Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, Viscount 1 Montgomery of Alamein , ( ; November 17, 1887 - March 24, 1976), dubbed " Monty " and " Spartan General ", was a senior British Army officer who fought in the First World War and World War II.
He saw action in the First World War as a junior officer of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. In MÃÆ'Ã… © teren, near the Belgian border in Bailleul, he was shot through the right lung by a sniper, during the First Battle of Ypres. He returned to the Western Front as a general staff officer and took part in the Battle of Arras in April/May 1917. He also took part in the Battle of Passchendaele at the end of 1917 before finishing the war as chief of staff of the 47th (2nd London) Division.
In the interwar years he ordered the 17th Battalion (Service), Royal Fusiliers and, later, 1st Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment before becoming commander of 9th Infantry Brigade and then 8th General Officer Commanding (GOC) Infantry Division.
During World War II he ordered the British Eighth Army from August 1942 in the Western Desert to the last Allied victory in Tunisia in May 1943. This order included the Second Battle of El Alamein, a turning point in the Western Desert Campaign. He then ordered the Eighth British Army during the Allied invasion of Sicily and the Allied invasion of Italy. He was the commander of all Allied ground forces during Operation Overlord from the initial landing until after the Battle of Normandy. He then went on to command the 21st Army Group for the rest of the campaign in Northwest Europe. Hence he was the chief field commander for a failed air effort to bridge the Rhine in Arnhem, and the Allied Rhine intersection. On May 4, 1945, he took the German surrender at LÃÆ'¼neburg Heath in Northern Germany.
After the war, he became Commander of the British Army on the Rhine (BAOR) in Germany and later Chief of the Imperial General Staff (1946-1948). From 1948 to 1951 he served as Commander of the Supreme Commander's Committee at Western Union. He then served as Deputy Commander of the NATO Allies of Europe until his retirement in 1958.
Video Bernard Montgomery
Kehidupan awal
Montgomery was born in Kennington, Surrey, in 1887, the fourth child of nine, became an Ulster-Scots Church of Ireland minister, The Reverend Henry Montgomery, and his wife Maud Farrar). The Montgomerys, the noble family of 'Ascendancy', is a Donegal County branch of the Montgomery Clan. Henry Montgomery, then, the Vicar of St Mark's Church, Kennington, was the second son of Sir Robert Montgomery, a native of Inishowen in County Donegal in Ulster, the British-registered administrator of colonial India, who died a month after the birth of his grandson. He may be descended from Colonel Alexander Montgomery (1686-1729). Mrs. Bernard, Maud, is the daughter of The V. Rev. Frederic William Canon Farrar, a famous preacher, and eighteen years younger than her husband. After the death of Sir Robert Montgomery, Henry inherited the ancestral land of Montgomery New Park in Moville in Inishowen in Ulster. There's still £ 13,000 to pay mortgages, big debts in the 1880s, and Henry at the time was still just an Anglican priest. Despite selling all the farms in Ballynally, "there is not enough to keep New Park and pay for a bursting summer vacation" (ie, in New Park).
It was a great financial aid when, in 1889, Henry was appointed Bishop of Tasmania, then still a British colony and Bernard spent the years of his formation there. Bishop Montgomery considers it his duty to spend as much time as possible in rural Tasmania and go away for six months at a time. When he left, his wife, still in his mid-twenties, gave his sons a "constant beating", then ignored them most of the time when he performed the public duties of the bishop's wife. Bernard's brother, Sibyl died prematurely in Tasmania, and Harold, Donald and Una all emigrated. Maud Montgomery had little interest in the education of his younger children than to have them taught by tutors brought from England. The loveless environment made Bernard a bully, as he remembers himself, "I'm a terrible child, I do not think anyone will stand my behavior these days." Later, Montgomery refused to allow his son David anything to do with his grandmother, and refused to attend his funeral in 1949.
His family returned to England to attend the Lambeth Conference in 1897, and Bernard and his brother Harold were educated for a term at The King's School, Canterbury. In 1901, Bishop Montgomery became secretary of the Society for Spreading the Gospel, and his family returned to London. Montgomery studied at St. Paul's School and then the Royal Military School, Sandhurst, from which he was almost driven out by rowdy and violent. On graduation in September 1908 he was assigned to 1st Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment as the second lieutenant, and first saw the foreign service later that year in India. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1910, and in 1912 became the aide of his 1st Battalion regiment in the Shorncliffe Army Camp.
Maps Bernard Montgomery
First World War
The Great War began in August 1914 and Montgomery moved to France with his battalion that month, which was then part of the 10th Brigade of the 4th Division. He saw the action at the Battle of Le Cateau that month and during the retreat of Mons. In MÃÆ'Ã… © teren, near the Belgian border in Bailleul on October 13, 1914, during the Allied counterattack, he was shot through the right lung by a sniper. Montgomery was hit once again, on the knee. He was awarded a Distinguished Service Plan for a brave leadership: a quote for this award, published in London Gazette in December 1914 reads:
Impressed brave leading on October 13, when he turned the enemy out of their trenches with bayonets. He was badly injured.
After recovering in early 1915, he was appointed to become the first major brigade of the 112th Brigade and then with the 104th Brigade under training in Lancashire. He returned to the Western Front in early 1916 as a general staff officer in the 33rd Division and took part in the Battle of Arras in April/May 1917. He became a general staff officer with IX Corps, part of Second Army General Sir Herbert Plumer, on July 1917.
Montgomery served in the Battle of Passchendaele at the end of 1917 before ending the war as GSO1 (effectively the Chief of Staff) of the 47th Division (London 2nd), with a temporary lieutenant colonel. A photograph from October 1918, reproduced in many biographies, shows an unknown Lieutenant Colonel Montgomery standing in front of Winston Churchill (later Ministers of Munitions) at the parade after the liberation of Lille.
Between world wars
1920s
After the First World War Montgomery ordered the 17th Battalion (Service) of the Royal Fusiliers, a battalion in the British Army on the Rhine, before returning to the rank of his substantive captain (brevet major) in November 1919. He was not originally elected to College Staff at Camberley , Surrey (his only hope for achieving high command). But at a tennis party in Cologne, he was able to persuade the Supreme Commander (C-in-C) of the British Occupation Army, Field Marshal Sir William Robertson, to add his name to the list.
