Monty and Rommel : parallel lives PDF
Preview Monty and Rommel : parallel lives
Copyright This edition first published in the United States in 2012 by The Overlook Press, Peter Mayer Publishers, Inc. 141 Wooster Street New York, NY 10012 www.overlookpress.com For bulk and special sales, please contact To Stefania and Emmanuelle for their love, support and tolerance in allowing me to spend so much time with the field marshals. Contents Copyright Maps Prologue Part One. Baptism and Fire 1 The Irishman 2 The Swabian 3 First Combats 4 Cheating Death 5 Learning the Trade 6 Bloody Red Tabs 7 The Mountain Lion 8 Mud and Mountains 9 The Last Year Part Two. Interwar: Preparations 10 Coping with Peace 11 Preparing for War Part Three: The Making of Modern Major Generals 12 Phoney War 13 Blitzkrieg 14 Duel in the Desert I 15 Duel in the Desert II: The Battles of El Alamein Part Four. Once More Unto the Breach 16 Two Return to France 17 Defending Normandy 18 Britain’s Last Hurrah! 19 Where is Rommel? 20 Exploiting the Beachhead 21 Plots and Breakouts 22 Beyond the Bocage Epigraph. The Final Duel: Reputations 23 How Will History Judge Me? 24 The Desert Fox Reborn Afterword Notes Bibliography Acknowledgements Chronology Guide to Ranks List of Illustrations Index List of Maps 1. Monty at Ypres, 1914, 1917–18 2. Monty at the Somme, 1916 and 1918 3. Rommel on the Piave, 1917 4. Rommel at Arras, 21 May 1940 5. The Dunkirk Perimeter, 30 May–2 June 1940 6. Rommel in France, 1940 7. Western Desert Campaigns, 1940–43 8. Monty and Rommel at El Alamein, 1942 9. Monty in Normandy, 1944 10. Normandy: The Breakout There was rarely a quiet moment in the Ypres area, which witnessed near- continuous fighting, from October 1914 to October 1918. Monty was dangerously wounded in Méteren in 1914, and from 1917–18 he planned operations as a staff officer with IX Corps in the battlefields east of Ypres. Within the Ypres salient are the villages of Gheluvelt and Messines, where Adolf Hitler fought, and Ploegsteert, where Lt.-Colonel Winston Churchill’s battalion (6/Royal Scots Fusiliers) was stationed between January and May 1916. Named after a river that most British troops never got to see, the Somme battlefields witnessed Monty’s presence twice. Initially during the ‘Great Push’ of 1916, whose slow progress is charted here, Bernard’s 104th Brigade fought in the area of Trônes Wood, Malz Horn Farm and Guillemont. His advance with 47th Division in 1918 is also shown, including Happy Valley, where his brigade paraded in 1916, but which his division attacked in 1918. Rommel’s 1917 war in Italy was one characterised by speed and movement, in contrast to the static nature of the Western Front. Erwin advanced 150 miles over twenty-two days, ending spectacularly on the River Piave, at Longarone, on 10 November. His achievement is all the more impressive when one remembers that most of it was conducted in contact with the enemy, over tiring mountainous terrain and on foot. The armoured counter-attack against 7th Panzer Division at Arras was the first time Rommel encountered British troops. Deploying from Vimy, the Royal Tank Regiment’s Matildas completely surprised disorganised German units; only the speedy use of artillery at Telegraph Hill and Wailly saved 7th Panzer division from annihilation. Caught in the midst of the fracas, Rommel was left with an indelible impression of British resourcefulness.
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