Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein

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Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, KG, GCB, DSO, PC (Template:Pron-en; 17 November 1887 – 24 March 1976), often referred to as "Monty", was a British Army officer. He successfully commanded Allied forces at the Battle of El Alamein, a major turning point in the Western Desert Campaign during World War II, and troops under his command played a major role in the expulsion of Axis forces from North Africa. He was later a prominent commander in Italy and North-West Europe, where he was in command of all Allied ground forces during Operation Overlord until after the Battle of Normandy, and was the principal commander for Operation Market Garden.

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Early life

Montgomery was born in Kennington, London in 1887, the fourth child of nine, to an Anglo-Irish Anglican priest, the Reverend Henry Hutchinson Montgomery and Maud Montgomery (née Farrar). Henry Montgomery, at the time the Vicar of St Mark's, Kennington, was the second son of the noted Indian administrator, Sir Robert Montgomery, who died a month after Bernard's birth.<ref></ref> Bernard's mother Maud was the daughter of the well-known preacher Frederic William Farrar, and was eighteen years younger than her husband.<ref>Hamilton, p. 3 (1981)</ref> After the death of Robert Montgomery, Henry inherited the Montgomery ancestral estate of New Park at Moville, County Donegal.

However, there was still £13,000 to pay on the mortgage, a large amount of money in the 1880s, and Henry was at the time still only a parish priest. Despite selling off farms at Ballynally, "there was barely enough to keep up New Park and pay for the summer holiday" (i.e., at New Park).<ref></ref> It was a financial relief that in 1889 Henry was made Bishop of Tasmania, then still a colony. He considered it his duty to spend as much time as possible in the outlying country of Tasmania and was away six months at a time. While he was away his wife, still in her mid-twenties, gave her children "constant" beatings,<ref>Hamilton, p. 31 (1981)</ref> then ignored them most of the time as she performed the public duties of the bishop's wife. Of his siblings, Sibyl would die prematurely in Tasmania, and Harold, Donald and Una would all emigrate.<ref>Hamilton, p. 5 (1981)</ref> In the absence of her husband, Maud Montgomery took little active interest in the education of her young children other than to have them taught by tutors brought across from England. The loveless environment made Bernard something of a bully, as he himself later recalled "I was a dreadful little boy. I don't suppose anybody would put up with my sort of behaviour these days."<ref>Chalfont, p. 29 (1976)</ref> Later in life Montgomery refused to allow his son David to have anything to do with his grandmother and he refused to attend her funeral in 1949.<ref>Bierman & Smith, p. 223 (2002)</ref>

The family returned home once for the Lambeth Conference in 1897, and Bernard and his brother Harold were educated for a term at The King's School, Canterbury.<ref>Hamilton, p. 36 (1981)</ref> In 1901, Bishop Montgomery became secretary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and the family returned to London. Montgomery went to St Paul's School and then the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, from which he was almost expelled for setting fire to a fellow cadet during a fight with pokers. On graduation he joined the 1st Battalion, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment in September 1908 as a second lieutenant,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> first seeing service in India until 1913. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1910.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>

First World War

The First World War began in August 1914 and Montgomery moved to France with his regiment that month. He saw service during the retreat from Mons, during which half his battalion was destroyed. At Méteren, near the Belgian border at Bailleul on 13 October 1914, during an Allied counter-offensive, he was shot through the right lung by a sniper and was injured seriously enough for his grave to be dug in preparation for his death. A Platoon sergeant came to assist him but was killed. He fell on Montgomery. The German sniper fired at him until sunset. The body of the sergeant protected Montgomery and took most of the enemy fire. Montgomery was hit once more though, in the knee.<ref>Bierman & Smith, p. 224 (2002)</ref> He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for gallant leadership. The citation for this award, published in the London Gazette in December 1914 reads:Template:Quote box

After recovering in early 1915, he was appointed to be brigade major<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> training Kitchener's New Army and returned to the Western Front in early 1916 as an operations staff officer during the battles of the Somme, Arras, and Passchendaele. During this time he came under IX Corps, part of General Sir Herbert Plumer's Second Army. Through his training, rehearsal, and integration of the infantry with artillery and engineers, the troops of Plumer's Second Army were able to achieve their objectives efficiently and without unnecessary casualties.