After graduating from the Staff School, he was appointed a major brigade at the 17th Infantry Brigade in January 1921. The brigade was stationed in County Cork, Ireland, operating counter-insurgency operations during the final stages of the Irish Independence War.
Montgomery came to the conclusion that conflict can not be won without a crackdown, and that self-government for Ireland is the only viable solution; in 1923, after the establishment of the Irish Free State and during the Irish Civil War, Montgomery wrote to Colonel Arthur Ernest Percival of the Essex Regiment:
Personally, all my attention was given to defeating the rebels but it never bothered me how many houses were burned. I think I consider all civilians as 'Shinners' and I have never dealt with any of them. My own view is that to win this kind of war, you have to be cruel. Oliver Cromwell, or Germany, will complete it in a very short time. Presently public opinion hinders such methods, the state will never allow it, and politicians will lose their jobs if they approve it. Thus, I assume that Lloyd George is right in what he does, if we have gone we may be able to suppress the rebellion as a temporary measure, but it will break again like an ulcer as we release troops. I think the rebels would probably [have] refused the battle, and hid their weapons etc. Until we leave.
In May 1923, Montgomery was sent to the 49th Infantry Division (West Riding), a Territorial Army formation (TA). He returned to Battalion 1, Royal Warwickshire Regiment in 1925 as company commander and promoted to major in July 1925. From January 1926 to January 1929 he served as Assistant Deputy General at the College Staff, Camberley, in Lieutenant Colonel's temporary rank.
Marriage and family
In 1925, in his first known love affair, Montgomery, in his late thirties, approached a 17-year-old girl, Miss Betty Anderson. His dating methods apparently included drawing diagrams in the sand how he would deploy tanks and infantry in future wars, a possibility that seemed very remote at the time. He respected his ambition and his own thoughts, but refused his marriage proposal.
In 1927, he met and married Elizabeth (Betty) Carver, nÃÆ' Â © e Hobart, widow of Oswald Carver, Olympic rowing medalist who was killed in the First World War. Betty Carver is the brother of the commander of the Second World War, Major General Sir Percy Hobart. Betty Carver had two sons in their early teens, John and Dick, from his first marriage. Dick Carver later wrote that it was "a very brave thing" for Montgomery to pick up a widow with two children. Montgomery's son, David, was born in August 1928.
While on vacation at Burnham-on-Sea in 1937, Betty suffered from an infected insect bite, and she died in her husband's arms due to septicemia after her leg amputation. The loss destroyed Montgomery, who was serving as a brigadier, but he insisted on throwing himself back into his work soon after the funeral. Montgomery's wedding was great. Most of the correspondence with his wife was destroyed when his residence in Portsmouth was bombed during the Second World War. After Montgomery's death, John Carver wrote that his mother had been at his disposal to do the good of the country by keeping his personal idiosyncrasies - his extreme mind, and his intolerance and suspicion of someone else's motives - within reasonable limits long enough for him to have a chance to gain command.
Both Montgomery stairs became military officers in the 1930s (both serving in India at the time of their mother's death), and both served in the Second World War, each finally reaching the rank of Colonel. While serving as GSO2 with the Eighth Army, Dick Carver was sent ahead during the pursuit after El Alamein to help identify a new site for the Eighth HQ Army. He was taken prisoner at Mersa Matruh on November 7, 1942. Montgomery wrote to his contacts in England asking that the investigation be done through the Red Cross to the place where his stepson was detained, and the package was sent to him. Like many British POWs, the most famous is General Richard O'Connor, Dick Carver fled in September 1943 during a brief hiatus between Italy's departure from war and German plundering in the country. He eventually reached the British line on December 5, 1943, to the delight of his stepfather, who sent him home to England to recuperate.
1930s
In January 1929, Montgomery was promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel. That month he returned to Battalion 1, the Royal Warwickshire Regiment again, as Commander of Corporate Headquarters; he went to the War Office to help write the Infantry Training Manual in mid-1929. In 1931, Montgomery was promoted to substantive lieutenant colonel and became Commander (CO) Officer of 1st Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment and saw service in Palestine and British India. He was promoted to colonel in June 1934 (seniority from January 1932). He attended and was later recommended to be an instructor at Indian Army Staff College (now the Army Staff College of Pakistan) in Quetta, British India.
After completing his duties in India, Montgomery returned to England in June 1937 where he took command of the 9th Infantry Brigade with temporary brigade base. His wife died that year.
In 1938, he organized an impressive new amphibious operation landing operation of the new C-in-C from the Southern Command, General Sir Archibald Percival Wavell. He was promoted to major general on October 14, 1938 and took over the command of the 8th Infantry Division in Palestine. There he canceled the Arab rebellion before returning in July 1939 to England, suffering serious illness on the road, to lead the 3rd Infantry Division (Iron). Hearing the rebellion's defeat in April 1939, Montgomery said, "I will regret leaving Palestine in many ways, because I enjoy the war here".
Second World War
British Expeditionary Forces
Backtrack to Dunkirk and evacuate
Britain declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939. The 3rd division was deployed to Belgium as part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). During this time, Montgomery faced serious problems from his military superiors and clerics for his honest attitude about the sexual health of his soldiers, but was defended from his dismissal by his superiors Alan Brooke, commander of the Second Corps. Montgomery Training paid off when Germany started their invasion of the Low Countries on May 10, 1940 and the Third Division advanced to the Dijle River and then retreated to Dunkirk with great professionalism, entering the Dunkirk perimeter in a famous nightly parade that placed troops on the left, which was left open by Belgium's surrender. The 3rd Division returns to England in full with minimum casualties. During Operation Dynamo - the evacuation of 330,000 BEF and French troops to England - Montgomery took command of Corps II.
Upon his return, Montgomery opposed the War Office with sharp criticism of the BEF's command and was briefly relegated to the division's 3rd division. He was made a friend of the Order of Bath. The 3rd division at the time was the only complete division in England.
