Back The 54mm soldier. Top quality painting. Price is $472.
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Click on the small photo below to enlarge!!! |
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Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery has become one of the most controversial, intriguing, and perhaps misunderstood Generals in the Allied Forces in the Second World War. Bernard Law Montgomery grew up in Tasmania, was educated in England, and served with the English forces in World War I, where he was wounded near to death in his first campaign. Eventually recovering from his wounds, Montgomery became a career army man, and rose to the rank of General by the outset of the Second World War. General Montgomery was the commander of the Eighth Army in North Africa when, in January, 1944, he was appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force. This appointment placed him as a direct subordinate to General Eisenhower, and gave him the control of all infantry manoeuvres in the Normandy campaign.
Monty cut an unusual figure as a commander. He was a small, fit man; very particular about his clothing and appearance. He had a remarkably egoistic and irritable manner. When dealing with his superiors or his peers, he was blunt and irascible; when visiting or addressing his troops, he was a stiff speaker and had a habit of taking a couple of packs of cigarettes and throwing them out to the crowd. This difficult manner won Montgomery many critics, as did some of his military decisions.
General Montgomery was particularly conscious of the tremendous manpower crisis in England. Similarly, "he never shrank from confronting the ultimate truth about war: that it is won or lost with the lives of human beings," and he held a firm conviction that the "squandering of life is the cardinal military sin". Therefore, he tried to plan all Normandy objectives, and particularly the beach landing and the taking of Caen, in such a way that would minimize casualties. This approach was deemed over cautious and indecisive by many of Monty's critics, especially U.S. General Bradley, and RAF Bomber Command Harris, who felt that Montgomery's special interest in conserving the waning English infantry resources made him particularly dependent on other branches of the military forces.
But many military commanders and historians dealt with General Montgomery's coarse bearing as a kind of eccentricity, and recognized the extremely harrowing circumstances under which he was working. He has as many admirers as critics. Carlo D'Este, a military historian, points out that "he was certainly a far greater commander than most Americans were willing to admit or to comprehend"; and Michael Howard, another historian, wrote, "No British commander in the war showed a better grasp of the intricacies of his appallingly difficult profession, and none showed a better understanding of the men that he led."
Following World War II, General Montgomery continued to serve as a leader in the British military, first as CIGS, between 1946-48, and then as Deputy Supreme Commander of NATO. In 1958, Montgomery retired to travel and write his memoirs. He died in 1976 at the age of 88.