Monty and Rommel : parallel lives

712 Pages·2012·6.91 MB·English

by  Montgomery of Alamein

Copyright
This edition first published in the United States in 2012 by The Overlook Press, Peter Mayer Publishers,
Inc.
141 Wooster Street
New York, NY 10012
www.overlookpress.com
For bulk and special sales, please contact [email protected]
Copyright © 2011 by Peter Caddick-Adams All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy,
recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without
permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in
connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or broadcast.
ISBN 978-1-46830-089-5
To Stefania and Emmanuelle for their
love, support and tolerance in allowing me to
spend so much time with the field marshals.
Contents
Copyright
Maps
Prologue
Part One. Baptism and Fire
1 The Irishman
2 The Swabian
3 First Combats
4 Cheating Death
5 Learning the Trade
6 Bloody Red Tabs
7 The Mountain Lion
8 Mud and Mountains
9 The Last Year
Part Two. Interwar: Preparations
10 Coping with Peace
11 Preparing for War
Part Three: The Making of Modern Major Generals
12 Phoney War
13 Blitzkrieg
14 Duel in the Desert I
15 Duel in the Desert II: The Battles of El Alamein
Part Four. Once More Unto the Breach
16 Two Return to France
17 Defending Normandy
18 Britain’s Last Hurrah!
19 Where is Rommel?
20 Exploiting the Beachhead
21 Plots and Breakouts
22 Beyond the Bocage
Epigraph. The Final Duel: Reputations
23 How Will History Judge Me?
24 The Desert Fox Reborn
Afterword
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Chronology
Guide to Ranks
List of Illustrations
Index
List of Maps
1. Monty at Ypres, 1914, 1917–18
2. Monty at the Somme, 1916 and 1918
3. Rommel on the Piave, 1917
4. Rommel at Arras, 21 May 1940
5. The Dunkirk Perimeter, 30 May–2 June 1940
6. Rommel in France, 1940
7. Western Desert Campaigns, 1940–43
8. Monty and Rommel at El Alamein, 1942
9. Monty in Normandy, 1944
10. Normandy: The Breakout
There was rarely a quiet moment in the Ypres area, which witnessed near-
continuous fighting, from October 1914 to October 1918. Monty was
dangerously wounded in Méteren in 1914, and from 1917–18 he planned
operations as a staff officer with IX Corps in the battlefields east of Ypres.
Within the Ypres salient are the villages of Gheluvelt and Messines, where
Adolf Hitler fought, and Ploegsteert, where Lt.-Colonel Winston Churchill’s
battalion (6/Royal Scots Fusiliers) was stationed between January and May
1916.
Named after a river that most British troops never got to see, the Somme
battlefields witnessed Monty’s presence twice. Initially during the ‘Great Push’
of 1916, whose slow progress is charted here, Bernard’s 104th Brigade fought in
the area of Trônes Wood, Malz Horn Farm and Guillemont. His advance with
47th Division in 1918 is also shown, including Happy Valley, where his brigade
paraded in 1916, but which his division attacked in 1918.
Rommel’s 1917 war in Italy was one characterised by speed and movement, in
contrast to the static nature of the Western Front. Erwin advanced 150 miles over
twenty-two days, ending spectacularly on the River Piave, at Longarone, on 10
November. His achievement is all the more impressive when one remembers that
most of it was conducted in contact with the enemy, over tiring mountainous
terrain and on foot.
The armoured counter-attack against 7th Panzer Division at Arras was the first
time Rommel encountered British troops. Deploying from Vimy, the Royal Tank
Regiment’s Matildas completely surprised disorganised German units; only the
speedy use of artillery at Telegraph Hill and Wailly saved 7th Panzer division
from annihilation. Caught in the midst of the fracas, Rommel was left with an
indelible impression of British resourcefulness.