Montgomery was ordered to set up his 3rd Division to attack the neutral Portuguese Azores. The island models were prepared and detailed plans were successful for the invasion. The invasion plan is not running and plans to move to the Cape Verde invasion also belongs to neutral Portugal. The plan of the invasion also did not continue. Montgomery was then ordered to prepare a plan for a neutral Irish invasion and to seize Cork, Cobh and the port of Cork. This invasion plan, as it did on the Portuguese islands, also did not work and in July 1940 Montgomery was appointed acting lieutenant general, and placed as commander of Corps V, responsible for the defense of Hampshire and Dorset, -running with the new Commander (C-in-C) of the Southern Command, Lt. Gen. Claude Auchinleck.
In April 1941, he became commander of the XII Corps in charge of Kent's defense. During this period he instituted a continuing training regime and insisted on a high level of physical fitness for both officers and other rank. He was cruel to fire officers he deemed unfit to govern. Promoted to a temporary lieutenant general in July, Montgomery in December was given command of the South-East Command overseeing the defenses of Kent, Sussex and Surrey.
He changed his name with the Southern-East Army command to promote offensive spirit. During this time he further developed and trained his ideas and trained his soldiers, culminating in the Tiger Practice in May 1942, a joint force exercise involving 100,000 troops.
North Africa and Italy
Montgomery's original order
In 1942, a new field commander was needed in the Middle East, where Auchinleck fulfilled the role of the Supreme Commander (C-in-C) of the Middle East Command and the Eighth Army commander. He had stabilized the position of the Allies at the First Battle of El Alamein, but after a visit in August 1942, Prime Minister Winston Churchill replaced him as C-in-C with General Sir Harold Alexander and William Gott as Commander of the Eight Soldiers in the Western Desert. However, after Gott was killed flying back to Cairo Churchill was persuaded by Brooke, who was then General Chief of Staff of the Empire (CIGS), to appoint Montgomery, who had just been nominated to succeed Alexander as British First Army commander for Operation Torch, invasion of North Africa French.
A story, perhaps apocryphal but popular at the time, is that his appointment led Montgomery to comment that "After an easy war, things are now becoming much more difficult." A colleague should have told her to cheer up - Montgomery said at the time "I'm not talking about me, I'm talking about Rommel!"
Montgomery's command assumption changed the spirit of fighting and the ability of the Eighth Army. Taking command on 13 August 1942, he soon became a whirlwind of activity. He ordered the creation of X Corps, which contained all armored divisions to fight alongside his XXX Corps which were all infantry divisions. This is nothing like the German Panzer Corps. One of Panzer Corps Rommel incorporates an infantry unit, armor and artillery under one commander of the corps. The only general commander for all Montgomery infantry and all armor corps is the Eighth Army Commander himself. Correlli Barnett commented that Montgomery's solution "... is in every way contrary to Auchinleck and by all means wrong, because it brings dangerous separatism beyond." Montgomery strengthens the 30-mile (48 km) frontline at El Alamein, something that will take two months to complete. He asked Alexander to send him two new British divisions (51st Highland and 44th Home Counties) who then arrived in Egypt and are scheduled to be deployed to defend the Nile Delta. He moved his headquarters to Burg al Arab, near the Air Force command post to better coordinate the joint operation.
Montgomery decided that the Army, Navy, and Air Force had to fight in an integrated and focused way according to a detailed plan. He ordered immediate reinforcement from the height of Nature Halfa, just behind its own line, expecting German commander Erwin Rommel to strike at its heights as his goal, something that Rommel soon did. Montgomery ordered all emergency plans for the retreat to be destroyed. "I have canceled plans for withdrawal If we are attacked, there will be no retreats If we can not stay here alive then we will remain here dead," he told his officers at the first meeting held with them at However, the desert, in fact, Auchinleck had no plans to withdraw from the strong defensive position he had chosen and established at El Alamein.
Montgomery made a great effort to appear before the troops as often as possible, frequenting the various units and making himself known to the people, often arranging for cigarettes to be distributed. Although he was still wearing a standard British officer's hat upon arrival in the desert, he briefly wore a wide-brimmed Australian hat before resorting to wearing a black beret (with a Royal Tank Regiment badge beside the British General Officer badge) which he became famous for. The black beret was presented to him by Jim Fraser while the latter escorted him to the inspection tour. Both Brooke and Alexander were stunned by the transformation in the atmosphere when they visited on August 19, less than a week after Montgomery took command.
First battle with Rommel
Rommel attempted to rotate the left side of the Eighth Army at the Battle of Alam el Halfa from 31 August 1942. The German/Italian armored Corps armament attack was stopped in heavy fighting. Rommel's troops had to retreat as quickly as possible so that their retreat through the British minefield was cut off. Montgomery was criticized for not attacking backward troops, but he felt strongly that his methodical powers he built were not ready. A rash counter-attack risks disrupting his strategy of attacking in his own way at the end of October, a plan that begins as soon as he takes over command. He was confirmed in the permanent rank of lieutenant general in mid-October.
The Libyan conquest is vital for the airfield to support Malta and threatens the back of Axis forces opposed to Operation Torch. Montgomery carefully prepared for the new attack after convincing Churchill that the time was not wasted. (Churchill sent a telegram to Alexander on September 23, 1942 that began, "We are in your hands and of course the winning battle will make many delays.") He was determined not to fight until he thought there was enough preparation for a decisive victory, and exercising his confidence with resource gathering, detailed planning, troop training - especially in clearing minefields and fighting at night - and in the use of the latest 252 Sherman American tanks, 90 M7 Priest self-propelled howitzers, and making personal visits to each units involved in the attack. By the time the attack was ready by the end of October, the Eighth Army had 231,000 people with ransum power.
