In July 1940, he was appointed acting lieutenant-general, placed in command of V Corps, responsible for the defence of Hampshire and Dorset, and started a long-running feud with the new commander-in-chief, Southern Command, Claude Auchinleck.

General Sir Claude Auchinleck stated that, but for Ultra-" Rommel would have certainly got through to Cairo ".

Auchinleck had planned a second delaying position at Fuka, some east of Matruh, and at 21: 20 he issued the orders for a withdrawal to Fuka.

Auchinleck ’ s plan was for Indian Infantry 161st Brigade to attack along Ruweisat ridge to take Deir el Shein, while the New Zealand 6th Brigade attacked from south of the ridge to the El Mreir depression.

He was mentioned once more for his service during the Second Mohmand Campaign in Mohamad Province from August to October of the same year, serving under Brigadier Claude Auchinleck.

However, following a visit in early August to Egypt by British prime minister Winston Churchill and the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, General Alan Brooke, Alexander flew to Cairo on 8 August to replace Claude Auchinleck as the Commander-in-Chief of Middle East Command, the post responsible for the overall conduct of the campaign in the desert of North Africa.

He is noted for rescuing of the Auchinleck manuscript in 1740 from a professor of the University of Aberdeen who was in the process of destroying it.

He had a meeting with Auchinleck and was appointed Liaison Officer for Persia and Iraq.

After a few more unproductive months in which he again offered his resignation-which Auchinleck tore up-and he worked on a proposal for a Higher Command School with Smuts, he was offered, on 8 May, a choice of major-general positions: an unspecified role under Wavell in India or Deputy Chief of the General Staff in Cairo.

Despite Montgomery's personal antipathy, it is interesting to note that the battle of Alam Halfa was fought on a plan very close to that conceived by Dorman-Smith for Auchinleck and that Montgomery made skilful use of the defensive system that Dorman-Smith had been instrumental in planning and laying-out.

" It should also be pointed out that Montgomery finally initiated battle at El Alamein at a later date than had previously been envisaged in the Auchinleck / Dorman-Smith plan, which was partly responsible for their dismissals.

Cumnock housed many miners, and also served as the market town for the other, smaller towns in the district, like Auchinleck, Ochiltree, Lugar, Muirkirk and New Cumnock ( the original Cumnock / Comenagh / Comno / etc.

Despite the lesser media coverage the Juniors get, many of the club sides are fairly popular, and some of the bigger games between clubs ( such as the local derbies between Arthurlie and Pollok, and Cumnock Juniors vs. Auchinleck Talbot ) can attract attendances in the thousands, although crowds were far bigger in the past ( 76, 000 for the Junior Cup Final in 1951, with nearly 90, 000 watching the semi finals ( including a replay )) compared to the level of support attracted now.

He was criticised for his " cavalry " approach to armoured warfare and Eighth Army commander Claude Auchinleck replaced him in July.

On November 15, Auchinleck handed over responsibility for the conduct of operations against the Japanese in the theatre to Mountbatten.

British Ultra had anticipated an Axis attack, and the former commander of the 8th Army — General Claude Auchinleck — set out the basic defensive plan but had included a number of contingency plans for defensive works around Alexandria and Cairo in case Axis armour broke through.

India Command, under General Auchinleck Commander-in-Chief, India, was responsible for the development of India as a base, for internal security in India and the defence of India's North West Frontier.

He is the author of The Desert Generals, a book that attacked the perceived cult of British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and assessed the roles of his sacked predecessors as commanders in the North Africa campaign, including Richard O ' Connor, who drove the Italians from Cyrenaica in late 1940, and Field-Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck ( whom he called " The Victor of Alamein "), who forced Rommel to a halt at the First Battle of El Alamein, only to be dismissed by Winston Churchill for his pains.

During the Second World War, the then Laird of Auchinleck gave permission for Officers from the armies of Poland, Canada and France to live in Auchinleck House.

In 1999 Auchinleck House was bought by the Landmark Trust, a building preservation charity whose aim it is to " rescue historic and architecturally interesting buildings and their surroundings from neglect and, when restored, to give them new life by letting them for holidays.

" Now restored, Auchinleck House is used for holiday lets, and is occasionally open to the public.

In August 1942, immediately after the Eighth Army had all but exhausted itself after First Alamein, Churchill flew to Cairo, purportedly for consultations with Auchinleck, but had in fact made up his mind before he left Britain.

In July 1931 he was appointed Brigade Major to 6th Experimental Brigade at Blackdown, under Archibald Wavell-along with Richard O ' Connor and Claude Auchinleck the most significant influences on his career and his most prominent supporters.

Not satisfied, Pienaar insisted on speaking to Auchinleck, who ordered that the Brigade hold its ground – but offered to relieve the Brigade within two days when the 9th Australian Division reached El Alamein.

Auchinleck — although believing he could stop Rommel at Alamein — felt he could not ignore the possibility that he might once more be outmanoeuvered or outfought.

Persia and Iraq were to be split from Middle East Command as a separate Persia and Iraq Command and Auchinleck offered the post of C-in-C ( which he refused ).

