A Field Marshal In The Family

Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery of Alamein has attracted the attention of historians over the last 70 years but, despite this coverage, views of his character remain controversial and contradictory. His younger brother Brian enters the fray with this revealing book examining the background of this legendary military commander.

Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery of Alamein has attracted the attention of countless historians over the last 70 years but, despite this coverage, views of his character remain controversial and contradictory. His younger brother Brian, himself a successful soldier, enters the fray with this charming and revealing book examining the background of this legendary military commander. He provides a fascinating account of the influences of Monty’s family genes together with a wealth of unknown details about his career. His grandfather, Sir Robert Montgomery, played a key role in crushing the Indian Mutiny and his adventures have intriguing parallels with those of Monty’s two generations later. Dean Farrar, his maternal grandfather, was a powerful Victorian educational and religious figure (Headmaster of Marlborough College and Dean of Canterbury) and author of the iconic Eric, or Little by Little. The author examines in the most entertaining and frank manner Monty’s idiosyncratic character traits; his opposition to tradition, his Nelsonian approach to rules and regulations, his ruthlessness and determination and his unfashionable views on the absolute necessity for self publicity – and the most intensive training to get the maximum from his subordinates, down to the most junior levels.

The first complete and unexpurgated publication of the diaries of Lord Alanbrooke, who during World War II was Chief of the Imperial General Staff of the British Empire and Churchill's most prominent advisor -- and rival.

In the desperate summer of 1942, Hitler seemed to be on the verge of victory in Russia and the Middle East. With Rommel nearing Cairo, a little known lieutenant-general, Bernard Montgomery, took charge of what Churchill called a baffled and bewildered British 8th Army. Assuming command, Montgomery issued his famous order, Here we will stand and fight;...If we can't stay here alive, then let us stay here dead, and led the Army to one of the Allies' greatest victories—El Alamein. Monty became an instantly recognizable Allied leader, but as a man with strong views, unbending principles, and outspoken frankness, he was both loved and disliked, praised and criticized. This bibliography presents and evaluates the extensive body of literature that has grown up around the controversial Field Marshal. Any serious study of World War II military campaigns must confront Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, an individualist with both admirers and detractors. This book provides an extensive historiographical overview of the literature in Part I and a bibliography of significant works in Part II. It is a basic reference and research guide for the student, scholar, and general reader.

This new biography of Churchill’s top WWII advisor is “an excellent book for anyone interested in military leadership” (The NYMAS Review). Voted the greatest Briton of the twentieth century, Winston Churchill has long been credited with almost single-handedly leading his country to victory in World War II. But without Alan Brooke, a skilled tactician, at his side the outcome might well have been disastrous. Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, more often than not served as a brake on some of Churchill’s more impetuous ideas. However, while Brooke’s diaries reveal his fury with some of Churchill’s decisions, they also reveal his respect and admiration for the wartime prime minister. In return Churchill must surely have considered Brooke one of his most difficult subordinates—but later wrote that he was “fearless, formidable, articulate, and in the end convincing.” As CIGS, Brooke was integral to coordination between the Allied forces, and so had to wrestle with the cultural strategy clash between the British and Americans. Comments in his diaries offer up his opinions of both his British and American military colleagues—his negative assessments of Mountbatten’s ability, and acerbic comments on the difficult character of de Gaulle and the weaknesses of Eisenhower. Conversely, he was clearly overindulgent in the face of Montgomery’s foibles. Brooke was often seen as a stern and humorless figure, but a study of his private life reveals a little-seen lighter side, a lifelong passion for birdwatching, and abiding love for his family. The two tragedies that befell his immediate family were a critical influence on his life. Andrew Sangster completes this new biography with a survey of the way various historians have assessed Brooke, explaining how he has lapsed into seeming obscurity in the years since his crucial part in the Allied victory in World War II.