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Why Montgomery Demanded to be Supreme Ground Commander? — Eisenhower Wanted to Fire Him

September 25th, 1944. General Dwight Eisenhower sat alone writing an assessment he would never make public. Eight days earlier, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery had launched Operation Market Garden—the most ambitious Allied operation since D-Day. It had failed catastrophically. Six thousand British paratroopers were dead, wounded, or captured at Arnhem. The Rhine remained uncrossed. Winter was coming.
Eisenhower wanted Montgomery fired. He had failed. He had ignored intelligence. He had cost seventeen thousand Allied casualties for nothing.
But when Eisenhower informed Winston Churchill of his decision, Churchill's response was immediate and absolute: "You cannot fire Montgomery. Britain needs him. I don't care what he costs the alliance."
This is the untold story of the general who never lost a battle but failed to win wars quickly, the political necessity that kept him in command despite catastrophic failures, and why the Allies had to accept prolonged campaigns to preserve British morale.

WHAT YOU'LL DISCOVER:
Why Montgomery won every battle but never destroyed enemy armies
El Alamein victory: Stopped Rommel but let Afrika Korps escape (14 more months of North African war)
Sicily advance: Methodical success but Germans evacuated 30,000 troops to Italy
Caen promise: Capture on D-Day, actually took 8 weeks
Falaise Gap: 20,000-40,000 Germans escaped when pocket should have closed
Market Garden disaster: Ignored intelligence about panzers at Arnhem, 6,000 paratroopers lost
Rhine crossing: 6 months preparation, crossed third after Hodges (accident) and Patton (speed)
Why Eisenhower wanted to fire Montgomery after Market Garden
Churchill's intervention: Political necessity overruled military judgment
The Eisenhower-Montgomery relationship: Coalition warfare nightmare
Why Montgomery demanded to be supreme ground commander
How Montgomery's press conference after Battle of Bulge nearly destroyed Allied unity
The Patton-Montgomery rivalry: Sicily race, Rhine competition, mutual contempt

THE FAILURES IN DETAIL:
El Alamein Pursuit (November 1942): Montgomery won decisively at El Alamein, stopping Rommel's advance. But he pursued cautiously. Rommel retreated 1,400 miles to Tunisia. The Afrika Korps survived to fight for six more months. Twenty thousand additional Allied casualties resulted from an enemy that could have been destroyed in November 1942.
Caen Delay (June-July 1944): Montgomery promised to capture Caen on D-Day. It fell on July 9th—over a month late. Montgomery claimed he was intentionally holding German panzers to enable American breakout. Documents from June 1944 show his original plan called for rapid Caen capture and British breakout. When that failed, he retroactively claimed the delay was strategy.
Falaise Gap (August 1944): German Seventh Army was trapped between British forces (north) and American forces (south). If the pocket closed, the entire German army in France would be destroyed. Montgomery's forces held the northern jaw but advanced cautiously. The gap stayed open long enough for 20,000-40,000 Germans to escape. They reorganized and fought at the Battle of the Bulge four months later.
Market Garden (September 1944): Montgomery's plan: Three airborne divisions drop behind German lines, capture bridges over Rhine, British XXX Corps advances up single road to link up. Dutch intelligence warned that II SS Panzer Corps was refitting near Arnhem. Montgomery's intelligence officer Brian Urquhart strongly recommended cancellation. Montgomery dismissed warnings. British 1st Airborne dropped at Arnhem and discovered panzers were there. XXX Corps couldn't break through on the single road. Of 10,000 British paratroopers at Arnhem, only 2,000 escaped. The rest were killed or captured.
Rhine Crossing Timing (March 1945): Montgomery spent six months preparing Operation Plunder with overwhelming force. Hodges accidentally seized Remagen bridge on March 7th. Patton crossed at Oppenheim on March 22nd using stealth. Montgomery crossed March 23rd with perfect execution but strategically irrelevant timing.


BASED ON:
Eisenhower's wartime diaries and private correspondence (Eisenhower Presidential Library)
Churchill's war memoirs and private secretary records (Churchill Archives)
Montgomery's "Normandy to the Baltic" and official British Army reports
Bradley's "A Soldier's Story" and 12th Army Group records
Patton's war diaries (Library of Congress)
Market Garden after-action reports and intelligence assessments (National Archives)
SHAEF communications logs September-October 1944
British War Office casualty statistics WWII
Arnhem battle records and Dutch intelligence documents
Rhine crossing operational reports March 1945


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