as an instructor. He then spent two years (1928–30) in
the War Office in London, where he helped to revise
the official Infantry Training Manual. In 1931, he was
sent to the Middle East, where he commanded the 1st
Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in what
is now Israel. He returned to India in 1934, becom-
ing the chief instructor at the Staff College in Quetta.
Upon his return to England in 1938, he served as the
commander of the 9th Infantry Brigade in Portsmouth,
and in 1939 he was named as the commander of the
3rd Division.
As part of General Alan Brooke’s II Corps, Mont-
gomery and his division were sent to France on the
outbreak of the Second World War. The 3rd Division
defended the city of Louvain, Belgium, but had to with-
draw after the Allied force collapsed and made their
way back to Dunkirk. Before the Allied retreat from
the European continent, Brooke was called back and
Montgomery replaced him as commander of II Corps.
Returning to England, Montgomery was promoted
to lieutenant general, and on 17 November 1940, he
was named commander in chief of the South-Eastern
Command.
A major area of conflict was North Africa, where
the territorial gains of the Axis forces led to a shakeup
in the Allied military command. In August 1942, Gen-
eral Claude Auchinleck was removed from command in
North Africa and replaced by General Harold alexan-
der, who chose Montgomery to command the Eighth
Army in Egypt. Immediately, Montgomery organized
his forces against those of his German rival, General
Erwin rommel, to check the Germans at Alam Halfa
(31 August–2 September 1942). He knew that desert
warfare presented severe problems to the movement of
troops and supplies, but he also realized that the Ger-
mans, with long sea-lines of communication, had more
problems than the Allies. With this in mind, Montgom-
ery, having built up his forces, struck at the Germans at
El Alamein (23 October–3 November 1942). Working
with American general Dwight D. eisenhoWer, whose
forces landed on the west coast in November, Mont-
gomery carried out a campaign that saw thousands of
German troops captured or killed. The enemy force was
rapidly destroyed, and by May 1943 the German pres-
ence in North Africa was ended.
Montgomery then turned his attention to southern
Europe, where he was one of the key planners of Opera-
tion Husky, the Allied invasion of the island of Sicily
(10 July 1943). Historians have noted that Montgomery
and the other Allied commanders did not get along, due
largely to Montgomery’s sometimes arrogant behavior.
Nonetheless, the Allied force captured Sicily and moved
into Italy, slowly fighting their way north.
In December 1943, Montgomery returned to En-
gland, where he was given command of the 21st Army
Group prior to the Allied assault on the European con-
tinent through France that was set for 1944. Operation
Overlord, better known as the D-Day or Normandy
landings, took place on 6 July 1944. Gradually, the Al-
lied forces moved out from their beachhead, and Mont-
gomery was given complete command of Operation
Goodwood, the breakout from Normandy into northern
France, which took several weeks. The escape of German
forces from the Allied attacks has been blamed directly
on Montgomery. In August 1944, Eisenhower, as previ-
ously agreed, was named commander of all ground forces
in Europe, ending Montgomery’s command role in the
theater, although he was promoted to field marshal on
1 September 1944. In the last months of the war, the
Allied commanders differed on how to best defeat Ger-
many. Montgomery sided with Generals Omar brad-
ley and George Patton in hitting Germany with one
decisive thrust, while Eisenhower ultimately decided on
a steady advance along the entire front. Montgomery’s
forces marched into Germany, ultimately reaching the
city of Lübeck, near the Baltic Sea, when the war ended
on 4 May 1945.
On 1 January 1946, Montgomery was styled as
Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, and in June that
year he was named as chief of the Imperial General Staff
(CIGS), where he served until November 1948. In the
years that followed, he served as chair of the Western
Union Commanders-in-chief Committee (1948–51)
and then as deputy supreme allied commander of allied
forces in Europe from 1951 until 1958. During this pe-
riod, he was a driving force behind the formation of the
Northern Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO). In 1958, he
retired after serving for more than 50 years in the British
military. He also published his memoirs, in which he
criticized many of his contemporaries, including Claude
Auchinleck, for errors of command. The book left many
embittered toward Montgomery, who wrote numerous
articles and spoke out on military matters. Ill for the
last three years of his life, he died at his home at Isling-
ton Mill, near Alton, Hampshire, on 24 March 1976,
age 88.montgomeRy, beRnARD lAw, FiRSt viScount montgomeRy oF AlAmein