Montgomery served at the battles of the Lys and Chemin-des-Dames before finishing the war as General Staff Officer 1 and effectively chief of staff of the 47th (2nd London) Division, with the temporary rank of lieutenant-colonel.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> A photograph from October 1918 shows the then unknown Lt.-Col. Montgomery standing in front of Winston Churchill (Minister of Munitions) at the victory parade at Lille.

Between the wars

After the First World War Montgomery commanded 17th Battalion Royal Fusiliers,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> a battalion in the British Army of the Rhine, before reverting to his substantive rank of captain (brevet major) in November 1919.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> He wrote up his experiences in a series of training pamphlets and manuals. He then attended the army's Staff College, Camberley, before being appointed Brigade Major in the 17th Infantry Brigade in January 1921.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> The brigade was stationed in County Cork during the Irish War of Independence. A cousin of Montgomery's, Lt Col. Hugh Montgomery, had been assassinated by the IRA in 1920 (see the Cairo Gang). IRA officer Tom Barry said that he "behaved with great correctness".Template:Citation needed Montgomery came to the conclusion that the conflict could not be won without harsh measures, and that self-government was the only feasible solution; in 1923, after the establishment of the Irish Free State and during the Irish Civil War, Montgomery wrote to Colonel Arthur Percival of the Essex Regiment: Template:Blockquote

In 1923, Montgomery was posted to the Territorial 49th Division, eschewing the usual amounts of drill for tactical trainingTemplate:Citation needed. He returned to the 1st Royal Warwickshires in 1925 as a company commander and captain. In January 1926 having been promoted to major in 1925,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> he was appointed D.A.A.G. at the Staff College, Camberley in the temporary rank of lieutenant-colonel,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> a position he held until January 1929 by which time he had been made a (brevet lieutenant-colonel).<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>

In 1927, he met and married Elizabeth Carver, widow of Oswald Carver, Olympic rowing medalist who was killed in the First World War.<ref>the Peerage,com</ref> Their son, David, was born in August 1928. Elizabeth Carver was the sister of WWII commander Percy Hobart.

In 1931 Montgomery became lieutenant-colonel<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> commanding the 1st Battalion of The Royal Warwickshire Regiment in 1931, and saw service in Palestine, Egypt, and India. He was promoted to full colonel in 1934<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> and became an instructor at the Indian Army Staff College in Quetta, India.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> As was usual, Montgomery maintained links with the Royal Warwickshires, taking up the honorary position of Colonel-of-the-Regiment in 1947. Montgomery stirred up the resentment of his superiors for his arrogance and dictatorial ways, and also for his disregard of convention when it obstructed military effectiveness.Template:Citation needed For example, he set up a battalion brothel in Tripoli, Libya during World War II, regularly inspected by the medical officer, for the 'horizontal refreshment' of his soldiers rather than forcing them to take chances in unregulated establishments. He was quoted as saying that his men "deserved it".<ref>Harrison, p. 104 (2004)</ref>

On completion of his tour of duty in India, Montgomery returned to Britain in June 1937<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> where he became commanding officer of the 9th Infantry Brigade with the temporary rank of brigadier,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> but that year also saw tragedy for him; his wife was bitten by an insect while on holiday in Burnham-on-Sea. The bite became infected, and his wife died in his arms from septicaemia following an amputation. The loss devastated Montgomery, but he insisted on throwing himself back into his work immediately after the funeral.<ref>Bierman & Smith, p. 227 (2002)</ref> In 1938, he organised an amphibious combined operations landing exercise that impressed the new commander-in-chief, Southern Command, General Wavell. He was promoted to major-general in October 1938<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> and took command of the 8th Infantry Division<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> in Palestine. There he quashed an Arab revolt before returning in July 1939 to Britain, suffering a serious illness on the way, to command the 3rd (Iron) Infantry Division. On hearing of the rebel defeat in April 1939, Montgomery said, "I shall be sorry to leave Palestine in many ways, as I have enjoyed the war out here".<ref>Bierman & Smith, p. 226 (2002)</ref>

Second World War

Template:See also Britain declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939. The 3rd Division was deployed to Belgium as part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). Montgomery predicted a disaster similar to that in 1914, and so spent the Phoney War training his troops for tactical retreat rather than offensive operations. During this time, Montgomery faced serious trouble from his superiors for his attitude regarding the sexual health of his soldiers. However, he was defended from dismissal by his superior Alan Brooke, commander of II Corps. Montgomery's training paid off when the Germans began their invasion of the Low Countries on 10 May 1940 and the 3rd Division advanced to the River Dijle and then withdrew to Dunkirk with great professionalism, returning to Britain intact with minimal casualties. During Operation Dynamo—the evacuation of 330,000 BEF and French troops to Britain—Montgomery had assumed command of the II Corps after Alan Brooke had taken acting command of the whole BEF.

