Notes

Chapter 2

1. Richardson, Send for Freddie, p.67.

2. Robertson was not restored to the British Army List until 1945.

3. Richardson, Flashback, p.130.

4. He had been BGS to Alan Brooke at II Corps in France in 1940. Brooke remained his strong supporter throughout the War, although he considered that Ritchie had been over-promoted into Eighth Army.

5. He was Monty’s Principal Staff Officer at NATO in 1951.

6. Belchem, All in a Day’s March, p.103.

Chapter 3

1. Richardson, Flashback, p.77.

2. Brian Robertson, by now the DA&QMG, also rated a caravan, which he used to sleep in as it was designed, but he thought it tactful to keep it out of the C-in-C’s sight.

3. Richardson, Flashback, p.103.

4. He went on to have a very successful career working for Eisenhower at AFHQ and then SHAEF.

Chapter 4

1. Letter from Montgomery to Williams, 7.9.62.

2. Franklyn was C-in-C Home Forces 1943–45.

3. Letter from Montgomery to Williams, 7.9.62.

4. Letter from Montgomery to de Guingand, 30.7.34.

5. De Guingand, Operation Victory, p.88.

6. Ibid., p.105.

7. Bryant, The Turn of the Tide, p.442.

Chapter 5

1. Montgomery, Memoirs, p.35.

Chapter 6

1. None of these would serve later on any of Monty’s staffs, but all did well, McConnel and Nares becoming major generals by the end of the War and Hope a full colonel, who also rose to major general in due course.

2. Sanderson, Variety is the Spice of Life, p.25.

3. Dawnay, ‘Inside Monty’s Headquarters’ in Howarth, Monty at Close Quarters, p.3.

4. Sanderson, Variety is the Spice of Life, p.89.

5. Letter from Monty to Dawnay, 20.8.40.

6. Letter from Monty to Dawnay, 25.8.40.

7. Letter from Monty to Dawnay, 20.9.40.

8. Ibid.

9. Montgomery, Memoirs, p.71.

10. On two later occasions Drury was to meet Monty in North Africa. On the first, he confessed that he was having some difficulties with his battery commander and shortly afterwards found himself posted to a much more suitable and congenial job in his division. On the second, he was waiting in a reinforcement camp after an illness; once again an order arrived very quickly for his future employment.

11. Warren interview by Nigel Hamilton (IWM 14098).

12. Letter from Monty to Warren, 11.3.42.

Chapter 7

1. Letter from Montgomery to Williams, 7.9.62.

2. Belchem interview with Nigel Hamilton (IWM 14092).

3. Montgomery, The Art of Leadership, p.247.

4. As it happened, the only response to what was, at best, a deep discourtesy, was a signal from Auchinleck to all corps and divisional GOCs, asking them to give their full support to the new Army Commander.

5. Richardson, Flashback, p.109.

6. De Guingand, Operation Victory, p.139.

7. Dancev & Todman (eds.), War Diaries 1939–1945: Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke.

8. Whicker, Whicker’s War, p.61.

9. The barrel was replaced by a wooden one, which released the space otherwise occupied by the breach and ammunition. The tank can be seen in the Imperial War Museum at Duxford.

Chapter 8

1. De Guingand, Operation Victory, p.146.

2. Richardson interview by Antony Brett-James and Lieutenant Colonel Philip Davies, 15/16.9.77.

3. Monty was sometimes held to be prejudiced against cavalrymen, on the grounds that they were essentially amateurs, more interested in equestrian sport than soldiering. He may well have thought this of individuals, but there was no general bar to cavalrymen serving under him, notably Harry Arkwright, his adviser on armour, and Johnny Henderson, his long-serving ADC, both from the same regiment as Lumsden.

4. Coningham was a New Zealander, whose original nickname was ‘Maori’, but this became corrupted to ‘Mary’, the name by which he was known to all.

5. Kirkman had been given a lower priority than Horrocks and he travelled the long way round, by flying-boat to West Africa and then across the Sahara to Khartoum and up the Nile to Cairo on the so-called ‘reinforcement route’.

6. Kirkman interview by Nigel Hamilton (IWM 14096).

7. Richardson interview by Antony Brett-James and Lieutenant Colonel Philip Davies, 15/16.9.77.

8. Montgomery, Memoirs, p.114.

Chapter 9

1. In fact, the full title was Special Liaison Unit/Special Communications Unit (‘SLU/SCU’) which covered both the deciphering and communications staff, but in practice the shorter form was always used.

