Why was Monty one month to take over cahen?

Question

In film saving ryan they only were 30 minutes. But was not equal in real life. He was a good general?

I think equal to james but i dont know and cannot delivery opinion because world be good to have information.
However i think romel as well was a english invent .
In other side espys brithis was good and they have the code ultra and campaign in africa was very difficult a causa very lees weapons to germanys.
Because convoys doenst arrive to bring reinforcement to germanys troops.
But defence sytem done in normandy for romel was very defectuosly.
They wait allies in cale .

Nossdda: Also in Africa was troops from so many commonwealth countrys and no only Brithis.

Answer 1

Monty was a political wonder boy whom the British glorified when they needed one. At Alamein all he did was out-gun Rommel : on equal terms he could never have beaten him.
All his subsequent campaign commands were either disastrous or less than impressive.

Answer 2

I would like to correct James S on his remarks that General Montgomery only out gunned Field Marshal Erwin Von Rommel .Montgomery beat Rommel by very clever strategy, enabling him to destroy almost all of Rommels tanks by making Rommel take his tanks through sand marshes where the tanks became bogged down and became sitting ducks for the british Armour. Within 3 days, rommels panzers were reduced to 35 from a total of 300. The RAF had aslo damaged Rommels supply line so much that His remaining Tanks were running short of fuel. The final push by the British began with the greatest salvo of artiilery ever seen in modern warfare. Over 1,000 Guns opened fire on the German lines forcing the germans to retreat, and their final surrender.

Answer 3

Two reasons:

First, the Germans were excellent fighters, and were particularly tenacious on defense, and had very powerful ground forces available at that point on the battlefield. Plus they had the advantage of defending on terrain of their own choosing, which is ALWAYS a plus.

Second, Montgomery never wanted to press an attack until he was positive he had a decisive advantage in manpower and materiel. This always delayed his attacks. The only time he violated that policy was for Operation MARKET GARDEN, and we all know how that turned out.

Answer 4

Montgomery was a very good general - he was in fact a 'tank' general and had lead the 8th Army [Armoured] to victory in the North African desert against Rommels Afrika Korps.

The problem in Normandy is that it is just not 'tank country'.

What we have there are small fields [hundreds of them] with stone walls surrounding them and deep ditches at the sides. The existing roads are very narrow and the entire area is very easily defended, as the Germans proved.


Okay here are a couple of websites to explain things a bit. Note that the Montgomery name came to England with the Normans and that Monty was of Norman [Anglo-Norman] descent.

Montgomery Family GenealogyI - n fact Roger de Montgomery wasn't at the Battle of Hastings, but was left at home to look after Normandy for William while he was in England. ...
http://www.renderplus.com/hartgen/htm/montgomery.htm -

Battle of Normandy - Wikipedia, The Normandy invasion began with overnight parachute and glider landings, .... On April 7 and May 15 Montgomery presented his strategy for the invasion at ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Normandy


Monty made a TV series with the BBC back in the 1960s - I remember it, because in it he described his various battle plans. I think he concentrated mainly on his successes in the deserts of North Africa.

The first British to land in Normandy were the SAS. They had jeeps with heavy machine guns mounted fore and aft. They drove at high speed through the villages of Normandy firing their guns into the houses. Their plan was to kill as many Germans as possible.

Next day - D-Day and all that followed.


This next site may be of interest : -

ETF - Franco-British TV Will Make History The series of Franco-British joint television programmes to be broadcast from July ... in two wars and the site of Field Marshal Montgomery’s famous "No. ...
http://www.earlytelevision.org/franco-british_tv_link.html

This next site will help you understand more about Monty

BBC - History - Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery (1887-1976) Bernard Law Montgomery was the most well-known British general of World War Two, famous for his victory at the Battle of El Alamein in November 1942.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/montgomery_bernard.shtml



Onward to Victory


WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Answer 5

The Allies met with very stiff resisance after the Normandy landings & progress was barred at Caen until after fierce fighting between the sides and extensive bombing of the city.

Take no notice of films.

Montgomery was an excellent general.

Answer 6

It didnt help that a German Tank ace by the name of Michael Wittmann took out a british tank corps in the village of Villers Bocage. just outside of Caen

Answer 7

monty new it would take longer than planed,he required men be for he could make a positive move and keep the ground ,he didn't wont to lose men and ground ,only to send men in agen to take the same ground, as he out lined jn is plan be for d-day,and he was a ww1 solder, and decorated in battle,plus wounded in the trenchers(,where did u say IKE was then, wot battles did he ever take part in) NONE monty was fighting the Germans in Africa wer was America then

Answer 8

Slightly off topic:

But Witmans score on British Tanks (not all from the same Armoured Unit) was: 9 Tanks knocked out and a further 19 other items, including bren-gun carriers, trucks, scout cars and six pounder cannon destroyed).

