All right boys, the easiest Poll Ever: Was Monty over-rated?

[ 16. January 2004, 03:11 PM: Message edited by: Citadel_87 ]

 

Montgomery may have saved lives by not throwing them away in individual battles.... but how many of these battles had to be re-fought at a later date on grander scale because he never followed up those victories decisively. Time after time Montgomery let his foes escape to fight another day.

I don't know if any of you have read his book written during the war "El Alemein to the river Sangro", but he stresses numerous times that he refused to extend his attacks until his administrative tale was brought up. That is quite a double edged sword. It means that he doesn't waste troops by possibly over-extending them, but it also allows the enemy to escape and regroup to fight another day.

Operation Market-Garden was a defeat and outright disaster for the troops at Arnhem. It was not well planned and neither was the follow up battle if the Bridges had all been captured.

A single thrust on the North German plain would have led to the destruction or unsuspected negative consequences for 21st Army group.
1. Montgomery was not the General needed to lead a single-pronged lightning strike into Germany as he himself wrote in the book above.
2. He failed to see the importance of capturing Antwerp and clearing the Scheldt Estuary to supply such an advance. These operations were costly and time consuming, a fact he overlooked. Great commanders do not miss the vital importance of supply and access to those supplies.
3. Britain had reached it's manpower limits. Could they still replace the severe losses they would incur in leading this single pronged assault? This was never mentioned in the single prong gambit.
4. Germany was not as weak in the West as Montgomery himself expected. Not only was Germany able to amass the troops for the December Ardenness offensive but were able to direct numerous Independant Panzer brigades against Patton in the fall and early winter. These would have been directed against 21st Army Group. The Germans could have launched a very powerful attack into the flank of 21st Army group and might have suceeded in cutting them off as they had attempted in the Ardennes.
5. Would Germany not have moved some of their best units from the east to defend their country? The Allies would also be outrunning their bases exactly when they advanced into the heart of Luftwaffe defenses.
6.Despite Montgomery's spin and propoganda on the "Battle of the Bulge" he didn't realize it was comming and wasn't planning for it either. Those German division were un-accounted for. Montgomery had asked for and received permission for leave back to England for that timeframe. He didn't expect an attack and his single thrust plan didn't account for it either.
Rommel made the same mistake in June 1944 and it cost the Germans a chance of victory in Normandy.

This many lapses of judgment and outright mistakes this late in the war were inexcusable by a "Great" Commander. Montgomery was a very good set-piece ground commander in position to take advantage of growing Allied superiority on all fronts. He was Good ....not Great.