Bernard Montgomery

Lore & Background

Montgomery first saw action in the First World War as a junior officer of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. At Méteren, near the Belgian border at Bailleul, he was shot through the right lung by a sniper during an Allied counter-offensive on 13 October 1914. On returning to the Western Front as a general staff officer, he took part in the Battle of Arras in April–May 1917. He also took part in the Battle of Passchendaele in late 1917 before finishing the war as chief of staff of the 47th (2nd London) Division. In the inter-war years he commanded the 17th (Service) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers and, later, the 1st Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment before becoming commander of the 9th Infantry Brigade and then general officer commanding (GOC), 8th Infantry Division. During the Western Desert campaign of the Second World War, Montgomery commanded the Eighth Army from August 1942. He subsequently commanded the Eighth Army during the Allied invasion of Sicily and the Allied invasion of Italy. During the Normandy campaign, he was in command of all Allied ground forces from 6 June 1944 until 1 September 1944. He then continued in command of the 21st Army Group for the rest of the North West Europe campaign, including the failed attempt to cross the Rhine during Operation Market Garden. When German armoured forces broke through the US lines in Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge, Montgomery received command of the northern shoulder of the Bulge. Montgomery's 21st Army Group, including the US Ninth Army and the First Allied Airborne Army, crossed the Rhine in Operation Plunder in March 1945. By the end of the war, troops under Montgomery's command had taken part in the encirclement of the Ruhr Pocket, liberated the Netherlands, and captured much of north-west Germany. On 4 May 1945, Montgomery accepted the surrender of the German forces in north-western Europe at Lüneburg Heath, south of Hamburg, after the surrender of Berlin to the USSR on 2 May. After the war he became Commander-in-Chief of the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) in Germany and then Chief of the Imperial General Staff (1946–1948). From 1948 to 1951, he served as Chairman of the Commanders-in-Chief Committee of the Western Union. He then served as NATO's Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe until his retirement in 1958.

Reader's Guide

Montgomery was born in Kennington, Surrey, in 1887, the fourth child of nine, to a Church of Ireland priest, Henry Montgomery, and his wife Maud (née Farrar). The Montgomerys, an Ulster Scots 'Ascendancy' gentry family, were the County Donegal branch of the Clan Montgomery. Henry Montgomery, at that time Vicar of St Mark's Church, Kennington, was the second son of Sir Robert Montgomery, a native of Inishowen in County Donegal in the north-west of Ulster, and a noted colonial administrator in British India. Sir Robert died a month after his grandson's birth. He was probably a descendant of Colonel Alexander Montgomery. Bernard's mother, Maud, was the daughter of Frederic William Farrar, the famous children's novelist and preacher, and was 18 years younger than her husband. After the death of Sir Robert Montgomery, Henry inherited the Montgomery ancestral estate of New Park in Moville, a small town in Inishowen in the north of County Donegal in Ulster, the northern province in Ireland. There was still £13,000 to pay on a mortgage, a large debt in the 1880s (equivalent to £1,477,893 in 2025), and Henry was at the time still only an Anglican vicar. Despite selling off all the farms that were in the townland of Ballynally, on the north-western shores of Lough Foyle, 'there was barely enough to keep up New Park and pay for the blasted summer holiday' (i.e., at New Park). It was a financial relief of some magnitude when, in 1889, Henry was made Bishop of Tasmania, then still a British colony, and Bernard spent his formative years there. Bishop Montgomery considered it his duty to spend as much time as possible in the rural areas of Tasmania and was away for up to six months at a time. While he was away, his wife, still in her mid-20s, gave her children 'constant' beatings, then ignored them most of the time. Of Bernard's siblings, Sibyl died prematurely in Tasmania, and Harold, Donald and Una all emigrated. Maud Montgomery took little active interest in the education of her young children other than to have them taught by tutors brought from Britain, although Bernard briefly attended the then coeducational St Michael's Collegiate School. The loveless environment made Bernard something of a bully, as he himself recalled: 'I was a dreadful little boy. I don't suppose anybody would put up with my sort of behaviour these days.' Later in life Montgomery refused to allow

Did You Know?

• Montgomery was shot through the right lung by a sniper at Méteren on 13 October 1914, before the First Battle of Ypres began on 19 October.
• He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for gallant leadership on 13 October 1914.
• Montgomery accepted the surrender of German forces in north-western Europe on 4 May 1945 at Lüneburg Heath.
• He served as NATO's Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe until his retirement in 1958.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery (17 November 1887 – 24 March 1976) was a senior British Army officer who served in the First World War, the Irish War of Independence and the Second World War." — Bernard Montgomery "The time has come to deal the enemy a terrific blow in Western Europe." — Bernard Montgomery "The blow will be struck by the combined sea, land and air forces of the Allies together constituting one great Allied team, under the supreme command of General Eisenhower." — Bernard Montgomery "On the eve of this great adventure I send my best wishes to every soldier in the Allied team." — Bernard Montgomery