Word: jumbos
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Lifted Eyebrows. "Jumbo" Wilson's appointment to the job late in December had caused some eyebrow-lifting in British military circles. His most recent campaign as Middle East commander, the attack on the Aegean Islands of Cos, Samos and Leros had been a fiasco. Troops had been pushed within easy reach of German land-based air power; communications were so badly organized that landing parties had trouble contacting headquarters at Cairo 500 miles away; equipment was rusty and inadequate. Some wit rose to the occasion by dubbing Jumbo "The Wizard of Cos." Another commented that the Russians shoot generals...
...Even Jumbo himself had equably admitted that he seemed fated "to bolster up lost causes." Most thoroughly lost was his expedition to Greece in 1941, with 60,000 troops to meet a German invading force three or four times as strong...
Wilson had a brilliant record as field commander under General Wavell in Libya. He knew the Mediterranean area; he knew tactics and supply. He had qualities of calmness and diplomatic finesse which could be extremely useful at headquarters in Algiers. Thus Jumbo Wilson, at 62, when most British generals would be going on the shelf, got his biggest command...
...Eton, already a hulking, good-natured youngster, he got the inevitable nickname of "Jumbo." Elephants have since become a matter of fascination to him. His children remember that on trips to the zoo he could watch the elephants all day. He admires elephant-foot carpets, likes little ivory jumbos on his desk. Some friends think he has taken on elephant characteristics, among them a stupendous memory. For his headquarters when he commanded Britain's PAI force (Persia & Iraq) he designed an emblem with a rampaging elephant, trunk uplifted...
...Stone Wall. The invaders had not stood idle. But if the concept of their commanders, ranging down from Sir Henry Maitland ("Jumbo") Wilson and Sir Harold R. L. G. Alexander, had called for a quick penetration of German rear areas from Nettuno, then they had failed...