El Alamein
The Second Battle of El Alamein began on October 23, 1942, and ended 12 days later with one of the first major-scale Allied land victories that decisive war. Montgomery correctly predicted the length of the battle and the number of casualties (13,500). Soon after armored units and Allied infantry broke through German and Italian lines and chased enemy troops at speed along the coastal roads, a violent rainstorm ravaged the area, flooding the tanks and supporting trucks in the desert mire. Montgomery, who stood in front of his officers at the headquarters and nearly wept, announced that he was forced to abandon the pursuit. The historian Corelli Barnett has pointed out that the rain also falls on the Germans, and that the weather is an inadequate explanation for the failure of a breakthrough exploit, but still the Battle of El Alamein has been a great success. More than 30,000 prisoners of war were taken, including the German second commander, General von Thoma, and eight other general officers. Rommel, who had been in hospital in Germany early in the fighting, was forced to return on 25 October 1942 after Stumme - his successor as commander of Germany - died of a heart attack in the early hours of the battle.
Tunisia
Montgomery advanced to KCB and was promoted to full general. He continued to take the initiative, applying superior strength when it suited him, forcing Rommel out of every consecutive defensive position. On March 6, 1943, Rommel's attack on the Eighth Army in Medenine (Operation Capri) with Germany's largest concentration of armor in North Africa was repulsed. At Mareth Line, 20 to 27 March, when Montgomery faced a fierce frontal opponent than he had expected, he turned his main effort into a brace, which was supported by low-flying RAF fighters. For his role in North Africa he was awarded the Legion of Merit by the United States government at the rank of Commander-in-Chief.
Sicily
The next major Allied attack was the Allied invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky). Montgomery considered the original plan for the Allied invasion, which had been approved in principle by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Mediterranean Alliance, and General Alexander, commander of the 15th Army Group, which could not be executed because of the spread of business. He succeeded in devising a plan to concentrate Allied forces, owning the US Army's Seventh Lieutenant General George Patton in Gela Bay (on the left wing of the Eighth Army, which landed around Syracuse in southeastern Sicily) rather than near Palermo in western and northern Sicily. Allied tensions grew as American commanders Patton and Omar Bradley (then head of the US Corps II under Patton), were offended by what they saw as Montgomery's attitude and pride.
Italian Campaign
During late 1943, Montgomery continued to lead the Eighth Army during landing in the Italian mainland itself, beginning with Operation Baytown. In conjunction with the Anglo-American landing at Salerno (near Napoli) by Lieutenant General Mark Clark, the US Fifth Army and the landing of the oceans by British parachuting forces on Italian heels (including the main port of Taranto, where they descend without a direct fight to the harbor) , Montgomery leads the Eighth Army at the end of Italy. Montgomery resented the lack of coordination, business deployment, strategic chaos and lack of opportunism he saw in the Allied efforts in Italy and was happy to leave "dog breakfast" on December 23, 1943.
Normandy
Montgomery returned to England in January 1944. He was assigned to lead the 21st Army Group composed of all Allied ground forces participating in Operation Overlord, codenamed for the Allied invasion of Normandy. The overall direction was assigned to the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, American General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Both Churchill and Eisenhower had discovered that Montgomery had a hard time working in the past and wanted a position to go to the friendlier General Sir Harold Alexander. But Montgomery's patron, General Sir Alan Brooke, firmly argued that Montgomery was a superior superior to Alexander and ensured his appointment. Without Brooke's support, Montgomery will remain in Italy. At St. Paul's School on April 7 and May 15 Montgomery presented his strategy for the invasion. He envisioned the battle of ninety days, with all the power reaching the Seine. The campaign will center on Allied-controlled Caen east of the Normandy bridge, with relatively static British and Canadian soldiers shaping the shoulders to withdraw and defeat the German counter-offensive, freeing US troops who will march and seize the Cotentin and Brittany Peninsula, glide south then east on the right form a pincer.
During the ten-week Battle of Normandy, unfavorable autumn weather conditions disrupted the Normandy landing area. Montgomery's original plan was for Anglo-Canadian troops under his command to get out of their shore on the Calvados coast to Caen for the purpose of taking the city on D or two days later. Montgomery attempted to take Caen with the 3rd Infantry Division, the 50th Infantry Division (Northumbria) and the 3rd Canadian Division but was suspended from 6-8 June by the 21st Panzer Division and the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend , which hit Anglo-Canadian troops who advanced very hard. Rommel followed up this success by ordering the 2nd Panzer Division for Caen while Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt requested and received permission from Hitler to have the first elite Waffen SS Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler and the 2nd SS Waffen Division < i> Das Reich was sent to Caen as well. So Montgomery had to face what Stephen Badsey called "the most formidable" of all German divisions in France. The 12th SS Waffen Division Hitlerjugend as the name implies is entirely taken from the more fanatic elements of Hitler Youth and commanded by SS- BrigadefÃÆ'¼hrer Kurt Meyer, aka "Panzer Meyer".
The failure to take Caen immediately has been the source of a major historiographical dispute with a bitter nationalist tone. In general, there has been a "British school" that received Montgomery post-war claims that it never intended to take Caen at once, and instead the Anglo-Canadian operation around Caen was a "detention operation" intended to attract most German troops into the sector Caen to allow the Americans to perform "broken surgery" on the left side of the German position, which is part of Montgomery's "Main Plan" that he had conceived long before the Normandy campaign. In contrast, the "American school" argues that Montgomery's original "master plan" was for the 21st Army Group to take Caen at once, transferring his tank division to the southern plains of Caen to launch a run that would lead the 21st Army Group into the northern French plains and hence to Antwerp and finally Ruhr. The letters written by Eisenhower at the time of the battle made it clear that Eisenhower was expecting from Montgomery "an early capture of Caen's important point". Later, when the plan clearly failed, Eisenhower wrote that Montgomery had "evolved" a plan to force US troops to break-out instead.
