Wales Borders.

Q2 – Bill Slim was not always the perfect soldier. How many times was he ‘bust’ (demoted)?

A = Wiki does not mention this but neither does it mention much about his pre commission service. As FM Slim has stated himself that he had lead every formation from section to army during his career it is safe to assume that he had some non-commissioned service i.e. his OTC. This story from Burma Star page;

He began at the bottom of the ladder as a Territorial private. August 4, 1914, found him at Summer camp with his regiment. The Territorials were at once embodied in the Regular Army, and Slim got his first stripe as lance-corporal. A few weeks later he was a private again, the only demotion that this Lieutenant-General has suffered.

It was a sweltering, dusty day and the regiment plodded on its twenty-mile route march down an endless Yorkshire lane. At that time British troops still marched in fours, so that Lance-Corporal Slim, as he swung along by the side of his men, made the fifth in the file, which brought him very close to the roadside. There were cottages there and an old lady stood at the garden gate.

"I can see her yet," Slim reminisces. "she was a beautiful old lady with her hair neatly parted in the middle and wearing a black print dress. In her hand she held a beautiful jug, and on the top of that jug was a beautiful foam, indicating that it contained beer. She was offering it to the soldier boys."
The Lance-Corporal took one pace to the side and grasped the jug. As he did, the column was halted with a roar. The Colonel, who rode a horse at its head, had glanced back. Slim was hailed before him and "busted" on the spot. The Colonel bellowed "Had we been in France you would have been shot." Slim confides, "I thought he was a damned old fool - and he was. I lost my stripe, but he lost his army." In truth he did, in France in March 1918. Bill soon got his stripe back.

Now in this corner of Palel Plain, one of India’s bloodiest battlefields and the scene of one of his greatest victories, Slim tells the officers and men of the 11th Division, "I have commanded every kind of formation from a section upwards to this army, which happens to be the largest single one in the world." (At that time, Slim had under his command half a million troops.) "I tell you this simply that you shall realize I know what I am talking about. I understand the British soldier because I have been one, and I have learned about the Japanese soldier because I have been beaten by him. I have been kicked by this enemy in the place where it hurts, and all the way from Rangoon to India where I had to dust-off my pants. Now, gentlemen, we are kicking our Japanese neighbors back to Rangoon."

So, using Bill’s own words and this story from Burma Star page the answer is “One Time”

Q3 - William Slim is well known as a soldier and General. However he did have other jobs; but which of these jobs did he NOT do?
A = Postman

 

[Ageing_Gracefully]

And the winners are: dah, dah

regular_imbiber
dterp
piran
HappyNomad
Queensman​

I will be in touch with the winners through the contact email addresses given for their names and addresses - a quick response would be welcomed!