HIGH COMMAND: E Pluribus Unum

That good, hard face, with its deep lines and its one eye blank, was back in people's minds again. General Sir Archibald Wavell, for better or for worse the most famous Allied commander in the whole war, was to take up a post difficult in more than one sense: Supreme Commander of all forces—sea, land and air—of all nations fighting the Japanese in the southwest Pacific area.

The armchair strategists might debate until their rockers broke about the subtle pros & cons of Sir Archibald's generalship in the Middle East last year: whether...