As the campaign progressed, Montgomery changed its original plan for the invasion and continued the strategy of withdrawing and resisting the German counterattack in the northern region of Caen rather than to the south, to allow the US First Army in the west to take Cherbourg. A memo summarizing Montgomery's operations written by Eisenhower's chief of staff, General Walter Bedell Smith who met Montgomery at the end of June 1944 did not say anything about Montgomery performing a "holding operation" in Caen sector, and instead talked about him seeking "breakthrough" into the southern plains of the Seine. On June 12, Montgomery ordered the 7th Armored Division to be an attack on the Lehr Panzer Division which made good progress at first but ended when Panzer Lehr joined the 2nd Panzer Division. At Villers Bocage on June 14, Britain lost twenty Cromwell tanks to five Tiger tanks led by Michael Wittmann's SS ObersturmfÃÆ'¼hrer in about five minutes. Despite the decline in Villers Bocage, Montgomery is still optimistic because the Allies landed more troops and supplies than lost the battle, and although the German line holds, the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS suffer considerable friction. Air Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder complained that it was impossible to move a combat squadron to France until Montgomery captured several airfields, something he insisted that Montgomery apparently could not do. The first V-1 attack in London, which began on June 13, further increased the pressure on Montgomery of Whitehall to accelerate his progress.
On June 18, Montgomery ordered Bradley to take Cherbourg while England took Caen on June 23. In Operation Epsom, the British VII Corps commanded by Sir Richard O'Connor seeks to overthrow Caen from the west by breaking through the dividing line between Panzer Lehr and the 12th SS to pick up the strategic Hill 112. Epsom started well with O'Connor's assault troops, the 15th Scottish Scottish Division broke through and with the 11th Armored Division halting a counterattack from the 12th SS Division. General Friedrich Dollmann of the 7th Army should conduct the newly arrived SS2 Corps to stop the British attack. Dollmann, fearing that Epsom would be successful, committed suicide and was succeeded by Paul Hausser's SS OberstegruppenfÃÆ'¼hrer . O'Connor, costing about 4,000 people, has won a distance of 5 miles (8.0 km) and 2 miles (3.2 km) wide but puts Germany into an untenable long-term position. There was a strong sense of crisis in the Allied command when the Allies had advanced only about 15 miles (24 km) inland, at a time when their plan called them to take Rennes, Alenç§on and St.. Malo. After Epsom, Montgomery had to inform General Harry Crerar that the activation of the First Canadian Army had to wait as there was space currently in the Caen sector only for the newly arrived Corps XII under Lt. Gen. Neil Ritchie, causing tension with Crerar eager to enter the field. Epsom has forced the German forces further into Caen but throughout June and the first half of July Rommel, Rundstedt, and Hitler were involved in planning for a major offensive to expel Britain into the sea; it was never launched and would require the commitment of a large number of German troops to the Caen sector.
Only after several unsuccessful attempts to break through the Caen sector, Montgomery devised what he later called his "master plan" by making the 21st Armies hold most of the German troops, allowing the Americans to leave. The Canadian historian Terry Copp and Robert Vogel write about the dispute between "American school" and "British school" after some setbacks in June 1944:
Montgomery drew the undeniable conclusion of these events. If Britain and Canada could continue to hold most of the German armored divisions in front of them through a series of limited attacks, they could weaken Germany and create conditions for American escape on the right.
This is what Montgomery submitted in his Directive on June 30 and, if he and his admirers let the tape speak for themselves, there will be some debate about his actions at the first stage of the Normandy campaign. In contrast, Montgomery insisted that this Instruction was a consistent part of the master plan he had made long before the invasion. Surprisingly, this view is so detrimental to 'Monty' for any rigid operation planning before the German response is known to be a bad general! ".
Hampered by hurricane and bocage weather, Montgomery must make sure Rommel focuses on Britain in the east rather than America in the west, which must take the Cotentin and Brittany Peninsula before Germany can be trapped by a general eastern swing. Montgomery told General Sir Miles Dempsey, commander of the 2nd British Army: "Keep hitting, pull the German powers, especially some armor, on yourself - making it easy for Brad [Bradley]." Germany has deployed 12 divisions, six of which are Panzer divisions against England while deploying 8 divisions, of which 3 Panzer divisions are against the Americans. In mid-July Caen had not been taken yet, as Rommel continued to prioritize the prevention of break-ins by British troops rather than the western regions taken by the Americans. This is widely as Montgomery has planned, though not at the same pace as outlined in St. Paul, although as American historian Carlo D'Este points out the actual situation in Normandy is "quite different" from what is imagined in St.. The Pauline Conference as only one of the four goals outlined in May was reached on July 10.
On July 7, Montgomery started Operation Charnwood with a carpet bombing raid that turned most of the rural areas of France and the city of Caen into a desert. The British and Canadians managed to advance to northern Caen before the Germans used the ruins to their advantage and stop the attacks. On July 10, Montgomery ordered Bradley to take Avranches, after which the 3rd US Army would be activated to Le Mans and Alenç§on. On July 14, 1944, Montgomery wrote to his patron Brooke, saying that he had chosen "a real show on the east side, and unleashed the Corps of three armored divisions in the open country about Caen-Falaise's way... most likely, with seven hundred tanks released to southeastern Caen, and armored cars operating far ahead, anything can happen. "The French Resistance had launched Plan Violet in June 1944 to systematically destroy the French telephone system, which forced the Germans to use their radio more and more for communicate, and as the code-breaker Bletchley Park has broken many German codes, Montgomery has - through Ultra intelligence - a good idea of ​​the German situation. Thus Montgomery knows German Army Group B has lost 96,400 people while receiving 5,200 replacements and the now-based Lehr Panzer Division at St. LÃÆ'Â' dropped to just 40 tanks. Montgomery later wrote that he knew he had won the Normandy campaign at this point because Germany had almost no reserves while he had three armored divisions as a reserve.
An American breakthrough was achieved with Operation Cobra and the siege of German forces in the pockets of Falaise at the expense of British losses with Operation of the Goodwood Switcher. On the morning of July 18, 1944, Operation Goodwood began with a heavy British bomber who started a carpet bombing raid which further destroyed what remained of Caen and the surrounding area. A British tank crew from the Guard Armored Division then recalled: "At 5:00 am, a thunder deep in the air brought all the tank-dunked crew out of their blankets.1001 Lancaster flew from the sea in groups of three or four at 3,000 feet (910 m ) In front of those pathfinders who spread their flares and soon the first bomb dropped ". A German tank crewman from the 21st Panzer Division at the receiving end of the bombing remembers: "We see small dots escape from the plane, so many of those who think crazy happen to us: are the leaflets? between the thunder of the explosion, we can hear the wounded screams and crazy madmen who have gone mad The British bombing has destroyed the German frontline units, for example tanks dumped on the roofs of French farmhouses.Initially, three divisions of ply British steel commissioned to lead the attacks, 7, 11 and Guards, made rapid progress and soon approached Borguebus's back, which dominated the southern sights of Caen by day.