2. Note by Williams on the use of ULTRA, 5.10.45.

3. Ibid.

Chapter 10

1. The Jock columns were named after their inventor, Jock Campbell, a horse gunner who led 7 Armoured Division’s Support Group and then the division itself, prior to being killed in a road accident. These groups of mixed infantry and artillery were used to harass the enemy in the early days of the war, then again during the advance after Operation CRUSADER and finally during the early battles on the Alamein Line.

2. Sir William Mather interview in 1995 (IWM 15326).

3. Mather, When the Grass Stops Growing, p.178.

4. This was an empty threat, as Casey was neither British nor a politician, although he had sat in the Australian Parliament and been a member of the Government there. He went on to be Governor of Bengal and the first Australian to be the country’s Governor-General.

5. Mather, When the Grass Stops Growing, p.187.

Chapter 11

1. Francis Tuker of 4 Indian Division claimed that it was an old British dummy minefield; if so, it should have been known about.

2. The lesson was learnt, and in future scouting for a new HQ site was not entrusted to the GSO1s, but to a Rhodesian major, Bob Long.

3. Llewellyn, Passport to Life, p.131.

4. Spooner continued to serve in Operations at Main HQ. In 1944, he would be one of a small number of GSO2s (Ops) who would go to Normandy with Tac HQ.

5. Transportation by rail effectively ended at Tobruk. There were two small lines out of Benghazi, to Barce (108 km) and Soluch (56km) respectively, but neither of them were of much value.

6. Richardson, Flashback, p.136.

7. Others present included James Gammell, GOC-in-C Eastern Command, John Swayne, GOC-in-C South-Eastern Command and William Morgan, Paget’s CGS.

8. Dawnay, ‘Inside Monty’s Headquarters’ in Howarth, Monty at Close Quarters, p.8.

Chapter 12

1. ‘Spud’ Murphy was still well regarded by Monty and had been commended to Brooke as a trainer for Home Forces or a senior role at the War Office. In due course he became BGS(I) at Second Army in North-West Europe.

2. Ewart had actually been posted back to the UK, but his departure was delayed by a month.

3. Operation MARKET GARDEN in September 1944, claimed as 90 per cent successful.

4. Richardson interview with Anthony Brett-James and Lieutenant Colonel Philip Davies, 15/16.9.77.

5. In an interview with Nigel Hamilton (IWM 14064), Broadhurst described Monty as being in ‘a terrible state’.

6. Richardson interview with Lucia Santa-Cruz, 1969.

7. The new SASO was Air Commodore Claude Pelly, who was known to Freddie and much liked by him.

8. Wallace was to be killed just before the end of the campaign in a South African Air Force Boston, to be succeeded by McNeill, now promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.

9. The highest ranking General Staff officer in an army was almost always a brigadier. This was certainly true of First Army in North Africa, Second Army in North-West Europe and Fourteenth Army in India and Burma. However, not only Freddie, but also his successors at Eighth Army under Leese and McCreery, were major generals.

10. Brigadier Chilton, in his report on Eighth Army’s HQs, described Training as Oswald’s ‘real job’, but this was never the case. WO 205/549.

11. In an interview with Nigel Hamilton (IWM 14096), Kirkman expressed his antipathy to the use of a Tac HQ.

Chapter 13

1. The American planning team was called Force 343.

2. Letter from Monty to Freddie, 29.4.43.

3. Richardson, Flashback, pp.151–2.

4. After a brief spell in the wilderness, Gairdner was appointed to advise Auchinleck, by then C-in-C India, on armoured warfare. He then replaced Lumsden, who was killed in a kamikaze attack, as Churchill’s Personal Liaison Officer to General MacArthur. Remaining in Japan after the surrender as Attlee’s PLO, he was later Governor of Western Australia and then Tasmania, retiring as a full general with a knighthood.

5. There were several deception operations, designed to make the Axis powers believe that the invasion would be mounted in Greece or Sardinia. The most famous was Operation MINCEMEAT, the planting of false documents on a corpse (‘The Man Who Never Was’) washed up on a beach in Spain.

6. Simonds was a very recent appointment: his predecessor as GOC of 1 Canadian Division, together with the GSO1 and AA&QMG, had all died in an air crash on their way to Cairo for a briefing on the plan.

7. HMS Antwerp was formerly a passenger ferry on the Harwich to Antwerp run; it had been commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1940.

