HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1943-01-14, Page 6PAGE Six
GerlOra1 MV,tont gOlTiery
(By William Munday)
Bernard Law Montgomery, Com-
mander of the Eighth Army, had
been in the desert only three weeks
when he stopped Rommel. The veter-
an German commander was not the
only one surprised, for until then
the 'world had heard -little of Kent
gomery.'
I have 'talked with Montgomery,
listened while others talked of him,
watched while he fought his first de-
sert battles. Everything contributed
to one impression: Here was one of
the most remarkable Men I have ever
known --a man of tremendous pers-
onality and strange contradictions,
He is a man who not only says, but
has proved that a battlecanbe won
before it is 'fought. After thirty-
three years' active soldiering he is
chock-full of new ideas. ,
The new leadership has brought to
an army of all classes,; many creeds
and many nationalities, an esprit, de
corps that is most akin to all that is,
° good in the spirit of Britain. Yet it
was only chance that made Bernard
Law Montgomery a soldier, He might
have been a bishop, That was the
life planned for him. But oneday at
the dawn of this century, as an ex-
cited boy of twelve;, he saw Austral-
ians in jaunty slouch hats sweeping
through the streets of Hobart, on
the way to the Boer War. There and
then he decided he was going to be
a soldier. His father, the Bishop of
Tasmania, did not like the idea at
first.
"But I rebelled -no, that's not the
right word to say -I made it clear
that I was very keen on the Army,"
Montgomery told inc. The Bishop
yielded.
He had taken his family to Aus-
tralia via the Cape in 18SS. Bernard
Law Montgomery had been born .in.
London a month before they sailed
and was the Bishop's second son. He
was one of six brothers when the Bi-
shop returned to London thirteen
years later. They got back in time to
see the celebrations which narked
the end of the Boer 'War. Again the
Bishop's son saw marching men,
cheering crowds, flags and bands in
the streets. More than ever Bernard
Law Montgomery determined to be
a soldier.
His progress was by no means me-
teoric. From Sandhurst. in 1908 he
was posted as a second lieutenant
with the Warwickshire Regiment. In
turn he commanded platoon, com-
pany, battalion, brigade, division,
army corps, army. "I didn't miss a
single link," he told me.
He fought with distinction in
France in the last war, when he also
did a considerable amount of staff
work. He was back there, in com-
mand of the 'Third Division, when
der tag of the new German regime
heralded another ero of death and
suffering for the world. Quickly he
saw that the speed of modern war-
fare made the methods of 1918 im-
possible.
Montgomery believes that a battle
not only can, but must be won be-
fore it is fought. His first encounter
with Rommell is a graphic instance
of this theory in practice. His plans
to cope with Rommel were so set and
well prepared that he never thought
of the German commander once the
African Corps began the drive which
the Axis fondly hoped was going to
end the battle for Egypt. He merely
waited until the Nazis had flowed in-
to certain positions; and this was the
stimulus which released the piston -
like responses of the allied 'army.
Every way Rommel turned, Mont-
gomery pressed another • button and
out shot another iron fist to punch
him again on the nose. Confused and
shaken, Rommel hurriedly stumbled
back from whence he came.
Montgomery tells his officers:
"The A.B.C. of modern war is com-
mon sense. That's the way you must
prepare for battles."
It is one of his regrets that he has
never met Rommel. "If I had met
him; I should know the type of man
he is and so be able to judge better
how he is going to fight, what he is
going to do, next," he told me.
It is not generally known that
Montgomery was in Egypt with the
First Battalion of the Warwickshires
in 1931, and went with it to Palestine
in 1932-1933 to help establish and
maintain ,peace there. Finally he snit;
• laved his ambition..by commanding
the regiment in which he served,
Montgomery, was commanding in
the southeast of England -"invasion
corner" --when Churchill selected
him and Alexander as the men for
• the Middle East. The two men were
already working in association, for
Alexander 'was Commander -in -Chief
of the Southern Command and they
had many things in .common, Both
Were aggressive, both had seen. Dun-
kirk, both were fully awake, to the
fact that there were new ways of
war and that you had to he tough to
come out: on top.
In the (Wert they wear shorts and
shirt, with a revolver strapped
around the waist, usually in an ord.
'Mary webbing belt and holster, For
'weeks Montgomery laid aside Its
general's cap, with its crimson band
and gilt, and wore an Australian
slouch hat. Now the slouch hat,'stud-
ded with badges of every unit in the
desert, hangs in his earavan, -That is
more than evidence that he has bean
in every part of the desert; among
the allied soldiers. It means, too, that
they have accepted him as one of
themselves..`
He is intensely proud -of his men,
The 'day he took over the comrimand.
he spoke of "my army,"
The "desert rats" were uncertain
at first. They had heard the new gen-
eral was a bishop's son, a teetotaler,
non-smoker, a trifle autocratic, a be-
liever in Spartan methods, and that
all officers of ranks up to major
would be required to run six` ,miles
before breakfast, daily, to harden up,
They found'. all these things except
the last were true to a degree, but
that Montgomery's interpretation of
hem was broad and reasonable,
His years in Ausralia have given
him a particular affection for ''Leslie
Morehead's men." The spirit of the
Australia troops, he said, burns in
thein like a flame making them afraid
of nothing. We've got to get that
flame into every man in the Eighth
Army.,,
Before the November offensive be-
gan, Montgomery's life was as disc--
iplined as his army. At five forty-
five he was wakened by his batman,;
He went to bed on the tick of nine -
thirty. For breakfast he likes fried
bread and "bubble and squeak" left
over vegetables from the previous
night. He never eatsfish, pork, bacon
or eggs, because the doctor says he
must riot.
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t' ' x STREET OR R.R. PROV.
Funeral of Mrs, Z. McCallum. -
Rev. Harold C. Vernon conducted
funeral services for Mrs, Z. McCal-
lum on New Year's Day, death hav-
ing come suddenly on Tuesday even-
ing from a heart attack. Sorrowing
relatives and friends gathered at her
late home, several of whom accomp-
anied the remains to Brussels cemet-
ery for interment. • The pallbearers
were her three brothers-in-law,
James and Colin McCallum, St. Tho-
mas,. and Edward McCallum, of Gor-
rie, a nephew, Clarence McCallum of
Gorrie, and cousins, Wm. McSpadden
and Zack -McSpadden, Seaforth.
Among those attending the funeral
were Mrs. Walter Wright, Toronto;
Mrs. Geo, Wilson and Mrs. Bruce
Sisson, Leaside; Mrs. Edward Hamil-
ton, Miss Mary Hamilton and Mrs.
William Johnson, Listowel; Mr, and.
Mrs, Thomas• Cruickdhanks, Strat-
ford;
trat-ford; Mr. and Mrs. John Campbell,
Seaforth; Mrs. Gerald Kirkpatrick,
Mrs, Jack Fox, Kitchener; Mr, and
Mrs. Sheldon Mann, Gorge; Mr, Ha-
rold Johnston, Hamilton. Nl:itcicell
Advocate.
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Seaforth News
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