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XV. GENERAL REMARKS.
49. This despatch marks the end of my .active military career. During the present war, in just under four years, from September, 1939, to June, 1943, I have directed some fourteen campaigns; in the Western Desert of North Africa, in British Somahland, in Eritrea, in Italian Somahland, in Abyssinia, in Greece, in Crete, in Iraq, in Syria, in Iran, in Malaya, in the Dutch East Indies, in Burma, in Arakan. Some have been successful, others have failed.
I should like to express my admiration for the general strategy of the War Cabinet and for the bold and imaginative use made of our limited resources during these first four years, of war. I have always been placed during these years at the far end of the Supply line, and have always been short of troops and equipment and air forces for the tasks I have had to undertake; but I have always been conscious that everything possible was being done to support me, that my lack of resources was due to a general shortage, that my difficulties were sympathetically understood and that I was being given all possible help and encouragement. For this I am most grateful.
50. I regret to have one exception to make. During the operations recorded in this despatch I received neither encouragement nor help nor understanding of the difficulties, only criticism for the failure of a bold attempt to engage the enemy with inadequate resources, in hazardous circumstances.
That my plans were not unsound is, I think, shown by the fact that the plans adopted by the South-East Asia Command for the winter 1943-44 have been practically the same as those I laid down for the previous winter; and that the Long Range Penetration Groups which were initiated by Major-General Wingate under my direction have been adopted and extended as a result of the experience I originated. That I had considerable difficulties to encounter is shown by the fact that in spite of greatly increased resources and another year's training and experience, progress in Burma in the campaigning season of 1943-44 has been little, if any, greater than in the corresponding period of 1942-43.
A glance at a map will give some idea of the distances involved in operations from India, and therefore of the magnitude of the administrative problem.
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