If Britain could take the back of Borguebus, the road to the northern French plains would be wide open, and potentially Paris could be taken, which explains the ferocity that Germany used to defend the back of Borguebus. A German officer, Lieutenant Baron von Rosen recalls that to motivate a Luftwaffe officer who ordered a battery of four 88mm rifles to fight the British tank that he had to hold his gun to his head "... and asked him if he wanted to be killed soon or get high decorations. decide for the last one ". The well-dug 88mm gun around the Borguebus ridge began to take over the British Sherman tanks and the countryside soon filled with dozens of burned Shermans. A British officer reported with concern: "I saw smoke and tanks burning with fire scattered from their turrets, I saw people climbing out, burning like torches, rolling on the ground to try and put out the fire." Despite Montgomery's orders to try to suppress, a fierce German counter-attack halted the British attack.
The goals of Goodwood Operation are all achieved except the complete capture of Bourgebus Ridge, which is partly taken. The operation was a strategic ally success in attracting Germany's last reserves in Normandy to the Caen sector of the American sector, greatly assisting Americans in Cobra Operations. At the end of Goodwood on July 25, 1944, Canada finally took Caen, while British tanks had reached the plain south of Caen, giving Montgomery the "hinge" he was seeking, while forcing Germany to back up their last. to stop Anglo-Canadian attacks. The ultra decryption indicates that the Germans who now face Bradley are seriously under power with Operation Cobra will begin. During Operation Goodwood, the UK has 400 tanks being demolished with many recovering back into service. The victim is 5,500 with 7 miles (11 km) of the land obtained. Bradley acknowledged Montgomery's plan to spell out German armor and allow US troops to leave:
The British and Canadian troops are to spy on enemy reserves and pull them forward on the extreme east edge of the Allied coast. So while Monty mocked the enemy at Caen, we [Americans] had to make our break on a long roundabout road to Paris. When calculated in terms of national pride, this British bait mission became a sacrifice, because while we were walking around the outside, England had to sit on the spot and trace the German troops. But strategically it fits into a logical division of labor, as it goes to Caen that the enemy's reserves will race after the alarm goes off.
The longstanding strife of what Montgomery's "master plan" in Normandy was, caused historians to be very different about Goodwood's goals. British journalist Mark Urban wrote that Goodwood's goal was to draw German troops to the left wing to allow the Americans to run on the right wing, arguing that Montgomery should lie to his soldiers about Goodwood's goal as an average Englishman. soldiers will not understand why they were asked to make a diversion to allow America to have the staging glory with Operation Cobra. In contrast, the American historian Stephen Power argues that Goodwood intended to be an offensive "escape" rather than a "holding operation", writes: "It is unrealistic to assert that an operation that calls for the use of 4,500 Allied planes, 700 pieces of artillery and more than 8,000 armored vehicles and trucks and which cost more than 5,500 British victims were conceived and executed for very limited purposes ". Power noted that Goodwood and Cobra were supposed to take effect on the same day, July 18, 1944, but Cobra was canceled due to heavy rains in the American sector, and argued that the two operations were intended to be a runaway operation to trap German soldiers in Normandy. US military writer Drew Middleton writes that there is no doubt that Montgomery wants Goodwood to provide a "shield" for Bradley, but at the same time Montgomery clearly hopes more than just diverting German attention from the American sector. The British historian John Keegan points out that Montgomery made a different statement before Goodwood about the purpose of the operation. Keegan writes that Montgomery was involved in what he called "the hedge of the stakes" when compiling his plan for Goodwood, with plans to "break if the front collapses; otherwise, strong documentary evidence that all he meant in the first place was a battle attrition ". With Goodwood pulling the Wehrmacht into the British sector, the First American Army enjoyed a numerical advantage of two to one and General Omar Bradley had accepted Montgomery's suggestion to launch the offensive by concentrating on a single point rather than the "broad front" Eisenhower wanted..
Goodwood's operations almost burdened Montgomery's work, as Eisenhower seriously considered firing him and simply chose not to do so because the popular dismissal of "Monty" would cause such a political reaction in Britain against America at a critical moment in the war. strains produced in the Atlantic alliance are not considered viable. Montgomery expressed his satisfaction over Goodwood's results when calling the operation. Eisenhower gets the impression that Goodwood will be a rest operation. There was a miscommunication between two people or Eisenhower who did not understand the strategy. Chief Alan Brooke of the General Staff of the British Empire wrote: "Ike knows nothing about strategy and is quite unsuited to the position of Commander-in-Chief.Not surprising that Monty's true high capabilities are not always realized" Bradley fully understands Montgomery's intentions. The two men will not give to the press the true purpose of their strategy.
Many American officers have found Montgomery a difficult person to work with, and after Goodwood, pressing Eisenhower to fire Montgomery. Although the Eisenhower-Montgomery dispute is sometimes portrayed in nationalist terms as an Anglo-American struggle, it is the British Air Marshal Arthur Tedder who suppresses the most powerful Eisenhower after Goodwood fired Montgomery. An American officer wrote in his diary that Tedder came to see Eisenhower to "pursue his current favorite subject, Monty's dismissal". With Tedder leading the "Monty sack" campaign, it encourages American enemies Montgomery to pressure Eisenhower to fire Montgomery. Brooke was quite worried about the "Monty sack" campaign to visit Montgomery at his tactical headquarters (TAC) in France and when he wrote in his diary; "warned [Montgomery] about the tendency at PM [Churchill] to hear suggestions that Monty was playing for security and not ready to take risks." Brooke advised Montgomery to invite Churchill to Normandy, arguing that if the "sack Monty" campaign had won the Prime Minister, his career would have ended because Churchill's support would give Eisenhower political "protection" to dismiss Montgomery. On July 20, Montgomery met Eisenhower and on 21 July Churchill at TAC in France. One of the staff at Montgomery wrote afterward that it was "general knowledge in Tac that Churchill had come to fire Monty". No records were taken at Eisenhower-Montgomery and Churchill-Montgomery meetings, but Montgomery was able to persuade the two men not to fire him.