On his return Montgomery antagonised the War Office with trenchant criticisms of the command of the BEF<ref>Bierman & Smith, p. 228 (2002)</ref> and was briefly relegated to divisional command. He was however made a Companion of the Order of the Bath. In July 1940, he was appointed acting lieutenant-general,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> placed in command of V Corps and started a long-running feud<ref>Bierman & Smith, pp. 229-30 (2002)</ref> with the new commander-in-chief, Southern Command, Claude Auchinleck. In April 1941, he became commander of XII Corps and in December 1941 South-Eastern Command<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> which he renamed the South-Eastern Army to promote offensive spirit. During this time he developed and rehearsed his ideas and trained his soldiers, culminating in Exercise Tiger in May 1942, a combined forces exercise involving 100,000 troops.

North Africa and Italy

Montgomery's early command

Template:See also [[File:Montgomery watches his tanks move up.jpg|thumb|Montgomery in a Grant tank in North Africa, November 1942. His aide (shown behind him looking through binoculars) was killed in action in 1945.]]

In 1942, a new field commander was required in the Middle East, where Auchinleck was fulfilling both the role of commander-in-chief Middle East Command and commander Eighth Army. He had stabilised the Allied position at El Alamein, but after a visit in August 1942, the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, replaced him as C-in-C with Alexander and William Gott as commander of the Eighth Army in the Western Desert. After Gott was killed flying back to Cairo Churchill was persuaded by Alan Brooke to appoint Montgomery, who had only just been nominated to replace Alexander as commander of the British ground forces for Operation Torch.<ref>Playfair, Vol. III, pp. 367-369.</ref>

A story, probably apocryphal but popular at the time, is that the appointment caused Montgomery to remark that "After having an easy war, things have now got much more difficult." A colleague is supposed to have told him to cheer up - at which point Montgomery is supposed to have said "I'm not talking about me, I'm talking about Rommel" Template:Citation needed

Montgomery's assumption of command transformed the fighting spirit and abilities of the Eighth Army.<ref name="Playfair370">Playfair, Vol. III, p. 370.</ref> Taking command on 13 August 1942, he immediately became a whirlwind of activity. He ordered the creation of a mobile British armoured corps—similar to a German Panzer Corps—to reinforce the Template:Convert long front line at El Alamein, something that would take two months to accomplish. He asked his commander, Gen. Alexander, to send him two new British divisions (51st Highland and 44th) that were then arriving in Egypt and were scheduled to be deployed in defense of the Nile Delta. He moved his field HQ to Burg al Arab, close to the Air Force command post in order to better coordinate combined operations.<ref name="Playfair370"/> Montgomery was determined that the Army, Navy and Air Forces should fight their battles in a unified, focused manner according to a detailed plan. He ordered immediate reinforcement of the vital heights of Alam Halfa, just behind his own lines, expecting the German commander, Erwin Rommel, to attack with the heights as his objective, something that Rommel soon did. Montgomery ordered all contingency plans for retreat to be destroyed. "I have cancelled the plan for withdrawal", he told his officers at the first meeting he held with them in the desert. "If we are attacked, then there will be no retreat. If we cannot stay here alive, then we will stay here dead."<ref name="Moorehead118-127">Moorehead, Alan, Montgomery, pp. 118-27 (1946)</ref>

Montgomery made a great effort to appear before troops as often as possible, frequently visiting various units and making himself known to the men, often arranging for cigarettes to be distributed. Although he still wore a standard British officer's cap on arrival in the desert, he briefly wore an Australian broad-brimmed hat before switching to wearing the black beret (with the badge of the Royal Tank Regiment next to the British General Officer's badge) for which he became notable. The black beret had been offered to him by a soldier upon climbing into a tank to get a closer look at the front lines. Both Brooke and Alexander were astonished by the transformation in atmosphere when they visited on 19 August, less than a week after Montgomery had taken command.<ref name="Moorehead118-127" />