8. De Guingand, Operation Victory, p.292.

Chapter 14

1. Montgomery, Memoirs, p.190.

2. Letter from Monty to Richardson, 1.9.43.

3. Chavasee was the nephew of Captain Noel Chavasse, who won a VC and bar in the Great War – one of only three men to do so.

4. 1 Airborne Division returned to the UK, but was replaced by 2 New Zealand Division.

5. Montgomery, Memoirs, p.198.

6. Danchev & Todman (eds), War Diaries, pp.499–500.

7. It was drafted by Henderson, but amended by Monty.

Chapter 15

1. Marshall was still promoting it vigorously at Casablanca in January 1943.

2. The acronym was used not only for the individual, but also for his whole organization.

3. Morgan, Overture to Overlord, p.69.

4. Ibid., p.70.

5. Wentworth subsequently became the Rear HQ of SHAEF until after the Normandy breakout, whilst the underground bunkers constructed there continued to be used as a Signals Centre for 21st Army Group.

6. An early proposal was that Paget would do a direct swap with Monty, which he considered would be a demotion. The matter was resolved by his appointment as C-in-C Middle East, vice Jumbo Wilson, who succeeded Eisenhower as Supreme Commander in the Mediterranean.

Chapter 16

1. IWM BLM 72.

2. Freddie remained a major general, whereas Morgan had been and remained a lieutenant general. This was at the insistence of Monty, who believed that there would be unmerited expectations of promotion from more junior officers as a result.

3. Both men moved to good appointments, Morgan as GOC-in-C Southern Command and thereafter Chief of Staff to Alexander in his capacity as Supreme Commander in the Mediterranean, becoming Supreme Commander himself after the end of the War. Kimmins became Director of Plans at SEAC.

4. Somewhat unusually, Lloyd was a Territorial Army officer, with a background in education.

5. Montgomery, Memoirs, p.222.

6. A much more serious victim of this policy was General Andrew McNaughton, the C-in-C of the Canadian Forces Overseas, who wanted to visit 1 Canadian Division. He, too, was banned and never forgave Monty.

7. De Guingand, Operation Victory, p.191.

8. Henderson, ‘Morning, Noon and Night’ in Howarth, Monty at Close Quarters, p.41.

9. Henderson, Watching Monty, p.57.

Chapter 17

1. Richardson, Flashback, p.172.

2. Herbert interview by Nigel Hamilton (IWM 14072).

Chapter 18

1. There were a number of these, the most successful of whom was Juan Pujol, codenamed ‘Garbo’, who purported to the Germans to have a whole network of agents.

2. Danchev & Todman (eds), War Diaries, p.538.

3. Dawnay ‘Inside Monty’s Headquarters’ in Howarth, Monty at Close Quarters, p.14.

4. IWM BLM 73/1.

Chapter 19

1. Bob Long, the Rhodesian who had been responsible for reconnoitring Main HQ locations after the Mainwaring debacle, was also asked for, but elected to remain with Eighth Army, possibly because he would otherwise be moving even further from his home.

2. WO 205/330.

3. One of Odgers’ fellow GSO 2s was Ken Spooner, who had been Monty’s ADC when he arrived in Egypt.

4. These are all now housed at the Imperial War Museum at Duxford.

5. Odgers, A Tac Chronicle.

6. These words of Montrose, together with a quotation from Henry V and the prayer of Sir Francis Drake before the attack on Cadiz, had been pinned up in Monty’s office caravan since just after the Battle of Alam Halfa.

7. Mather, When the Grass Stops Growing, p.247.

8. 12 according to Mather, 30 according to Sanderson!

9. Sanderson, Variety is the Spice of Life, p.260.

Chapter 20

1. Richardson, Flashback, p.178.

2. There were good reasons for this. Although Major General Urqhart of 1 Airborne Division would have preferred to go in by day, the RAF and USAAF commanders insisted on a night-time operation and on the chosen night there was only a quarter moon. Moreover, Leigh-Mallory was unable to obtain any assurance from Ramsay that the aircraft would not be fired on by the fleet of Allied ships.

3. Monty was well aware of the continuing deficiencies of the Allied tanks, but keen to suppress any public mention of this, lest morale in the armoured divisions should be adversely affected.