With the success of Cobra, which was soon followed by the release of the 3rd American Army under General George S. Patton, Eisenhower wrote to Montgomery: "I am delighted that your basic plan has begun to unfold with Bradley's early success." The success of Cobra was aided by Operation Spring when the Canadian Corps II under General Guy Simonds (the only Canadian general whose skill was honored by Montgomery) began a southern offensive of Caen which made little progress, but which Germany regarded as the main attack. After the 3rd American Army arrived, Bradley was promoted to take command of the newly formed 12th Army Group composed of the 1st and 3rd American Army. After the American escape, there followed the Battle of the Gap Falaise as British, Canadian and Polish troops from the 21st Army Group ordered by Montgomery to advance south while the American and French troops from the 12th Army Group of Bradley advanced north to besiege the German Army Group B in Falaise as Montgomery inflames what Urban called the "great battle of extermination" in August 1944. Montgomery began his offensive into the Suisse Normande region with Operation Bluecoat with Corps VIII Sir Richard O'Connor and Gerard Bucknall XXX Corps heading south. Disgruntled Montgomery fired Bucknall for not being aggressive and replacing him with General Brian Horrocks. At the same time, Montgomery ordered that Patton's Third Army should advance to Brittany to send only minimum troops and instead ordered that Patton be to capture Nantes, which was soon taken.
Hitler waited too long to order his troops to withdraw from Normandy, which caused Montgomery to write: "He [Hitler] refuses to face the only healthy military road, and as a result, the Allies cause the enemy to lose many people and material." Knowing through the Ultra that Hitler did not plan to resign from Normandy, Montgomery, on August 6, 1944, ordered that envelope operations against the Group B Army with the First Canadian Army under Harry Crerar, who would advance towards Falaise, the Second British Army under Miles Dempsey is to advance towards Argentan and Third American Army under George S. Patton to advance to AlenÃÆ'§on. On August 11, Montgomery changed his plans with Canada to take Falaise and meet with Americans at Argentan. The First Canadian Army launched two operations, Operation Total on August 7 that advanced only 9 miles (14 km) in four days in the face of Germany's fierce resistance and Operation Tractable on 14 August which finally took Falaise on 17 August. Given Canada's slow decline, Patton requested permission to take Falaise, but was rejected by Bradley on August 13, which prompted much controversy with many historians arguing that Bradley had no aggression and that Montgomery should have ruled out Bradley. The so-called "Falaise Gap" was closed on August 22, 1944, but some American generals, especially Patton, accused Montgomery of not being aggressive enough to close it, about 60,000 German troops trapped in Normandy, but before August 22, about 20,000 Germans escaped "Falaise gap" for fighting at a later time. About 10,000 German soldiers were killed in the Falaise Gap Battle, which shocked Eisenhower, who looked at the battlefield on August 24, to comment with horror that it was impossible to walk without stepping on a corpse. The successful conclusion of the Normandy campaign saw the beginning of the debate between "American schools" and "British schools" as American and British generals began to file claims about who was most responsible for this victory. Brooke writes in defending protà © © © Montgomery: "Ike knows nothing about strategy and is quite unsuited to the position of Commander-in-Chief.Not surprising that Monty's real high ability does not always materialize, especially when the 'national' glasses twist strategic landscape perspective ". About Montgomery's behavior from the Normandy campaign, Badsey writes:
Too much discussion about Normandy centered on the controversial decision of the Allied commander. It's not good enough, it seems, to win such a huge and spectacular victory over an enemy that has conquered most of Europe unless it is done perfectly. Much of the blame for this lies with Montgomery, who is foolish enough to insist that it has been done perfectly, that Normandy - and all the other battles - have fought according to the preconceived master plan, from which he never deviates. He says a lot for his personality that Montgomery finds others to agree with him, despite very much conflicting evidence. His handling of the Battle of Normandy is a very high order, and as a person who must have been blamed for losing the battle, he deserves praise for winning it.
Going to the Rhine
General Eisenhower took command of the Land Force on September 1, while continuing as Commander-in-Chief, with Montgomery continuing to lead the 21st Army Group, now mainly composed of British and Canadian units. Montgomery hated this change even though it was approved before the D-Day invasion. British journalist Mark Urban writes that Montgomery does not seem to understand that the majority of the 2.2 million Allied troops who fought against the Germans on the Western Front are now Americans (the ratio is 3 : 1) that it is politically incapable was accepted by American public opinion in order for Montgomery to remain Commander of the Land Force as: "Politics will not allow him to pass orders to the great American army simply because, in his view, he is better than their generals".
Winston Churchill told Montgomery to lead the marshal with compensation. In September 1944, Montgomery ordered Crerar and his first Canadian Army to take the French port of the English Channel, namely Calais, Boulogne, and Dunkirk. On September 4, Antwerp, Europe's third largest port, was captured by Horrocks, with its port still largely intact. The Witte Brigade (Belgian Brigade) of the Belgian resistance has captured the Port of Antwerp, before Germany can destroy the harbor. Antwerp is an inland port connected to the North Sea via the Scheldt river. Scheldt is wide enough and dredged deep enough to allow the marine voyages to travel.
On September 3, 1944, Hitler ordered the 15th German Army, which had been stationed in the Pas de Calais region and drew north to the Low Countries to hold the mouth of the Scheldt river to deprive the Allies for the use of Antwerp. Thanks to ULTRA, Montgomery realizes Hitler's order on September 5th. Starting on the same day, the SHAEF naval commander, Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay urged Montgomery to vacate the number one priority Schedlt, on the grounds that as long as Scheldt's mouth was in German hands, it was impossible for the Royal Navy to clear mines in the river, and when Scheldt mined, port of Antwerpen useless. Alone among the senior commanders, only Ramsay saw the opening of Antwerp as important.
