Memoirs of Field Marshall Montgomery

This is a must read for anyone trying to understand how the land campaign in Europe during WWII developed and why. However, though it was clearly intended as an attempt to justify Field Marshall Montgomery's view of how things should have been done... it does quite the opposite! Montgomery's arrogance and intolerance of contrary opinion comes clearly through. His recount of his communications with his Commander, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, paints a clear picture of a man so sure of his own opinions that he not only bordered on insubordination, but crossed that border on more once! Had he been an American officer, it is very likely that Eisenhower would have fired him. As it is, his own Prime Minister offered to replace him had Eisenhower wished it... a fact that Montgomery glossed over in his account. Throughout the book, it becomes very clear that Montgomery consistently pursued two goals... being named as sole commander of the ground effort in Europe, and stripping American General George Patton of any offensive role in the war. It seems that this particular professional jealousy attained almost equal importance for Montgomery as defeating the Germans! Perhaps most amusing of all, in laying out his case for a "single thrust" on the North, Montgomery recounted a timetable which he had proposed which appears to have anticipated the final attacks on Germany in April or May, 1945... all the while claiming he would've shortened the war... however. Eisenhower's plan... the one Montgomery blamed for "lengthening the war" forced a German surrender on May 4th, 1945! Finally, in his discussion of strategy before the Battle of the Bulge, he firmly states a position which is in total opposition to all modern military thought. That the objective is the gaining of territory rather than the defeat of the armed forces of the opposing nation. It was exactly this mentality that cost the US the war in Viet Nam.