borebage53
Knife & Fork pending
Monty our WWII Hero,Britain’s Greatest General? On Channel 5.
Montgomery's greatest talent was his ability to deal with politicians, to refuse to be rushed or bullied into doing anything before he and his troops were good and ready.Monty our WWII Hero,Britain’s Greatest General? On Channel 5.
Indeed, he was very much the 'big picture' sort of general, relied a lot on his staff for the detail stuff which is as it should be.Monty was aided brilliantly by his Chief of Staff,Major General “Freddie” de Guingand. Not only on the battlefield but also through his political and diplomatic skills in ‘smoothing over’ the countless “difficulties” Monty had with his superiors and Eisenhower and the Americans. His advice and diplomacy saved Monty’s job after the Battle of the Bulge when Eisenhower was about to sack him.He advocated the press corps to be more responsible in their reporting of Anglo/American relations.
“I do not know what I would do without him as he is quite 1st class”-Monty in a letter to Chief of the Imperial General Staff,General Alan Brooke in reference to de Guingand.
He survived a war time air crash.
He was created a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1944.
He was invested in the field with his Knighthood by King George VI at Eindhoven on 15th October 1944.
I don't know whether it was the cause of the enmity between Bradly and Montgomery or the result of it but they blamed each other for the failure to close the 'Falais Gap'.Patton was OK racing over open country against relatively light opposition. When he got to Nancy and Metz he encountered the same problems that Monty had at Caen. Bradley hated Monty. The only Yank that Monty liked and worked well with was "Lightning Joe" Collins!
Yes it was thin stuff, very much done on the cheap as is so often the way with documentaries these days.I’ve seen better programmes and read better books on this subject!
Not sure if you’re aware but Operation Mincemeat is being released as a new film starring Colin Firth in January 2022. Looking forward to seeing it