Overlying the Llandovery beds on the south coast are strips of Wenlock rocks ; they extend from Bridgehouse Bay to Auchinleck and are well exposed in Kirkcudbright Bay, and they can be traced farther round the coast between the granite and the younger rocks.

Churchill determined to relieve Wavell and after the failure in mid June of Operation Battleaxe, intended to relieve Tobruk, he told Wavell on 20 June that he was to be replaced by Auchinleck, whose attitude during the Iraq crisis had impressed him.

He informed Generals Blamey and Auchinleck that they should be relieved.

During the 1950s and 60s, when the Western desert campaigns began to be played out all over again in memoirs, biographies and history books, he maintained loyalty to those people in whom he had placed his trust-especially Sir Claude Auchinleck, whose reputation he was always eager to defend.

When the news arrived that Wavell was going to be replaced by Auchinleck in July, Dorman-Smith probably thought that he stood a chance of getting a permanent role closer to the action but no job offer was made.

His conclusion, which was shared by everyone he consulted, was that Ritchie should be replaced but Auchinleck took no action.

In addition, Brooke had spoken to his former protégé Ritchie and various other senior officers whom he knew personally from his days with the horse artillery and had come to the conclusion that Dorman-Smith was acting as an evil genius over Auchinleck: " I was beginning to be suspicious that " Chink Dorman-Smith, one of his staff officers, was beginning to exercise far too much influence on him ( Auchinleck ).

Pienaar's demands of the evening of 2 July shook the 8th Army command ’ s confidence in the morale of the Division and Auchinleck stated that the Division could no longer be exposed to " undue operational strain ," fearing that material losses to the Division, especially after the surrender of the 2nd SA Division at Tobruk, would lead to political disaster.

It is not known when Auchinleck Castle ceased to be inhabited.

The front of the Five Ways shopping centre will be reclad as will Auchinleck House.

Auchinleck was sacked by Churchill, almost certainly because he refused to be bullied by Churchill into ordering a major offensive before he and his troops were properly prepared.

High on one of these cliffs stand the ruins of Auchinleck Castle and beneath this can be found Wallace's Cave, where William Wallace hid from his pursuers.

On 25 June, General Claude Auchinleck — Commander-in-Chief ( C-in-C ) Middle East Command — relieved Ritchie and assumed direct command of Eighth Army himself.

This advice was not accepted by his superiors, and Auchinleck relieved him of his command.

The First Battle of El Alamein ( 1 – 27 July 1942 ) was a battle of the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War, fought between Axis forces ( Germany and Italy ) of the Panzer Army Africa ( Panzerarmee Afrika ) commanded by Field Marshal ( Generalfeldmarschall ) Erwin Rommel, and Allied ( specifically, British Imperial ) forces ( Britain, British India, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand ) of the British Eighth Army commanded by General Claude Auchinleck.

On crutches following a parachuting accident, he sneaked into Middle East headquarters in Cairo ( under, through or over a fence but spotted by guards ) in an effort to see Commander-in-Chief General Claude Auchinleck.

He himself was again replaced in his military post in June by Auchinleck, who by this point had also experienced setbacks in North Africa.

In August 1941 Archibald Wavell was replaced as C-in-C Middle East by Claude Auchinleck and the British and Commonwealth forces were reinforced to create in September 1941 the Eighth Army.

Arthurlie currently play in the West of Scotland Super Premier League where the team where handicapped in the 2005 – 06 season by an initial 12 point ban, inflicted by the Scottish Junior Football Association based on an alleged headbutt on referee John McKendrick in a match with Auchinleck Talbot in February 2005.

At the start of the season they were eliminated in the second round from the 2008 – 09 Scottish Cup by Edinburgh based East Of Scotland team Spartans F. C .. At the end of the season Pollok had a chance once again to retain their West Premier League championship but lost the last league game of the season away to Auchinleck Talbot by failing to defend a 1-0 lead in the last 8 minutes.

As the news spread Fourteenth Army fell into turmoil and Alan Brooke, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, furious at not having been consulted by Leese, and Claude Auchinleck, the C-in-C India who was at the time in London, brought pressure to bear.

On a subsequent visit to Auchinleck within her constituency, she was greeted by teenagers chanting, " Don't ban Buckie ".

Auchinleck deployed the 9th Australian Division to re-enforce the northern sector of the line held by the South Africans three days later.

Australia and India were threatened by the Japanese, we had temporarily lost control of the Indian Ocean, the Germans were threatening Iran and our oil, Auchinleck was in precarious straits in the desert, and the submarine sinkings were heavy.

The failure of this operation led to the replacement of British General Archibald Wavell, Commander-in-Chief of the Middle East, by Claude Auchinleck.

* " Operations in the Indo-Burma Theatre Based on India from 21 June 1943 to 15 November 1943 " official despatch by Field Marshal Sir Claude E. Auchinleck, War Office.

Giffard and General Claude Auchinleck, the Commander-in-Chief of the British Indian Army, also prepared to send the British 2nd Division and Indian XXXIII Corps HQ under Lieutenant General Montagu Stopford from reserve in southern and central India to Dimapur, by road and rail .< ref >

After Rommel ′ s failed attempt to break through during the First Battle of Alamein and the subsequent counters by Auchinleck ′ s 8th Army during July 1942, both sides were exhausted.