A PEN PORTRAIT OF THE EIGHTH ARMY COMMANDER

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23913, 3 April 1943, Page 4

A PEN PORTRAIT OF THE EIGHTH ARMY COMMANDER

“LITTLE MO“NTY"

It is 34 years since Bernard Law Montgomery, who is "little Monty to his friends, left Sandhurst to join as a subaltern the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, of which, from 1931 to 1934, he was to command a battalion. Ten years of his youth had been spent in Tasmania, where his father was Bishop. He says that the strictness of his religious upbringing left him fed up with ‘‘too much of that sort cf thing,” and the rigid personal asceticism which is such a feature of his character to : day does not arise from purely spiritual causes. His keenness for athletics is of long standing: he played “Rugger for Sandhurst and hockey for the Army. He is remembered as an exceedingly hard-working young officer, not much interested in the more social activities- of the mess. A friend tried to persuade him to take a girl to a dance and chose, fittingly as he thought, the vicar’s daughter, whom he invited to tea and seated next to Monty. But, alas, she was discovered both to smoke and drink. Monty pronounced her “not maidenly” and stayed away from the dance. When later in life, rather to everyone’s surprise, he got married, he ruled his household with the authority of a medieval knight. The joyous arrival of a son he treated as a staff problem, and orders for his upbringing and welfare were issued daily So that when someone asked him if he did not hope for more children, he replied, “Certainly not. Far too much staff work.” , Montgomery had more than three years on the Western Front during the last war. being mentioned six times in dispatches and winning the D.S.O. and the French Military Cross. Some say that he was one of those men who had to see too much of warfare, and that it was from his experiences during that time that his eyes got that curious, misty-grey "tired” look which so often deceives people into* thinking him older than his 54 years. Certainly his eyes have seen much. When he lay wounded in No Man’s Land another man went out to bring him in. He was hit and fell dead over Montgomery’s body. For seven hours the Germans pumped lead into both of them, most of the bullets striking the corpse. As a result, Montgomery lost one lung and owes his life only to the presence of a famous surgeon, who ordered that he should not be touched at the dressing station, but should be sent back to England for special treatment. Hi# physical fitness since is all the more extraordinary.

(By "A.F.” In the "Observer.")

It was during the years between the wars, at the Staff Colleges at Quetta and Camberley, that Montgomery started working out the system of command which he has retained and improved upon ever since. At that time he called it the fixed battle scheme. In essence it was to ensure that a commander should have the fullest knowledge of what was going on all along the line, and to reduce to a minimum what Clausewitz called the “friction of war.” Montgomery’s system enables him to impose his own battle plan on the enemy. This he has done in both his recent encounters

with Rommel. While recently in I mand of a corps and latera«?»Sl Montgomery, by constant manoeuvres, gathered the leSsonQtW have made him the equal of 4 j in experience. Mistakes wer made, but he never allowed thanffl made twice. In manoeutff be followed by two of his staft efcS on motor-cycles, whom he wouldiS! to take down the name who had distinguished himself mSI by success or failure. He struripS fear of God into many. He w«*J« brusque and rude, but never,.safffaS “You’re good, Mr So-and-so. butw not good enough,” he would-iaviSl officer he was going to sack On «w3 ing his H.Q. one would be conteSl with a notice: Day. (1) Are you lOOtyep cent. #! Are you 100 per cent. up to yoim tS (3) Are you 100 per cent full Binge was the name of severer® exercises and was a pet word (rat No one knows why, for the t£3c Monty has ever got to what otheSSl a Binge is to go to the piano ana S “Little Brown Jug,” performance with a glass oT Actually he seems to use the Z Binge in its more Edwardian senSS punch, zip, or just “gutg.'> HfSSf, rude jolt to officers and men whS'l’* comfortably combining a llttli tic ease with their military dfrtSrr ordering all wives out of hia command. Coming on-tdjfiOTS,' six-mile a week run for all jJS under 40 this was too much of aiS! thing for some. fi , Like Joffre, Montgomery retinal bed by 10 and rises at five,- But the resemblance ends. He js awa thinker and a quick thinker HeS! retain enormously intricate staffnS lema in his head. In fact, .wuß that in France in 1940 he neverkS to write an order. He believes InM ing himself absolutely clear to hU<!i cers. It is saidUhat immediately rival in the desert he addressed allhU officers, ignoring protests that mS must not be taken from the front In -order to attend; “N.C.O.’s shouMw perfectly competent to take overstS two years in the field,” he is reportSfi have replied. ~ Monty is a 100 per cent, soldier. His only ambition u todi £ job as well as possible. TO him «2 just means hard work. As well as Z pendous mental alertness be M infinite capacity for taking paiiu auk matters, big or small. He has, toHc, great quality essential in a gdoliai eral, of robustness of temperamentS! cause of his hard thinking, he“f® easily surprised, and his serenity inZ' dangerous moment when his presto - tions for the offensive were interne by Rommel’s attack seemed to emit, cate the word "flap” from the d&S vocabulary. But, above all, he ft’ heves in that maxim of Ardant A Picq that “the Man is the first wtttS of battle.” Every man, trade or speciality (cook, clerk drive or signaller), is a soldier first. Even man knows his job in the team. He i the first British general who cari taS “The Army and the Air Arm mm. ationally one.” His faith in the BriM soldier has been rewarded ‘ with % famous victory for British arms,' ft Monty and his Army lias fallen tb honour of destroying for ever-VtS legend of German invincibility. I . ™