Chapter 21

1. Kirby had a degree in French and German from London University.

2. When Monty himself became CIGS, he called for the file and had it destroyed!

3. Montgomery, Memoirs, p.257.

4. De Guingand, Operation Victory, p.398.

5. The fatalities included Lieutenant General Lesley J. McNair, Commanding General US Ground Forces, who had come to observe the operation. He was the highest ranking Allied officer killed in North-West Europe.

6. As late as 14 August OKW was still calling for an offensive towards Avranches.

7. Montgomery, Memoirs, pp.254–5.

Chapter 22

1. Ibid., pp.267–8.

2. De Guingand, Operation Victory, p.411.

3. Williams interview by Nigel Hamilton (IWM 14100).

4. Danchev & Todman (eds.), War Diaries, p.586.

5. He had been appointed a Chief Commander of the Order in August 1943.

6. It is now better known as Europa and is the seat of the European Council.

7. XII Corps – Rouen, Abbeville, St Omer, Ypres, Ghent, Antwerp. XXX Corps – Vernon, Amiens, Douai, Tournai, Brussels.

8. The building was found to be in poor shape, wrecked by the Germans who had been billeted there.

Chapter 23

1. Also called the Maas–Scheldt Canal.

2. Montgomery, Memoirs, p.298.

3. 1 Airborne Division’s most reliable communication with the outside world was between its Phantom detachment and the one at Tac, although it was still sporadic at best.

4. Richardson, Flashback, pp. 187–8.

Chapter 24

1. This was the name of a German patriotic song, which was particularly popular during the Franco-Prussian and Great Wars.

2. Llewellyn, Passport to Life, p.167.

3. Mather, When the Grass Stops Growing, p.284.

4. This had been a threat since the beginning of the German offensive, when enemy soldiers in Allied uniforms were sent to wreak confusion behind the lines and were rumoured to be out to kill senior commanders.

5. Signal to Brooke 28.12.44. Montgomery Papers IWM.

6. De Guingand, Generals at War, p.111.

7. Ibid., p.112.

Chapter 25

1. Mather, When the Grass Stops Growing, p.295.

2. Bryant, Triumph in the West, pp.425–4.

3. De Guingand, Generals at War, p.156.

4. Ibid., p.158.

5. Major General Tom Rennie, the GOC of the Highland Division, who had restored its fortunes comprehensively after its failures in Normandy, was killed during the operation. He was one of only a small handful of British general officers to be lost in action during the war. He was replaced by Gordon MacMillan, who had served in the division in North Africa and commanded two other divisions in North-West Europe. He had been one of Monty’s students at Camberley and was very highly regarded by him.

Chapter 26

1. Signal to Eisenhower and Brooke 27.3.45, Montgomery Papers IWM.

2. A Wehrkreis was a German Military District, corresponding almost exactly to a British Corps District.

3. I Corps took on some officers from R Force, whose deception activities now came to an end. Strangeways was given the job of running the Ruhr Intelligence Office, responsible among other things for denazification.

4. The Times, 27.4.45.

5. One result of Wake’s wound was that he was unable to salute Monty other than with his left arm!

6. The Times, 15.5.45.

Chapter 27

1. It was to remain so until 1954, when it moved to Rheindahlen.

2. Llewellyn, Passport to Life, p.169.

3. Letter from Monty to Freddie, 31.5.45.

4. Letter from Freddie to Monty, 2.6.45.

5. He was allowed to retain the honorary rank of major general.

6. Ten Years with Eisenhower.

7. ‘The Sparks Fly Upwards’ was his preferred title for the book, but he was persuaded not to use it by his publishers.

8. Montgomery, Memoirs, p.16.

9. Letter from Henderson to Charles Richardson, 9.4.86.

10. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, p.314.

11. Ibid.

12. Monty’s former personal staff and LOs sat either side of the coffin during the service.

13. Letter from David Montgomery to Charles Richards, 3.11.86.

14. Interview with the author, 30.8.12.

15. Later a Conservative MP, Government Minister and Life Peer.

Chapter 28

1. Brett-James, Conversations with Montgomery, p.112.

2. On one early occasion at dinner in his mess, Eisenhower was brusquely ordered by Monty to put out his cigarette, so his reluctance was understandable!

3. Letter from Henderson to Hamilton, 21.11.2001.

4. Williams, ‘Gee One Eye, Sir’ in Howarth, Monty at Close Quarters, p.28.

5. Llewellyn, Passport to Life, p.148.

6. Richardson, Send for Freddie, p.69.

7. Ibid., pp.69–70.

8. Montgomery, Memoirs, p.167.

9. Ibid., p.205.