MONTGOMERY, Bernard Law (1887-1976), Viscount Montgomery of Alamein . Autograph letter signed ("Monty") to John Anderson 7 Westminster Gardens, 8 November 1947. 4 pp., 8vo, paper clip burn on top corner . [ With :] Typed document titled, "Notes on the German Situation: 1st May, 1946," by Field Marshal Montgomery. Marked "Private and Top Secret." 5 pp. 4to, staining along right edge, staple and paper clip burn at top left corners . MONTGOMERY LAMBASTES EISENHOWER: "WE WON THE WAR BUT LOST THE PEACE". A supremely malicious letter: "We are moving towards a divided Germany," predicts Montgomery. "That, of course, cannot possibly last and can end only in disaster. I often think what a tragedy it was that Eisenhower descended from his lofty perch of Supreme Commander after we had defeated the Germans in Normandy, and tried himself to command directly the land armies as well as being Supreme Commander. By trying to exercise command and control himself in two sphere [ sic ], a strategic and a tactical one, he lost control in both; we won the war but we lost the peace. By adopting the proper strategy we could have been in Berlin and in Czechoslovakia before the Russians; the boundaries of the zones in Germany would there have been drawn quite differently; we would have finished the war in the winter on 1944/45 and not have gone on till the early summer of 1945; all our present troubles would have been halved. The judgement of history on all this will be very interesting." Montgomery includes a 5-page memo he wrote on the day he left Germany, 1 May 1946 and sent to Attlee, Bevin and Hynd. Here, in 1947, he writes, "I have sent a copy of it today to Bevin and asked him to read it again!!" In it he warns that if the Allied occupation fails, "The Germans in the British Zone will begin to look EAST. When that happens we shall have failed, and there will exist a definite menace to the British Empire...." Belittling Eisenhower was one of Montgomery's favorite pastimes. During the war he dismissed him as "a very nice chap" who knew "nothing whatever about how to make war or to fight battles." While Montgomery was right about the looming division of Germany, he was quite wrong about "losing the peace." Thanks to Allied unity in defense of West Germany, and the Marshall Plan aid after 1947, Germany was revived, and in time reunited as a peaceful, prosperous member of the European and international community. (2)
MONTGOMERY, Bernard Law (1887-1976), Viscount Montgomery of Alamein . Autograph letter signed ("Monty") to John Anderson 7 Westminster Gardens, 8 November 1947. 4 pp., 8vo, paper clip burn on top corner . [ With :] Typed document titled, "Notes on the German Situation: 1st May, 1946," by Field Marshal Montgomery. Marked "Private and Top Secret." 5 pp. 4to, staining along right edge, staple and paper clip burn at top left corners . MONTGOMERY LAMBASTES EISENHOWER: "WE WON THE WAR BUT LOST THE PEACE". A supremely malicious letter: "We are moving towards a divided Germany," predicts Montgomery. "That, of course, cannot possibly last and can end only in disaster. I often think what a tragedy it was that Eisenhower descended from his lofty perch of Supreme Commander after we had defeated the Germans in Normandy, and tried himself to command directly the land armies as well as being Supreme Commander. By trying to exercise command and control himself in two sphere [ sic ], a strategic and a tactical one, he lost control in both; we won the war but we lost the peace. By adopting the proper strategy we could have been in Berlin and in Czechoslovakia before the Russians; the boundaries of the zones in Germany would there have been drawn quite differently; we would have finished the war in the winter on 1944/45 and not have gone on till the early summer of 1945; all our present troubles would have been halved. The judgement of history on all this will be very interesting." Montgomery includes a 5-page memo he wrote on the day he left Germany, 1 May 1946 and sent to Attlee, Bevin and Hynd. Here, in 1947, he writes, "I have sent a copy of it today to Bevin and asked him to read it again!!" In it he warns that if the Allied occupation fails, "The Germans in the British Zone will begin to look EAST. When that happens we shall have failed, and there will exist a definite menace to the British Empire...." Belittling Eisenhower was one of Montgomery's favorite pastimes. During the war he dismissed him as "a very nice chap" who knew "nothing whatever about how to make war or to fight battles." While Montgomery was right about the looming division of Germany, he was quite wrong about "losing the peace." Thanks to Allied unity in defense of West Germany, and the Marshall Plan aid after 1947, Germany was revived, and in time reunited as a peaceful, prosperous member of the European and international community. (2)
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