Back Bernard Montgomery Afrikaans Bernard Montgomery AN برنارد مونتغمري Arabic برنارد مونتجمرى ARZ Bernard Montqomeri Azerbaijani Монтгомери Бернард Лоу Bashkir Бернард Лоу Мантгомеры Byelorussian Бэрнард Лоў Мантгомэры BE-X-OLD Бърнард Монтгомъри Bulgarian Bernard Montgomery Breton

Bernard Montgomery

"General Montgomery" redirects here. For other uses, see General Montgomery (disambiguation).

The Viscount Montgomery of Alamein

KG GCB DSO PC DL
Montgomery in 1943
Nickname(s)
  • "Monty"
  • "The Spartan General"
Born(1887-11-17)17 November 1887[1]
Kennington, Surrey, England
Died24 March 1976(1976-03-24) (aged 88)
Alton, Hampshire, England
Buried
Holy Cross Churchyard, Binsted, Hampshire
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service / branchBritish Army
Years of service1908–1958
RankField marshal
Service number8742
UnitRoyal Warwickshire Regiment
Commands
Battles / wars
Awards
Spouse(s)
Betty Carver
​
​
(m. 1927; died 1937)​
Other work
  • Colonel Commandant, Royal Tank Regiment
  • Colonel Commandant, Parachute Regiment (?−1956)[2]
  • Representative Colonel Commandant, Royal Armoured Corps (1947–1957)[3][4]
  • Colonel Commandant, Army Physical Training Corps (1946–1960)[5][6]
  • Colonel Royal Warwickshire Regiment (1947–1963)[7][8]
  • Deputy Lieutenant of Southampton (1958–76)[9]
Signature
Montgomery's voice
from the BBC programme Desert Island Discs, 20 December 1969[10]

Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein KG, GCB, DSO, PC, DL (/məntˈɡʌməri ... ˈæləmeɪn/; 17 November 1887 – 24 March 1976), nicknamed "Monty", was a senior British Army officer who served in the First World War, the Irish War of Independence and the Second World War.

Montgomery first saw action in the First World War as a junior officer of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. At Méteren, near the Belgian border at Bailleul, he was shot through the right lung by a sniper, during the First Battle of Ypres. On returning to the Western Front as a general staff officer, he took part in the Battle of Arras in April–May 1917. He also took part in the Battle of Passchendaele in late 1917 before finishing the war as chief of staff of the 47th (2nd London) Division. In the inter-war years he commanded the 17th (Service) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers and, later, the 1st Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment before becoming commander of the 9th Infantry Brigade and then general officer commanding (GOC), 8th Infantry Division.

During the Western Desert campaign of the Second World War, Montgomery commanded the British Eighth Army from August 1942. He subsequently commanded the British Eighth Army during the Allied invasion of Sicily and the Allied invasion of Italy and was in command of all Allied ground forces during the Battle of Normandy (Operation Overlord), from D-Day on 6 June 1944 until 1 September 1944. He then continued in command of the 21st Army Group for the rest of the North West Europe campaign, including the failed attempt to cross the Rhine during Operation Market Garden. When German armoured forces broke through the US lines in Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge, Montgomery received command of the northern shoulder of the Bulge. Montgomery's 21st Army Group, including the US Ninth Army and the First Allied Airborne Army, crossed the Rhine in Operation Plunder in March 1945. By the end of the war, troops under Montgomery's command had taken part in the encirclement of the Ruhr Pocket, liberated the Netherlands, and captured much of north-west Germany. On 4 May 1945, Montgomery accepted the surrender of the German forces in north-western Europe at Lüneburg Heath, south of Hamburg, after the surrender of Berlin to the USSR on 2 May.

After the war he became Commander-in-Chief of the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) in Germany and then Chief of the Imperial General Staff (1946–1948). From 1948 to 1951, he served as Chairman of the Commanders-in-Chief Committee of the Western Union. He then served as NATO's Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe until his retirement in 1958.

  1. ^ Grossman, Mark (2007). World Military Leaders: A Biographical Dictionary. Infobase Publishing. p. 231. ISBN 978-0-8160-7477-8.
  2. ^ "No. 40729". The London Gazette (Supplement). 9 March 1956. p. 1504.
  3. ^ "No. 37983". The London Gazette (Supplement). 10 June 1947. p. 2663.
  4. ^ "No. 41182". The London Gazette (Supplement). 20 September 1957. p. 5545.
  5. ^ "No. 37589". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 May 1946. p. 2665.
  6. ^ "No. 42240". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 1960. p. 24.
  7. ^ "No. 37826". The London Gazette (Supplement). 20 December 1946. p. 6236.
  8. ^ "No. 43160". The London Gazette (Supplement). 15 November 1963. p. 9424.
  9. ^ "No. 41599". The London Gazette. 6 January 1959. p. 166.
  10. ^ "Viscount Montgomery of Alamein". Desert Island Discs. 20 December 1969. BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 18 January 2014.

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