Bernard Montgomery, Great Britain’s most influential field commander in World War II, played an important role in the Allied victory in North Africa and Europe. He produced the first victories over the Germans and played an important role in the Allied operations that ultimately crushed the Nazis and ended World War II in Europe. Arrogant, rude, vain, and usually unimaginative, Montgomery nevertheless possessed an ability to motivate his soldiers to consistendy achieve victory. Two years after his birth, in London, on November 17, 1887, Montgomery moved to Tasmania with his father, who had been consecrated bishop of the island. Montgomery later described his childhood as an unhappy one and apparendy saw the military as an escape. After four years at St. Paul’s, he entered Sandhurst in 1907. In the summer of 1908, Montgomery earned his commission despite* almost being expelled for bullying other cadets.
Although Montgomery neither smoked nor drank, his violent temper more than made up for his lack of other vices. At Mont¬gomery’s first posting in India, he and fellow officers smashed up the Bombay Yacht Club in a wild melee. Unlike the other officers, who were extremely drunk, the teetotaler Montgomery apparendy joined in the violence stricdy for the enjoyment of it.
With the outbreak of World War I, Montgomery began to es¬tablish his reputation for frondine bravery and excellent staff work. In the bloody trenches of France, he learned lessons that guided his subsequent commands. Only three days after his unites arrival in France, on August 23, 1914, Montgomery, with litde time to plan or prepare, led his platoon against the Germans at Le Cateau. In the confusing batde Montgomery lost many of his men and was himself listed as missing for several days.
On October 13, 1914, Montgomery, twenty-six, suffered severe wounds while leading an attack at the first Batde of Ypres, his valor earning him the Distinguished Service Order and promotion to captain. After recovering from his wounds in England, Mont¬gomery returned to France as a staff officer in the 104th Brigade and took part in the carnage at the Batde of the Somme from June 24 to November 13, 1915. For the remainder of World War I, Montgomery served in staff positions of increasing responsibility. By the end of the conflict, he had reached the grade of lieutenant colonel and earned a well-deserved reputation as an outstanding combat leader and stMf officer.
During the postwar period Montgomery pursued a routine ca¬reer of schooling assignments and postings to Ireland and Pales¬tine. At the outbreak of World War II, Montgomery, having risen to major general in command of a division, landed in France on September 30, 1939. Montgomery’s division defended Louvain, Belgium, against the advancing Germans before falling back in the general Allied retreat. At Dunkirk, Montgomery prevented the Germans from flanking the beachhead and commanded the rear guard during the evacuation. Montgomery returned to England and advanced in rank to general. His opportunity to achieve greatness came in August 1942, when the officer chosen to command British troops in North Africa was killed in an airplane crash and Montgomery was selected as his replacement. In Egypt, Montgomery assumed command of the Eighth Army, which was suffering extreme morale problems because of repetitive batde losses to the Afrika Korps, led by Erwin Rommel [79].
Montgomery immediately set about increasing the confidence of his army and adding reinforcements of men, tanks, and artillery pieces. In the Batde of Alam Haifa on August 31-September 2,1942, the British stopped Rommel’s advance. A month later, Montgomery, after amassing a superior number of men and weapons, began a deliberate counteroffensive. Taking advantage of his numbers and the German logistic problems, Montgomery defeated Rommel at El Alamein on October 23, killing or capturing fifty-nine thousand men and destroying more than five hundred German tanks. Montgomery followed the victory with a cautious offensive that gained him criticism from those wanting more aggressiveness. Nevertheless, Montgomery joined up with U.S. forces advancing from the west on May 12, 1943, ending all Axis resistance in North Africa.
North Africa was the high point of Montgomery’s career, but more success awaited him. His future commands, however, were under the Americans, whom he believed were inferior, and he did litde to mask his contempt for them. Despite his rudeness to his U.S. commanders,’ Montgomery performed well in the Allied invasion of Sicily on July 19, 1943. After securing his portion of the island, Montgomery returned to England to assist in planning the Normandy invasion, in which he initially commanded all ground forces—forty-five divisions composed of 1 million men.
Montgomery’s slowness in breaking out of the Normandy beachhead and capturing the key town of Caen, combined with his continued disagreements with Allied Expeditionary Force commander Dwight David Eisenhower [18], resulted in the American commander’s assuming direct command of the ground troops and placing Montgomery in a subordinate role, on an equal level with Omar Nelson Bradley [46]. Montgomery remained as rude and temperamental as ever but still significandy contributed to the Allied liberation of Paris.
Montgomery remained an advocate of a single thrust into Germany, while Eisenhower supported a broad front offensive. Now a field marshal, Montgomery proposed an airborne attack against the Netherlands to secure a bridge across the Rhine River for follow-on armored units to push into the German heardand. The risky plan differed gready from the usually caudous Montgomery operations, causing speculation about his motives.
Whether he wanted to lead the first land offensive into Germany or simply relished having two additional U.S. divisions assigned to his command, in the end it did not matter, for Operation Market Garden proved a failure. Poor intelligence failed to reveal the large number of German defenders who killed or captured many of Montgomery’s force.
Montgomery somewhat vindicated his poor performance in the Netherlands by defending the northern portion of the German Ardennes offensive in December 1944. However, his comments about the poor fighting ability of the Americans during the Batde of the Bulge did not endear him with U.S. commanders.
During the final days of the war, Montgomery led British forces in a series of successful, well-planned campaigns that captured the Netherlands, Denmark, and northern Germany. He accepted the overall surrender of the German forces in the region on May 4, 1945, at Luneburg Heath, near the Baltic Sea.
Montgomery remained in Germany after the war as the commander of British occupation units. He commanded NATO forces from 1951 until his retirement in 1958. Montgomery died at his home near Alton on March 25, 1976, at age eighty-eight.
Much of Montgomery’s caution and apparent reluctance to advance until all preparations were in order are attributable to his World War I experience. His concern for the welfare of his men made him popular within the ranks, while his demands on, and frequent firing of, subordinate commanders alienated him from his fellow officers. Americans and other Allies resented his elitist attitude and rudeness. However, the best judge of his influence may be Winston Churchill: “Before Alamein, we never had a victory. After Alamein, we never had a defeat.”
Overall, Montgomery, the British master of armor and maneuver, ranks in importance somewhat below George Catlett Marshall [16], Eisenhower, Alan Francis Brooke, and Bradley because of their larger, more important commands. But he ranks above George S. Patton, whose temperamental, erratic behavior exceeded his combat capabilities. While several of his German counterparts, such as Rommel and Heinz Guderian, equaled or exceeded Montgomery on the batdefield, the ultimate Allied victory earns him a higher position dian they on this list.