How Monty almost gave game away on eve of D-Day
Vigilant clerk spotted that draft of commander’s speech accidentally included top-secret date
IT was one of the most closely guarded secrets of the Second World War – the date when the Allied forces would land on the beaches of northern France and begin the liberation of mainland Europe.
But it has emerged that the top secret plans were almost thrown into disarray when Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, of all people, accidentally let the cat out of the bag.
The extraordinary slip by Monty was only ever known to a handful of people but now, ahead of the 80th anniversary of Operation Overlord, details have emerged of this hitherto untold episode.
The gaffe was revealed in an interview given by Private Sam Levitas, who was a clerk with the US European Theatre of Operations based at Hestercombe House in Somerset.
Before he passed away in Baltimore in 2017 at the age of 93, he recorded an interview which has never before been published.
Recalling the incident, Pte Levitas said: “It may be a long time ago and some of the recollections are dimming – but not this one.”
A month before the D-Day landings were due to take place in June 1944, Montgomery – the most senior British commander involved in the invasion plans – sat down to write a stirring speech intended to rally his troops and fire them with courage for the perilous mission ahead.
Unfortunately, Monty inadvertently included the date of the planned operation in the speech, a draft of which was relayed to a tiny US base in the West country. Eagle-eyed Pte Levitas spotted it and the date was quickly expunged from all copies of the speech.
Pte Levitas said: “I couldn’t believe it. It explicitly mentioned June 5, the original date, with the troops having left about six hours earlier on June 4, although bad weather delayed it in the end.”
He said around a month before the invasion he received two speeches, which were to be broadcast to the Allied troops, one from General Dwight Eisenhower, the US commander, and one from Field Marshal Montgomery.
‘Obviously the Germans knew an invasion was coming but they didn’t know when and they didn’t know where’
Pte Levitas said it was the one from Monty that caught his attention and set alarm bells ringing.
“As soon as I realised what I was reading I had to alert my superior and the next four weeks were pretty strange I can tell you. From that moment on it was lockdown for us guys. We were scared to death,” he said.
Pte Levitas added: “Quite why Monty did that I don’t know. In the end it worked out OK but I hate to think what could have happened. One of the big chiefs nearly messed up the whole thing”
Military chiefs were so paranoid that the vital information might find its way to Berlin, that they ordered the entire US base into lockdown until after the invasion had taken place.
All personnel at Hestercombe House, which sits on the edge of the Quantock Hills, were assigned a military police guard.
Pte Levitas recalled: “The military police controlled everything: our time in the mess hall, even in the latrines, and there were definitely no trips into Taunton or down to Plymouth for a night out when one of us might accidentally let on what we knew.”
Paul Beaver, a military historian, told The Telegraph: “Monty was a bit of a law unto himself and so it is quite possible that he would have inadvertently included the date of the planned invasion.
“His speech would have likely been written by his chief of staff but he would have approved it before it was sent.
“But there are always cock-ups in war and a lot of the focus by that stage was on the bigger picture of ‘how are we going to get 133,000 troops safely across the Channel and on to the beaches’.
“What I like about this story is that I have never heard it before but it all sounds very plausible from everything we know about the preparations for D-Day.”
Pte Levitas was posted to Europe with the 398th General Service Engineers in January 1944. He arrived in Scotland, before moving to Hestercombe, where the US European Theatre of Operations was headquartered.
His regiment was responsible for organising every item needed by GIs heading for France, right down to their cigarettes, razor blades and chocolate bars. As a clerk typist, Pte Levitas also handled sensitive communiques between senior military figures.
He said: “A small group of us always knew what the master plan was – Operation Overlord, but the date was a closely guarded secret.”
Following the landings, Pte Levitas left for Normandy himself and was in Paris on VE Day in May 1945.
He eventually returned to Baltimore, where he joined the automotive business and with his wife, Shanedel, raised five children.
His daughter Marcy Hamilton told The Telegraph: “This is a great story that I had never heard before. Sam Levitas was a great dad, a great family man, and a proud US Jewish war veteran.”
A spokesman for the Imperial War Museum, which houses Field Marshal Montgomery’s personal papers, said: “We have never heard of this before but it is a story which certainly has the ring of truth about it.
“Mr Levitas is spot-on in terms of when he received the original letter, as Montgomery’s handwritten draft … was dated May 4 and it does give away the month.
“So does the subsequent printed version, which is marked .6.44 with the actual day still to be inserted in front of the month. Clearly this gentleman has a very detailed recollection of what happened because of the profound effect it had on his personal liberty.
“The Americans certainly took security very seriously.
“Montgomery was renowned for his egotism and there may be an element of his showboating in giving away the date in that uninhibited way.
“The worst-case scenario, had the information got out about the date, was that the entire operation would have been put back and the next available tides would have been in August.
“Obviously the Germans knew an invasion was coming but they didn’t know when and even more importantly they didn’t know where – but I should think the error over the date was greeted with absolute dismay.”
A Hestercombe spokesman said: “Until recently, we had no idea that we had played such a significant part in the conclusion of the war and that such a close shave had occurred which might have influenced its outcome.”