In American History classes, teachers tend to talk about Eisenhower and Montgomery as simply the generals that helped win WWII. We don’t have time to talk about personalities or personal dynamics. Personalities and personal dynamics can influence history. Here’s the story behind the relationship of the most famous American general and the most famous British general in WWII. Spoiler alert: they weren’t best buds.
Dwight Eisenhower and Bernard Montgomery had a complicated relationship. Monty, the victor at El Alamein, was a notoriously arrogant person. He felt he was one of the great military minds, alongside Marlborough and Wellington. Their relationship got off to a rocky start when the extremely anti-smoking Monty rudely told Ike to put out his cigarette the first time they met. But Eisenhower had to put that snub in the back of his mind as he was eventually put in command of Anglo-American forces and had to be able to get along with many subordinates. Without a doubt, Monty was the most difficult of his charges. And hardest to figure out. The next blow to their relationship happened in North Africa where Monty was being his usual slow self in Tunisia. Ik’e chief of staff Maj. Gen. Bedell Smith met with Monty to urge him to take Sfax quickly. Monty wanted Ike to give him a B-17 if he did it before a certain date. When he did, Monty demanded the bomber. Ike, who felt the bet had been a joke, was nonplussed by the demand, but provided the bomber.
Monty looked down on the Supreme Commander and although he publicly admitted Ike was the best person for the job, he definitely thought he could do better. His real view of Ike was “nice chap, no soldier”. Ike’s take was that “Monty is the only man in either army that I can’t get along with.” However, Ike did value Monty’s expertise and sometimes changed plans based on his advice. He expanded the D-Day landings to five beaches and kept the invasion on June 6 despite the bad weather because Monty pushed for it. These were the correct calls, but then Monty blew it by promising to take Caen on the first day, it took weeks instead.
Ike was able to hide his feelings to the point where historians have overlooked Ike versus Monty to concentrate on Patton versus Montgomery. That dynamic has been exaggerated (especially in the movie “Patton”) as Patton admired Monty, but set him up as a competitor in his mind. Monty, on the other hand, did not even realize Patton was competing with him. You’d never know it from the movie, but it was Omar Bradley who loathed Montgomery. Ike had to deal with these three generals by not showing favorites (although every American general felt Ike sided with Monty). The relationship soured further when Monty kept insisting on a narrow front attack to Berlin. He wanted most of the available supplies for Monty’s Brits. Ike favored a broad front strategy. Ever the diplomat, Ike did not tell Monty that his cautious approach was not conducive to a narrow front approach. Ike was right, but the arrogant Monty just saw the decision to be militarily unsound.
Things reached a head in the crisis of the Battle of the Bulge. Ike asked Monty to take command of Allied forces north of the Bulge (which enraged Bradley). Monty’s ego had him claiming that he had saved the Americans. And he took such a heavy-handed (and clueless) approach in dealing with the Ike, that Ike played his ultimate card – either he goes or I go. Before Ike could put this to Churchill, Monty’s chief of staff intervened and got his boss to literally crawl to Ike and beg forgiveness. And he behaved for the rest of the war.
https://www.nps.gov/features/eise/jrranger/5accomp4x.htm
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/history-through-viewfinder-44
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad_front_versus_narrow_front_controversy_in_World_War_II
https://artuk.org/discover/stories/antony-beevor-on-eisenhowers-portrait-of-montgomery
https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/bernard-montgomery
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