First battles with Rommel

Rommel attempted to turn the left flank of the Eighth Army at the Battle of Alam Halfa from 31 August 1942. The German/Italian armoured Corps infantry attack was stopped in very heavy fighting. Rommel's forces had to withdraw urgently lest their retreat through the British minefields be cut off.<ref>Winston Churchill, The Second World War, v.4 pp. 546-48</ref> Montgomery was criticised for not counter-attacking the retreating forces immediately, but he felt strongly that his methodical build-up of British forces was not yet ready. A hasty counter-attack risked ruining his strategy for an offensive on his own terms in late October, planning for which had begun soon after he took command.<ref>Playfair, Vol. III, p. 388.</ref> He was confirmed in the permanent rank of lieutenant-general in mid October.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>

The conquest of Libya was essential for airfields to support Malta and to threaten the rear of Axis forces opposing Operation Torch. Montgomery prepared meticulously for the new offensive after convincing Churchill that the time was not being wasted. (Churchill sent a telegram to Alexander on 23 September 1942 which began, "We are in your hands and of course a victorious battle makes amends for much delay.<ref>Churchill, p. 588</ref>) He was determined not to fight until he thought there had been sufficient preparation for a decisive victory, and put into action his beliefs with the gathering of resources, detailed planning, the training of troops—especially in clearing minefields and fighting at night<ref>Playfair, Vol IV, pp. 13-14.</ref>—and in the use of 252<ref>Playfair, Vol IV, p. 9.</ref> of the latest American-built Sherman tanks, 90 M7 Priest self-propelled howitzers, and making a personal visit to every unit involved in the offensive. By the time the offensive was ready in late October, Eighth Army had 231,000 men on its ration strength<ref>Playfair, Vol. IV, p. 16.</ref> including British, Australian, South African, Indian, New Zealand, Greek and Free French units.

El Alamein

thumb|Infantry advance during the Battle of El Alamein. The Battle of El Alamein began on 23 October 1942, and ended twelve days later with the first large-scale, decisive Allied land victory of the war. Montgomery correctly predicted both the length of the battle and the number of casualties (13,500<ref>Playfair, Vol. IV, p. 78.</ref>). He has been criticised for failing to capitalise immediately on his victory at El Alamein. However, soon after British armoured units and infantry broke through the German and Italian lines and were pursuing the enemy forces at speed along the coast road, a violent, unseasonable rainstorm burst over the region making rapid pursuit impossible, the tanks and support trucks bogged down in the desert mud. Montgomery had to call off the chase. Standing before his officers at headquarters, he was close to tears, but the Battle of El Alamein had been a great success. Over 30,000<ref>Playfair, Vol. IV, p. 79.</ref> prisoners were taken including the German second in command, General von Thoma (Rommel, who had been in a hospital in Germany at the start of the battle had been forced to return on 25 October 1942 after his replacement as German commander, Stumme died of a heart attack in the early hours of the battle.<ref>Churchill, p. 591</ref>), and eight other general officers.<ref>Moorehead, pp. 140-41</ref>

Tunisia

Montgomery was knighted and promoted to full general.<ref name="KCB+Gen"/> The Eighth Army's subsequent advance as the Germans retreated hundreds of miles towards their bases in Tunisia used the logistical and firepower advantages of the British Army while avoiding unnecessary risks. It also gave the Allies an indication that the tide of war had genuinely turned in North AfricaTemplate:Citation needed. Montgomery kept the initiative, applying superior strength when it suited him, forcing Rommel out of each successive defensive position. On 6 March 1943, Rommel's attack on the over-extended Eighth Army at Medenine (Operation Capri) with the largest concentration of German armour in North Africa was successfully repulsed. At the Mareth Line, 20 March to 27 March, when Montgomery encountered fiercer frontal opposition than he had anticipated, he switched his major effort into an outflanking inland pincer, backed by low-flying RAF fighter-bomber support.

This campaign demonstrated the battle-winning ingredients of morale (sickness and absenteeism were virtually eliminated in the Eighth ArmyTemplate:Citation needed), co-operation of all arms including the air forces, first-class logistical back-up and clear-cut orders. For his role in North Africa he was awarded the Legion of Merit by the United States government in the rank of Chief Commander.<ref name="LM" />

Sicily

The next major Allied attack was the Allied invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky). It was in Sicily that Montgomery's noted tensions with US commanders really began. Montgomery managed to recast plans for the Allied invasion, having Patton's Seventh US Army land in the Gulf of Gela (on the left flank of Eighth Army, which landed around Syracuse in the south-east of Sicily) rather than at Palermo in the west of Sicily as Patton had wished. Template:Citation needed Inter-Allied tensions grew as the American commanders Patton and Bradley (then commanding II US Corps under Patton), took umbrage at what they perceived as Montgomery's attitudes and boastfulness. They resented him, while accepting his skills as a general.Template:Citation needed

