Alfred Reade Godwin - Austen General Sir Alfred Reade Godwin - Austen KCSI , CB , OBE , MC ( 1889 – 1963 ) was a British Army officer . He served during the First and Second World War s . Early life . The second son of Lieutenant - Colonel A . G . Godwin - Austen , late the 24th and 89th , Godwin - Austen was educated at St Lawrence College , Ramsgate and the Royal Military College Sandhurst . He was a great - grandson of Major General Sir Henry Godwin ( 1784 – 1853 ) , who commanded the British and Indian forces in the First and Second Anglo - Burmese War s . His uncle was Henry Haversham Godwin - Austen , who gave his name to the second highest mountain in the Karakoram range ; this mountain is now better known by the more pithy and more diplomatically neutral title : K2 . Army career . Godwin - Austen was commissioned into the South Wales Borderers in 1909 and during his service in the First World War was awarded the Military Cross . On the outbreak of the Second World War Godwin - Austen had just been promoted major - general to command 8th Infantry Division , responsible for internal security in the British Mandate of Palestine . After the division was disbanded in February 1940 he was nominated in July to command 2nd ( African ) Division which was forming in Kenya . Before taking up his command , however , he was sent in mid - August 1940 after the Italian Invasion of British Somaliland to take command of the British forces there . His actions allowed almost the entire Commonwealth contingent to withdraw to Berbera . From there , it was successfully evacuated to Aden . Commonwealth losses in the short campaign are estimated to have been exceedingly light , about 260 ( 38 killed , 102 wounded and 120 missing ) . The British Prime Minister , Winston Churchill , stung by the loss to British prestige , criticized General Archibald Wavell concerning the loss of British Somaliland . It was Wavell ' s Middle East Command which was responsible for the loss of the colony . Because of the low casualty rate , Churchill fretted that the British had abandoned the colony without enough of a fight . He demanded the suspension of Godwin - Austen and the convening of a court of inquiry . In response to this criticism , Wavell claimed that Somaliland was a textbook withdrawal in the face of superior numbers . He pointed out to Churchill that " A bloody butcher ' s bill is not the sign of a good tactician " . According to Churchill ' s staff , Wavell ' s retort moved Churchill to greater fury than they had ever seen before . Wavell refused to accede to Churchill ' s demand and Godwin - Austen moved on to take command of his division in Kenya on 12 September . However , Churchill was to retain his grudge towards him . During the East African Campaign he led the 2nd ( African ) Division ( renamed 12th ( African ) Division ) as part of East Africa Force , commanded by Lieutenant - General Alan Cunningham , in its advance from Kenya into Italian East Africa . His division advanced into Italian Somaliland on 11 February and by late February had scored an emphatic victory over Italian forces at Gelib . Once Mogadishu had been taken , Cunningham swung his force inland across the Ogaden desert and into Ethiopia , entering the capital , Addis Ababa on 6 April . At the end of the campaign he was promoted to his last fighting command , leading the Western Desert Force ( which became XIII Corps ) in the Western Desert Campaign in North Africa . During Operation " Crusader " he was vociferous in his opposition to the suggestion of Alan Cunningham , by now commanding Eighth Army and so once more his direct superior , that they should abandon the offensive after the setback of Rommel ' s " dash to the wire " . The C - in - C Middle East , by then Claude Auchinleck , chose to continue the offensive and Operation " Crusader " went on to relieve the siege of Tobruk and push the Axis forces back to El Agheila while Cunningham was relieved of his command . When Rommel counterattacked in January 1942 the Allies were forced to retreat in some confusion . Godwin - Austen , seeing that one of his divisions , Indian 4th Infantry Division was under threat , after consulting with Cunningham ' s successor , Neil Ritchie , ordered them to withdraw . However , Ritchie changed his mind and issued a countermand directly to the division ' s commander Francis Tuker . Feeling that Ritchie had by this action displayed a lack of confidence in him , he tendered his resignation to Auchinleck , which was reluctantly accepted . Tuker was later to write In spite of support from the Chief of the Imperial General Staff , General Sir Alan Brooke , and Sir James Grigg , the Secretary of State for War , Churchill was adamant that Godwin - Austen should not receive a new posting . Churchill relented in November after the intervention of the South African Field Marshal Jan Smuts and Godwin - Austen was appointed Director of Tactical Investigation at the War Office . He subsequently became Vice Quartermaster - General at the War Office and , as the war ended , the Quartermaster - General and then Principal Administrative Officer in India , reporting to the C - in - C Claude Auchinleck . He was knighted in 1946 and retired in 1947 having achieved the rank of General . References .