On September 6, 1944, Montgomery told Crerar that "I want Boulogne bad" and the city should be taken no matter what the cost. At this point, ports like Cherbourg are too far from the front line, causing major logistical problems in the Allies. The importance of the port closer to Germany is highlighted with the liberation of the city of Le Havre, which was assigned to I Corps John Crocker. To retrieve Le Havre, two infantry divisions, two tank brigades, most of the second British Army artillery, special armored "chisels" from the Percy Hobart 19th Armored Division, HMS Warship warship and monitors HMSÃ, Erebus are all committed. On September 10, 1944, the Bomber Command dropped 4,719 tons of bombs in Le Havre, which was the start of Operation Astonia, an attack on Le Havre by Crocker people, taken two days later. The Canadian historian Terry Copp writes that the weapons and these people's commitment to take just one French city may "seem excessive", but at this point, the Allies desperately need a port closer to the front to sustain their progress.
On September 9, Montgomery wrote to Brooke that "one nice Pas de Calais harbor" would be sufficient to meet all the logistical needs of the 21st Army Group, but only the supply needs of the same formation. At the same time, Montgomery noted that "a good Pas de Calais harbor" would not be enough for the American army in France, thus forcing Eisenhower, if for no other reason than logistics, to support Montgomery's plan for an invasion of northern Germany by 21st Army Group, whereas if Antwerpen is opened, then all Allied troops can be given. Montgomery ordered that Crerar bring Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk and clean up Scheldt, a task Crerar thought impossible because he did not have enough troops to do both operations at once. Montgomery rejected Crerar's request to have the British Corps XII under Neil Ritchie assigned to help clean up Scheldt because Montgomery declared him needing the XII Corps for Market Market Operations. Montgomery was able to force Eisenhower to adopt his strategy from a push to Ruhr with Operation Market Garden in September 1944. The attack was very strategic.
On September 22, 1944, General Guy Simonds's II Canadian Corps took Boulogne, followed by taking Calais on October 1, 1944. Montgomery was very impatient with Simonds, complaining that he had taken Crocker's I Corps just two days to take Le Havre when taking Simonds two weeks to take Boulogne and Calais, but Simonds notes that in Le Havre, three divisions and two brigades have been hired while in Boulogne and Calais, only two brigades are sent to take both cities. After the Leopold Canal's invasion of Canadian 4th Division has been severely damaged by German defenders, Simonds ordered a further cessation of efforts to clean up the Scheldt River until his mission to capture the French port of the English Channel was completed; this allowed the German 15th Army time to dig up a new home in Scheldt. The only port not captured by the Canadians is Dunkirk, as Montgomery orders the 2nd Canadian Division on September 15 to defend his wing in Antwerp as a prelude to Scheldt's progress.
Garden Market Operation
The Montgomery Plan for Market Market Operations (17-25 September 1944) was to besiege the Siegfried Line and cross the Rhine, set the stage for later attacks on the Ruhr region. The 21st Army Group will attack north of Belgium, 60 miles (97 km) through the Netherlands, crossing the Rhine and consolidating north Arnhem on the far side of the Rhine. The risky plan requires three Airborne Divisions to capture many intact bridges along a one-lane road, where the entire Corps must attack and use as its main supply route. The attack failed to achieve its goal.
After the Market Market, Montgomery made holding Arnhem stand out his first priority, arguing that 2 British Army might still be able to break through and reach the wide open plains of northern Germany, and that he might be able to pick up Ruhr in late October. Meanwhile, the First Canadian Army, tasked with cleansing the mouth of the Scheldt river, despite the fact that in the words of Copp and Vogel "... that Montgomery's Directive requires Canadians to continue to fight alone for nearly two weeks in battles approved by everyone only won with the help of additional divisions ". For his part, Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, the German commander of the Western Front ordered General Gustav-Adolf von Zangen, commander of the 15th Army that: "The enemy's attempts to occupy West Scheldt for free use from the port of Antwerpen must be up against the most "(emphasis in the original). Rundstedt argued with Hitler that as long as the Allies were unable to use the port of Antwerp, the Allies would lack the logistical capacity for the German invasion.
Montgomery withdrew from the First Canadian Army (temporarily ordered by Simonds when Crerar was sick), the 51st British Highland Division, 1st Polish Division, British West's 49th Division and the 2nd Canadian Steel Brigade and sent all this formation to help the 2nd British Army hold the prominent Arnhem. However, Simonds seems to have regarded Scheldt's campaign as a test of his ability, and he feels he can clean Scheldt with only three Canadian divisions, ie the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, although it must take the entire 15th Army, a strong position in a landscape that supports defense. Simonds never complained about the lack of air support (compounded by the cloudy October weather), lack of ammunition or insufficient troops, on this issue as a challenge for him to overcome, not a reason for complaints. Like that, Simonds made only slow progress in October 1944 during the battle at Scheldt Battle, although he was praised by Copp for his imaginative and aggressive leadership that accomplished many things, despite all the obstacles that existed on him. Montgomery greatly respected the Canadian generals, whom he regarded as mediocre, except for Simonds, who he consistently praised as Canada's only "first degree" throughout the war.
Admiral Ramsay, who proved to be a much more articulate and powerful champion of Canada than his own general, began October 9 demanding Eisenhower at a meeting that he ordered Montgomery to support the First Canadian Army at Scheldt against the number of priorities or dismiss him. Ramsay in very strong language argued to Eisenhower that the Allies could only attack Germany if Antwerp was opened, and that for the three Canadian divisions fighting at Scheldt had shortages of ammunition and artillery shells because Montgomery made Arnhem stand out as his first priority, Antwerp would not be opened in soon. Even Brooke wrote in his diary: "I feel that Monty's strategy for once is wrong, instead of making progress to Arnhem he must make sure of Antwerp". Requested by Ramsay, Eisenhower sent Montgomery on October 9, 1944, a cable emphasizing "the main interest of Antwerp", stating that "Canadian Army will not, repeat no, can attack until November unless promptly supplied with adequate ammunition", and ultimately warns that Allied progress to Jerma
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