Italian Campaign

During the autumn of 1943, Montgomery continued to command Eighth Army during the landings on the mainland of Italy itself. In conjunction with the Anglo-American landings at Salerno (near Naples) by Mark Clark's Fifth Army and seaborne landings by British paratroops in the heel of Italy (including the key port of Taranto, where they disembarked without resistance directly into the port), Montgomery led Eighth Army up the toe of Italy. Some criticism was made of the slowness of Montgomery's advance.Template:Citation needed The Eighth Army, responsible for the eastern side of the Allied front, from the central Apennine mountain spine to the Adriatic coast, fought a succession of engagements alternating between opposed crossings of the rivers running across their line of advance and attacks against the cleverly constructed defensive positions the Germans had fashioned on the ridges in between. Eighth Army crossed the Sangro river in mid-November and penetrated the German's strongest position at the Gustav Line but as the winter weather deteriorated the advance ground to a halt as transport bogged down and air support operations became impossible. Montgomery abhorred the lack of coordination, the dispersion of effort, and the strategic muddle and opportunism he perceived in the Allied effort in Italy and was glad to leave the "dog's breakfast" on 23 December.Template:Citation needed

Normandy

Template:See also [[File:Simonds.jpg|left|thumb|Montgomery with officers of the First Canadian Army. From left, Major-General Vokes, General Crerar, Field Marshal Montgomery, Lieutenant-General Horrocks, Lieutenant-General Simonds, Major-General Spry, and Major-General Mathews]] Montgomery returned to Britain to take command of the 21st Army Group which consisted of all Allied ground forces that would take part in Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy. Preliminary planning for the invasion had been taking place for two years, most recently by COSSAC staff (Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander). Template:Citation needed Montgomery quickly concluded that the COSSAC plan was too limited, and strongly advocated expanding the plan from a three-division to a five-division assault. As with his takeover of the Eighth Army, Montgomery travelled frequently to his units, raising morale and ensuring training was progressing. At St Paul's School on 7 April and 15 May he presented his strategy for the invasion. He envisaged a ninety day battle, ending when all the forces reached the Seine, pivoting on an Allied-held Caen, with British and Canadian armies forming a shoulder and the US armies wheeling on the right.Template:Citation needed

During the hard fought two and a half month Battle of Normandy that followed, the impact of a series of unfavourable autumnal weather conditions disrupted the Normandy landing areas and seriously hampered the tactical delivery of planned transportation of personnel and supplies which were being carried across the English Channel. Consequently, Montgomery argues in his literary account that he was unable to follow his pre-battle plan precisely to the timescales planned outside of battle. It should be noted that the extension of the battle plan by one month was the cause of significant retrospective criticisms of Montgomery by some of his American peers, including the much respected Bradley and equally controversial Patton. Template:Citation needed

Montgomery's initial plan was, most likely, for an immediate breakout toward Caen. Unable to do so, as the British did not get enough forces ashore to exploit the successful landing, Montgomery's advance was checked. When it appeared unlikely that the British Second Army would breakout, Montgomery's contingency was designed to attract German forces to the British sector to ease the passing of United States Army through German defences to the west, during Operation Cobra. This series of battle plans by the British, Canadian and American armies trapped and defeated the German forces in Normandy in the Falaise pocket. The campaign that Montgomery fought was essentially attritional until the middle of July with the occupation of the Cotentin Peninsula and a series of offensives in the east, which secured Caen and attracted the bulk of German armour there. An American breakout was achieved with Operation Cobra and the encirclement of German forces in the Falaise pocket at the cost of British sacrifice with the diversionary Operation Goodwood.<ref>D'Este, p. 202 (1983)</ref>

Advance to the Rhine

[[File:Maczek2.jpg|thumb|Montgomery talking to General Maczek, commanding officer of Polish 1st Armoured Division, 1945.]] [[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-14059-0018, Berlin, Oberbefehlshaber der vier Verbündeten.jpg|thumb|The Supreme Commanders on 5 June 1945 in Berlin: Bernard Montgomery, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Georgy Zhukov and Jean de Lattre de Tassigny.]] The increasing preponderance of American troops in the European theatre (from five out of ten divisions at D-Day to 72 out of 85 in 1945) made it a political impossibility for the Ground Forces Commander to be British. After the end of the Normandy campaign, General Eisenhower himself took over Ground Forces Command while continuing as Supreme Commander, with Montgomery continuing to command the 21st Army Group, now consisting mainly of British and Canadian units. Montgomery bitterly resented this change, although it had been agreed before the D-Day invasion. Template:Citation needed Winston Churchill had Montgomery promoted to field marshal<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> by way of compensation. Template:Citation needed

