Biography of Bernard Montgomery,
General Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, is probably the best-known
British military leader, but was not the most talented. Having planned the
disastrous Dieppe Raid, he had the tremendous good luck to be transferred
elsewhere just before the Canadians were slaughtered while carrying out his
plans at Dieppe! His new command, the British Eighth Army, had been
beaten repeatedly by Rommel and the Afrika Corps. This was mostly due to
the tactical brilliance of Rommel and problems in the armored warfare
doctrine used by the British, but there also were problems with equipment.
Montgomery arrived in Africa just when massive shipments of American
equipment were about to shift the balance of power in his favor. Large
numbers of medium tanks, particularly the new M4 "General Shermans",
which were better than all but a handful of the German tanks then in service,
were reaching his forces. Montgomery stayed on the defensive until he had
a better than 2 to 1 advantage over the Germans in infantry, artillery and
tanks. Then he fought the Battle of El Alamein, a brutal meatgrinder right out of
the First World War. When it was over, Axis and British losses were about
equal - but his army could stand it, being twice as big to start with. His
subsequent victories over the Afrika Corps were almost inevitable, given the
huge numerical advantage he enjoyed in artillery and tanks, but to the British
public, unaware of the logistics involved, he was the genius who had beaten
the previously invincible Rommel.
Thus catapulted into stardom, Montgomery was named Viscount of Alamein
and pushed forward as THE national military hero, in spite of his later
mistakes (failing to close the Falaise Gap and going "a bridge too far" at
Arnheim).
His arrogance and ambition led to many conflicts with others in the Allied
high command, in particular with PATTON (a man who was also not noted
for his tact and charm).