In 1940 Rupert Clarke, a young Irish Guards officer, was appointed an aide-de-camp to General Harold Alexander, the last senior British officer to leave the Dunkirk beaches. For the next four years Clarke saw a great deal of the Second World War as Alexander's constant companion and confidante. Because of Alexander's reputation for tact and coolness under fire, he was selected for some of the most difficult assignments of the war. Clarke was at Alexander's side as he directed the long fighting retreat of the British Army ...
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In 1940 Rupert Clarke, a young Irish Guards officer, was appointed an aide-de-camp to General Harold Alexander, the last senior British officer to leave the Dunkirk beaches. For the next four years Clarke saw a great deal of the Second World War as Alexander's constant companion and confidante. Because of Alexander's reputation for tact and coolness under fire, he was selected for some of the most difficult assignments of the war. Clarke was at Alexander's side as he directed the long fighting retreat of the British Army across Burma after the Japanese invasion. Subsequently assigned to the Middle East, Alexander was actually the supreme commander but chose to play a supporting role, as the brilliant but eccentric Montgomery conducted the actual battles. Clarke records many otherwise unknown incidents of the war, particularly interesting since Alexander, as theater commander in both North Africa and Italy, met frequently with Winston Churchill and other Allied leaders.
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