Montgomery was able to persuade Eisenhower to adopt his strategy of a single thrust to the Ruhr with Operation Market Garden in September 1944. It was uncharacteristic of Montgomery's battles: the offensive was strategically bold, but poorly planned. Montgomery either didn't receive or ignored ULTRA intelligence which warned of the presence of German armoured units near the site of the attack.<ref name="Lanning" /> As a result, the operation failed with the destruction of the British 1st Airborne Division at the Battle of Arnhem and the loss of any hopes of invading Germany by the end of 1944.

Montgomery's preoccupation with the push to the Ruhr had also distracted him from the essential task of clearing the Scheldt during the capture of Antwerp; Template:Citation needed and so, after Arnhem, Montgomery's group was instructed to concentrate on doing this so that the port of Antwerp could be opened.

When the surprise attack on the Ardennes took place on 16 December 1944, starting the Battle of the Bulge, the front of the U.S. 12th Army Group was split, with the bulk of the U.S. First Army being on the northern shoulder of the German 'bulge'. The Army Group commander, General Omar Bradley, was located south of the penetration at Luxembourg and command of the U.S. First Army became problematic. Montgomery was the nearest commander on the ground and on 20 December, Eisenhower (who was in Versailles) transferred Courtney Hodges' U.S. First Army and William Simpson's U.S. Ninth Army to his 21st Army Group, despite Bradley's vehement objections on national grounds.拡張機能タグ "ref" は登録されていません Montgomery grasped the situation quickly, visiting all divisional, corps, and army field commanders himself and instituting his 'Phantom' network of liaison officers. He grouped the British XXX Corps as a strategic reserve behind the Meuse and reorganised the US defence of the northern shoulder, shortening and strengthening the line and ordering the evacuation of St Vith. The German commander of the 5th Panzer Army, Hasso von Manteuffel said:

The operations of the American 1st Army had developed into a series of individual holding actions. Montgomery's contribution to restoring the situation was that he turned a series of isolated actions into a coherent battle fought according to a clear and definite plan. It was his refusal to engage in premature and piecemeal counter-attacks which enabled the Americans to gather their reserves and frustrate the German attempts to extend their breakthrough.<ref>Patrick Delaforce, The Battle of the Bulge — Hitler's Final Gamble Template:Page number (2004)</ref>

[[File:Operationvarsity.jpg|thumb|right|Montgomery (left), Air Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham (centre) and the Commander of the British Second Army, Lieutenant-General Sir Miles Dempsey, talking after a conference in which Montgomery gave the order for Second Army to begin the crossing of the Rhine.]]

Eisenhower had then wanted Montgomery to go on the offensive on 1 January to meet Patton's army that had started advancing from the south on 19 December and in doing so, trap the Germans. However, Montgomery refused to commit infantry he considered underprepared into a snowstorm and for a strategically unimportant piece of land. Template:Citation needed He did not launch the attack until 3 January, by which point the German forces had been able to escape. A large part of American military opinion thought that he should not have held back, though it was characteristic of him to use drawn-out preparations for his attack. After the battle the U.S. First Army was restored to the 12th Army Group; the U.S. Ninth Army remained under 21st Army Group until it crossed the Rhine. Template:Citation needed

Montgomery's 21st Army Group advanced to the Rhine with operations Veritable and Grenade in February 1945. A meticulously-planned Rhine crossing occurred on 24 March. While successful it was weeks after the Americans had unexpectedly captured the Ludendorff Bridge and crossed the river. Montgomery's river crossing was followed by the encirclement of the German Army Group B in the Ruhr. Initially Montgomery's role was to guard the flank of the American advance. This was altered, however, to forestall any chance of a Red Army advance into Denmark, and the 21st Army Group occupied Hamburg and Rostock and sealed off the Danish peninsula.

On 4 May 1945, on Lüneburg Heath, Montgomery accepted the surrender of German forces in northern Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. This was done plainly in a tent without any ceremony. In the same year he was awarded the Order of the Elephant, the highest order in Denmark. On 26 October 1945 he was made a Freeman of Huddersfield.Template:Citation needed

Later life

[[File:Allies at the Brandenburg Gate, 1945.jpg|thumb|right|Montgomery and Soviet generals Zhukov, Sokolovsky and Rokossovsky at the Brandenburg Gate 12 July 1945.]]

