In April 1941, he was temporarily appointed Brigadier General Staff (BGS) and watched from a distance while Erwin Rommel won back all the territory that O'Connor had gained and the Allied forces were pushed out of the Balkans and Greece. He conveyed several messages to Major-General Bernard Freyberg who was preparing the defence of Crete. His temporary appointment ended at the end of May and he again returned to the Staff College, Haifa. When the news arrived that Wavell was going to be replaced by Auchinleck as C-in-C in the Middle East 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. By December, he had decided to resign from the army. Despite this, Dorman-Smith accepted an offer from Auchinleck, to be appointed British Army liaison officer for Persia and Iraq – even though he realised it was a largely meaningless sinecure. In February 1942, Auchinleck sent him to assess the condition of the Eighth Army, commanded by Lieutenant-General Neil Ritchie. Dorman-Smith's conclusion, following wide consultations, was that Ritchie was an excellent staff officer, but unsuited to his post and should be replaced. Auchinleck took no action upon this. After a few more unproductive months – during which Dorman-Smith offered his resignation, which was rejected by Auchinleck – he worked on a proposal for a Higher Command School with Field Marshal Jan 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. "Chink" accepted the latter and was promoted to acting major-general on 16 June.