"MONTY" PROMOTED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 54, 1 September 1944, Page 5

"MONTY" PROMOTED

Now a Field-Marshal

Rec. 11.30 a.m. RUG.BY, August 31 The W^r Office announces that General sir Bernard L. Mqiit-

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Mediterranean campaigns had taught among other things, how the British and the Americans could get together. The Empire's troops were largely separate from the United States troops, but in the top level of the command there was absolute y-^Evsry^man Put '"* V high Place by his Government had met with the approval of all the Governments, and thus perfect teamwork had been assured frpm the start. There had not been, as far as he knew, even a short difference of opinion, and certainly none that had caused pad feeling or discomfort among the people constituting the team. **■? British had named General Montgomery as the ground commander of "the British forces in the west, and the United States Government had left the choice of the American commander to him and he had subsequently named General Bradley The plan provided that General Montgomery should command the forceg on the left and General Bradley those m the centre, but because tfce initial bridgehead was constricted he had put General Montgomery in tactical control of the American forces. The plan was to control those forces till the Allies got out to the areas where it was expected a general advance would begin against Germany. Now that the break-out had occurred, General Bradley, in reporting directly to him, was merely taking over the role assigned to him in the original strategic plan, and General Montgomery would now have the job of handling the battles on his own part of the front. It would be most unfortunate, he said, if the plan, which had been developed as conceived, should be interpreted as demotion or as a slap at anybody. General Montgomery was a great and personal friend, and he had great admiration for him. All the tasks worked out for performance in this great campaign had depended on teamwork. No subordinate had failed to carry out the task given to him, no matter what the subordinate's original idea was. General Eisenhower emphasised that he thought every British and American citizen had a right to be proud of the way in which every British and American sailor, soldier, and airman had got together. He hated to see anything developing on the outside which might cause an atmosphere drawing them apart arid causing jealousy. No one had a right to interpret anything that had happened in such a way as to cause dissension, and any attempt to do so was detrimental to the war effort. General Eisenhower added that the campaign on D Day plus 85 (August 30) was well ahead of the stage that had been planned for D Day plus 90 (September 4). ■ General Eisenhower said that he had been commander of the Allied force for more than two years and a half. His bosses were British, and therefore he had no right to favour the Americans, nor did he intend to.

# General Montgomery, who was born in 1887, commanded the Eighth Division in 1938-39 and was in France prior to Dunkirk. He then held a command in England till his appointment tp the command of the Eighth Army in August, 1942. His Victories since then are already history. General Montgomery commanded a battalion in the last war, won the D.5.0., and wat mentioned six times in dispatches.