After the war Montgomery became the C-in-C of the British Forces of Occupation and the British member of the Allied Control Council.<ref name="Mead309">Mead, p.309.</ref> He was created 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein in 1946.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> He was Chief of the Imperial General Staff from 1946 until 1948, succeeding Alanbrook, but was largely a failure as it required strategic and political skills he did not possess. He was barely on speaking terms with his fellow chiefs, sending his VCIGS to attend their meetings<ref name="Mead309"/> and he clashed particularly with Arthur Tedder, who as Deputy Supreme Commander had intrigued for Montgomery's dismissal during the Battle of Normandy, and who was by now Chief of the Air Staff. When Montgomery's term of office expired, Prime Minister Clement Attlee appointed General (later Field-Marshal) William Slim as his successor; when Montgomery protested that he had already promised the job to his protegé General Crocker, a former corps commander from the 1944-5 campaign, Attlee is said to have given the memorable retort "Untell him".

Montgomery was then appointed Chairman of the Western European Union's commanders-in-chief committee.<ref name="Mead309"/> Volume 3 of Nigel Hamilton's Life of Montgomery of Alamein gives a good account of the bickering between Montgomery and his land forces chief, a French general, which created splits through the Union headquarters. He was thus pleased to become Eisenhower's deputy in creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's European forces in 1951.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> He was an effective inspector-general and mounted good exercises, but out of his depth politically, and his exacting manner and emphasis on efficiency created ill-feeling. He continued to serve under Eisenhower's successors, Matthew Ridgway and Al Gruenther, until his retirement, aged nearly 71, in 1958.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> His mother died in 1949; Montgomery did not attend the funeral, claiming he was "too busy".Template:Citation needed He was chairman of the governing body of St John's School, Leatherhead, Surrey from 1951 to 1966 and a generous supporter. Montgomery was an Honorary Member of the Winkle Club, a noted charity in Hastings, East Sussex, and introduced Winston Churchill to the club in 1955.<ref>Sir Winston Churchill Gets The Winkle In Ceremony at Hastings. Pathe News</ref>

[[File:Monty, wavvel, auk.jpg|thumb|right|Montgomery as CIGS with Wavell and Auchinleck.]]

In 1953, the Hamilton Board of Education in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, wrote to Montgomery and asked permission to name a new school in the city's east end after him. Viscount Montgomery Elementary was billed as "the most modern school in North America" and the largest single-storey school in Hamilton, when the sod was turned on 14 March 1951.<ref>History of Viscount Montgomery School</ref> The school officially opened on 18 April 1953, with Montgomery in attendance among almost 10,000 well-wishers. At the opening, he gave the motto "Gardez Bien" from his own family's coat of arms.

Montgomery referred to the school as his "beloved school" and visited on five separate occasions, the last being in 1960. On his last visit, he said to "his" students:Template:Citation needed

Let's make Viscount Montgomery School the best in Hamilton, the best in Ontario, the best in Canada. I don't associate myself with anything that is not good. It is up to you to see that everything about this school is good. It is up to the students to not only be their best in school but in their behaviour outside of Viscount. Education is not just something that will help you pass your exams and get you a job, it is to develop your brain to teach you to marshal facts and do things.

Before retirement, Montgomery's outspoken views on some subjects, such as race, were often officially suppressed.Template:Citation needed After retirement these outspoken views became public and his reputation suffered. He supported apartheid and Chinese communism under Mao Zedong, and spoke against the legalisation of homosexuality in the United Kingdom, arguing that the Sexual Offences Act 1967 was a "charter for buggery" and that "this sort of thing may be tolerated by the French, but we're British — thank God."<ref></ref> However, several of Montgomery's biographers, including Chalfont (who found something "disturbingly equivocal" in "his relations with boys and young men" Template:Citation needed) and Nigel Hamilton (2002) have suggested that he may himself have been a repressed homosexual; in the late 1940s he conducted an affectionate friendship with a 12-year-old Swiss boy.<ref>Was Bernie a Bertie?, The Times Online, David Aaronovitch, 5 May 2006</ref><ref>The General of Love who was one of the boys, The Independent, Nicholas Fearn, 14 October 2001Template:Dead link</ref>

