FIELD MARSHAL MONTGOMERY OF ALAMEIN (BERNARD MONTGOMERY) - TYPESCRIPT SIGNED - HFSID 1208

MONTGOMERY OF ALAMEIN
Remarkable signed typescript detailing Montgomery's critical relations with Churchill on the eve of the Allied attack
Typescript signed: "Montgomery of Alamein/F.M.", 1½ pages, 8½x11, separate sheets. On parchment-like paper. No place, no date. Headed: "Before D-Day". Remarkable typescript detailing Montgomery's critical relations with Churchill on the eve of the Allied attack. Begins: "It has been written that I had a row with the Prime Minister shortly before D-Day, and even threatened to resign. This is untrue. I would like to tell the true story. Here it is." In part: "For some time before D-Day the P.M. had not been satisfied that we had the right balance between fighting troops and vehicles for the initial landing on the Normandy beaches...I invited him to dinner to meet my senior staff officers. He came on the 19th May 1944...Having got him comfortably seated I said: 'I understand sir, that you want to discuss with my staff the proportion of soldiers to vehicles landing on the beaches in the first flights. I cannot allow you to do so. My staff advise me and I give the final decision; they then do what I tell them...I consider that what we have done is right; that will be proved on D-Day. If you think it is wrong, that can only mean that you have lost confidence in me.'...The P.M. did not reply at once...So I stood up and aid that if he would now come into the next room I would like to introduce him to my staff...With a twinkle in his eye he said, 'I wasn't allowed to have any discussion with you gentlemen.'...This is what the Prime Minister wrote in my autograph book when he came to dinner with me at Broomfield House on the 19th May: 'On the verge of the greatest Adventure with which these pages have dealt, I record my confidence that all will be well and that the organisation and equipment of the Army will be worthy of the valour of the soldiers and the genius of their chief. Winston S. Churchill'." General Bernard Law Montgomery (1887-1976) had returned to Britain in January 1944 to lead the land forces under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower in Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of the beaches of Normandy. Earlier in WWII, Montgomery had launched an attack on Rommel's forces at El Alamein in northern Egypt (October 23, 1942). When their lines broke, he pursued the German troops into Libya and beyond, becoming the first Allied general to inflict a decisive defeat on a German army. On November 10, 1942, Montgomery was knighted and promoted to full General. Shortly before the Normandy landings, Montgomery was given command of the 21st Army Group, which he would head through the rest of the war in Europe. On D-Day and for several months afterward, Montgomery was in charge of all allied ground forces, including British, Canadian and American troops. When U.S. forces became predominant in the war, Eisenhower took over control of American troops in addition to serving as Supreme Commander. Montgomery, who was bitter over the action, was then named Field Marshal by Churchill. In 1946, Montgomery became 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein. Lightly shaded at upper and lower blank margins. Otherwise, fine condition.