Historical Figure
Bernard Montgomery
d. 1976
British Army officer (1887–1976)
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Biography
Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein,, nicknamed "Monty", was a senior British Army officer who served in the First World War, the Irish War of Independence and the Second World War.
In Their Own Words (5)
Leadership is the capacity and will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence.
As quoted in Hearts Touched With Fire: My 500 Favorite Inspirational Quotations (2004) by Elizabeth Hanford Dole, p. 143 , 2004
The United States has broken the second rule of war. That is: don't go fighting with your land army on the mainland in Asia. Rule One is, don't march on Moscow. I developed those two rules myself.
Interview, 2 July, 1968; quoted in New York Times, 3 July, 1968, p. 6. , 1968
Rule 1, on page 1 of the book of war, is: "Do not march on Moscow". Various people have tried it, Napoleon and Hitler, and it is no good. That is the first rule. I do not know whether your Lordships will know Rule 2 of war. It is: "Do not go fighting with your land armies in China". It is a vast country, with no clearly defined objectives.
In the House of Lords, 30 May 1962 (Hansard, Col. 227) , 1962
I want to impose on everyone that the bad times are over, they are finished! Our mandate from the Prime Minister is to destroy the Axis forces in North Africa...It can be done, and it will be done!
Said to his troops in North Africa, promising the swift defeat of Rommel
The frightful casualties appalled me. The so-called "good fighting generals" of the war appeared to me to be those who had a complete disregard for human life. There were of course exceptions and I suppose one was Plumer; I had only once seen him and I had never spoken to him.
Timeline
The story of Bernard Montgomery, told in moments.
Shot through the right lung by a sniper at Meteren during the First Battle of Ypres. A soldier who stopped to help him was killed. Montgomery survived and returned to the Western Front.
Defeated Rommel at the Second Battle of El Alamein in Egypt. Churchill said: "Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat." Montgomery became a national hero overnight.
Planned Operation Market Garden, an airborne assault to capture bridges in the Netherlands. The operation failed at Arnhem. Over 17,000 Allied soldiers were killed, wounded, or captured. The bridge was "a bridge too far."
Died at 88 in Alton, Hampshire. He'd been difficult, vain, and quarrelsome with nearly every general he served alongside. Also one of the most effective battlefield commanders Britain ever produced.
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