[[File:BernardMontgomery Aberdare Blog crop.jpg|thumb|upright|Statue of Montgomery at Whitehall, London unveiled in 1980]]

Montgomery's memoirs (1958) criticised many of his wartime comrades in harsh terms, including Eisenhower, whom he accused, among other things, of prolonging the war by a year through poor leadership—allegations which ended their friendship, not least as Eisenhower was still US President at the time. He was stripped of his honorary citizenship of Montgomery, Alabama, and was challenged to a duel by an Italian officer.<ref>According to La Repubblica, 2.22.1992 the challenge actually came from Vincenzo Caputo, a Sicilian Lawyer.</ref> He was threatened with legal action by Field-Marshal Auchinleck for suggesting that Auchinleck had intended to retreat from the Alamein position if attacked again, and had to give a radio broadcast (20 November 1958) expressing his gratitude to Auchinleck for having stabilised the front at the First Battle of Alamein. Template:Citation needed The 1960 edition of his memoirs contains a publisher's note (opposite page 15) drawing attention to that broadcast, and stating that in the publisher's view the reader might assume from Montgomery's text that Auchinleck had been planning to retreat and pointing out that this was in fact not the case. Template:Citation needed

Montgomery was never raised to an earldom like his wartime contemporaries Harold Alexander, Louis Mountbatten and even Archibald Wavell, but unlike them he had never been a Theatre Supreme Commander or held high political office. An official task he insisted on performing in his later years was bearing the Sword of State during the State Opening of Parliament. His increasing frailty, however, raised concerns about his ability to stand for long periods while carrying the heavy weapon. Ultimately, those fears were borne out when he collapsed in mid-ceremony in 1968 and did not perform this function again. A favourite pastime of the British press Template:Citation needed during these years was to photograph Montgomery cashing his old age pension cheque at the local social security office. Due to his eminence, many Template:Who assumed Montgomery was wealthy and did not need the money. In fact, he had always been a man of modest means and it caused him great anguish that many believed he was taking taxpayer money he did not need. Another blow was a break-in at his home. Despite his making a televised appeal for the return of his possessions, the items were never recovered. Template:Citation needed

Death

Montgomery died from unspecified causes in 1976 at his home Isington Mill, Isington near Alton, Hampshire, aged 88. After a funeral ceremony at St George's Chapel, Windsor, he was interred in the Holy Cross Churchyard, Binsted. <ref>[1]</ref>

Legacy

His portrait (by Frank O. Salisbury, 1945) hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.<ref>NPG L165 Portrait of Montgomery</ref>

A statue of Viscount Montgomery can be found outside the Defence Ministry in Whitehall, alongside those of William Slim and Alan Brooke. Another statue of Viscount Montgomery can be found in Brussels, Belgium, watching a Montgomery Square.

Montgomery gave his name to the French commune Colleville-Montgomery, Normandy.<ref>In pictures: Tribute to Montgomery</ref>

[[File:M3 Monty.JPG|thumb|right|Montgomery's Grant command tank, on display at the Imperial War Museum]] The Imperial War Museum holds a variety of material relating to Montgomery in its collections. These include Montgomery's Grant command tank (on display in the atrium at the Museum's London branch), his command caravans as used in North West Europe (on display at IWM Duxford), and his papers are held by the Museum's Department of Documents. The Museum maintains a permanent exhibition about Montgomery, entitled Monty: Master of the Battlefield.<ref>Monty: Master of the Battlefield</ref>

His Rolls Royce staff car is on display at the Royal Logistic Corps Museum, Deepcut, Surrey.<ref>RLC Museum publicity leaflet/website.</ref>

The Montgomery cocktail is a martini mixed at a ratio of 15:1, facetiously named that because Montgomery supposedly refused to go into battle unless his numerical advantage was at least that high.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Montgomery himself never smoked nor drank.<ref name="Lanning"></ref>

Quotation

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  • "The US has broken the second rule of war. That is, don't go fighting with your land army on the mainland of Asia. Rule One is don't march on Moscow. I developed these two rules myself."
(spoken of the US approach to the Vietnam War) Quoted in Chalfont's Montgomery of Alamein.<ref name="Chalfont, 1976">Chalfont, (1976) Template:Page number</ref>
  • "Well, now I must go to meet God and try to explain all those men I killed at Alamein."
(Field Marshal Montgomery in 1976 quoted in The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition)

See also

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Notes

Explanatory notes

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Citations

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References

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External links

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