The German officer put a finger into the bucket of water, then touched it to his tongue. Salty. One more well the British had gotten to. Not all were salted. Some had oil poured in, and others were just blown up. Armies may be able to survive on shorter rations and even on a careful use of limited ammunition, but fresh water was an absolute necessity. For the Afrika Korps, it was one more reason to break through El Alamein. Ahead lay Alexandria, less than 70 miles away.
It was late October 1942. German and Italian forces faced the British 8th Army at El Alamein in northwest Egypt. The commander of the Afrika Korps, Erwin Rommel (Number 39), had earned a reputation as “The Desert Fox,” a skillful and aggressive desert fighter.The commander of the British forces, Bernard Montgomery, was about to be tested in his first desert command. It became one of the major turning points of the war.
From India to Egypt
Bernard Montgomery was born in London in 1887. He graduated from Sandhurst in 1907 and spent five years with the British Army in India. When World War I began in 1914, he fought in France, where he was wounded in action. Between the wars, his army career was relatively uneventful. In 1938, he was stationed in Palestine, where his troops put down Arab unrest.
Just days before the invasion of Poland in 1939 and the start of World War II, Montgomery was assigned command of the 3rd Division. His outfit was part of the British Expeditionary Force that was sent to France. Following the German triumph in France, Montgomery and his men were among those evacuated at Dunkirk in June 1940.
After several commands, Montgomery was assigned to head the 8th Army, under Harold Alexander’s (Number 76) overall command. In August 1942, Montgomery arrived in Egypt to assume his new responsibility. Two months later, his 8th Army faced the Afrika Korps.
The Battle for North Africa
As the battle of El Alamein began, the British had the advantage in manpower as well as in tanks. The Germans had the advantage of momentum and the most experienced desert fighter of the war. From Montgomery’s viewpoint, Rommel’s Afrika Korps was clearly threatening not only Alexandria but Suez. Rommel had to be stopped.
On October 23, 1942, the battle began with devastating British artillery fire. Then the British tanks moved in. The battle raged for nearly two weeks; on November 4, the British broke through. Short of tanks, short of supplies, and short of fresh water, the Afrika Korps was in full retreat.
Just days later, American forces would land in Algeria and French Morocco, squeezing the Afrika Korps between the British on the east and the Americans on the west. The battle for North Africa would end in Tunisia with Allied victory in May 1943.
Two months later, the Allies invaded Sicily. Montgomery led the British forces while George S. Patton (Number ll) led the Americans. The British and American armies continued into the mainland of Italy.
For the coming invasion of northern France, Montgomery was assigned command of all ground forces, with Dwight D. Eisenhower (Number 7) in supreme command.
Victory on D-Day
From this point on, the story of Montgomery is somewhat confusing. British military historians tend to picture Montgomery somewhat differently than their American counterparts. The field marshal, many British observers believe, faced the heaviest resistance on D-Day, was quick to obey the orders of his commanders, and was aggressive in the use of his army. The traditional American view is that the British commander had the weak-est resistance on D-Day, that he did not always obey orders—at least not right away—and that he was timid, requiring neat lines before moving forward.
In August 1944, Montgomery was relieved of the responsibility for all ground forces. He retained command of the British forces in France, and Omar Bradley (Number 33) led the American forces.
In September, Montgomery’s plan for Operation Market-Garden was launched. It involved the seizure of key points in Holland, followed by a sweep into Germany. Part of the problem might have been geography, trying to reach “a bridge too far.” It might also have involved betrayal on the ground by a Dutch underground leader. In any case, the operation failed.
The Allies moved into Belgium. As December approached, Adolf Hitler (Number l) was completing plans for his final gamble of the war. It would test the Anglo-American coalition as it had never been tested before.
The Battle of the Bulge
In mid-December, the Germans smashed into the Ardennes. The assault would for-ever be known as the Battle of the Bulge. It was an intelligence disaster and a communications nightmare. Two American armies, cut off from communication with Bradley’s headquarters, were temporarily put under Montgomery’s command.
According to the Americans, Montgomery would not move to help relieve the pressure on the critical Bastogne juncture. To make matters worse, the British commander then took the credit for stopping the Ardennes offensive. American commanders would regard that as insult added to injury.
The situation was so poisonous that Winston Churchill (Number 3) felt it necessary to set things straight. In a speech to the House of Commons, he let the statistics speak for themselves:
“The United States troops have done almost all the fighting and have suffered almost all the losses. They have suffered losses almost equal to those of both sides at the Battle of Gettysburg. The Americans have engaged 30 or 40 men for every one we have engaged and have lost 60 to 80 men to every one of ours.... Care must be taken in telling our proud tale not to claim for the British armies undue share of what is undoubtedly the greatest American battle of the war.”
The year after the war ended, Queen Elizabeth II granted Montgomery a peerage. He became Viscount Montgomery of Alamein. He served two years as chief of the Imperial General Staff and then spent some time writing his memoirs.
Viscount Montgomery died in 1976.
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