DEFENDING MONTY

In his book, The bramall Papers, lord bramall offers his own Take on one of britain’s most loved and loathed commanders

“Montgomery has rather fallen out with historians, and i think that is because historians wanted a sensational thing to [sell]… whereas i think early on Montgomery was in the hall of fame. Montgomery wasn’t a very nice chap either, he was his own worst enemy, but he was an admirable professional.

“What he did well was to put confidence back into the army, which it completely lacked, and that was what was needed, and only a chap like him, who was ruthlessly professional – whereas many of the generals were a bit amateurish – could do it.

“i thought that his finest hour was the normandy landings because he took a plan, which wouldn’t have worked, made it into one and showed enormous confidence that it was going to be all right when churchill had qualms… and allenbrook had qualms, eisenhower had qualms. Monty never had any doubts, and i listened to him, like many others. He filled us all with confidence and he had a plan – although it didn’t always go according to plan, he knew how to amend it to keep the general strategy.

“He was very vain. He loved the adulation. the great thing about him was that he was a professional, which, except for a few cases, the British army lacked. auchinleck was a professional too and he was a bad picker, but many of the problems of the desert war was around the amateurish approach. He knew how to run a big battle. confidence of course is the absolute essence of leadership. it’s produced in a number of ways, but he gave confidence… each battle we were in didn’t always go exactly according to plan, but he knew how to win.”

‘The Bramall Papers’ offers a powerful insight into the thinking of one of Britain’s most influential military minds, through decades of letters, lectures and speeches. It is available from PEN-AND-SWORD.CO.UK

“HE FILLED US ALL WITH CONFIDENCE AND HE HAD A PLAN – ALTHOUGH IT DIDN’T ALWAYS GO ACCORDING TO PLAN, HE KNEW HOW TO AMEND IT TO KEEP THE GENERAL STRATEGY”