Early on 13 June, elements of an armoured regiment (the British term "armoured regiment" is equivalent to a tank battalion in other armies) and Motor battalion (mechanised infantry) of 7th Armoured Division approached the town of Villers-Bocage from the northwest. German tank commander Michael Wittmann had a small force of six tanks nearby. In one of the more aggressive small-unit actions of the war, he charged his vehicle into the British column, splitting it and then engaging the British forces at very short range before passing along and across the British line into the village. The other tanks of his small unit added to the British vehicle losses, which were heavy.

The significance of the battle lies in the lost opportunity to take Caen early in the Normandy campaign. Caen had been a D-Day objective of the British 2nd Army. Seizure of Caen, combined with the small bridgeheads across the Orne taken by the British Airborne troops on D-Day, would have given the Allies a much stronger position on the eastern flank in Normandy.
Villers-Bocage and Point 213 were unoccupied as the battle opened and both sides raced to take the high ground, and thus the tactical advantage. While the British forces arrived in the town of Villers-Bocage first, Wittman's force gained point 213 and could observe the British movements.

The British in the town suffered from poor tactical deployment and were initially crowded by cheering civilians happy about their apparent liberation. The four tanks of the tank squadron's command group parked and the crews dismounted. The men and vehicles of the battle group did not form an all-around defence as doctrine demanded, security was poor and no proper reconnaissance of Point 213 was done. A combined tank and infantry force was finally sent out of the village to take Point 213.

Wittmann watched the column of the 4th County of London Yeomanry leave Villers-Bocage and advance on his tanks on Point 213, nose to tail through a sunken road. The lead squadron halted on the road without deploying into a defensive position, allowing the halftracks and carriers of the accompanying infantry to pass. In the face of unreconnoitered terrain, this was a colossal mistake.

Wittmann saw his opportunity and decided to attack with one tank between Point 213 and Villers-Bocage, cutting off "A" Squadron of the 4th CLY and ordered his accompanying two operational tanks to hold their position. Wittmann counted on the effect of surprise to inflict the greatest possible losses on the British while waiting for reinforcements.

Describing his actions Wittmann later said, "I had not been able to gather my company. I had to act very quickly because I must suppose that the enemy has already located us and intends to destroy us at the starting position. I left with my tank. I ordered the two other tanks to move back at once but to hold the terrain."

At 0900 Wittmann's Tiger attacked. A few minutes later, in the direction of Caen, he destroyed three tanks; a Sherman Firefly and a Cromwell tank on the right and another tank on the left, proceeding to Villers without pause and attacking the lightly armoured vehicles of The Rifle Brigade. During this engagement, he destroyed nine half-track vehicles, four Carden Loyd Carriers, two other carriers, and two 6-pounder anti-tank guns, then destroyed three Stuart light tanks and one half-track vehicle. Entering Villers-Bocage alone, he destroyed three of the four Cromwells in position at the top of the Lemonnier farm.

He followed Clémenceau Street where his tank destroyed two Sherman command tanks of the 5th Royal Horse Artillery before knocking out another scout car and half-track. As Wittmann arrived at the Jeanne d'Arc square, he ended up opposite the Sherman Firefly of Sergeant Lockwood of "B" Squadron. The Firefly, whose 17-pounder was the only Allied main tank gun capable of defeating the frontal armour of a Tiger in most circumstances, fired four shells at Wittman. One hit the hull of the Tiger, which returned fire and knocked down a section of wall on the Sherman. Wittmann then made a half-turn, his tank lightly damaged, and returned down Clémenceau Street. A surviving Cromwell tank, commanded by Captain Dyas, opened fire with its 75mm gun hitting Wittmann's Tiger twice without effect. Returning fire, Wittmann's tank put the Cromwell out of action with one shot.

As Wittmann proceeded on the road leaving Villers-Bocage, his left track was hit by a 6-pdr shell, forcing him to stop on the street in front of the Huet-Godefroy store. Wittman engaged targets in range. Thinking that the Tiger might be salvaged and repaired later, Wittmann and crew abandoned the tank without destroying it, leaving the area on foot but without weapons.

They ended up joining the headquarters of the Panzer Lehr Division, nearly 7 kilometres away. Consequently, 15 Panzer IV's of IInd Battalion of the 130th regiment left Orbois in the direction of Villers-Bocage under the command of Captain Helmut Ritgen with the aim of blocking the exits to the North. Before reaching their objective, they came under the fire of British anti-tank guns and their advance was blocked. Fritz Bayerlein, commander of Panzer Lehr, ordered the Panzer IVs to fall back and regroup at Villers-Bocage. The tanks took the direction of the castle of Parfouru on Odon, where, after repairs were made to the 14 survivors, they attacked under the command of Hannes Philipsen; four tanks from the south and ten by Clémenceau Street. Each of the two groups lost two tanks.

Wittmann was then brought back in his Schwimmwagen to Point 213, where he joined with Karl Mobius, commander of the 1st Company and discussed the second attack that the 101st Abteilung was about to deliver. The tanks of the 1st Company entered the city along the d'Evrecy Road and joined those of Panzer Lehr at the marketplace in order to coordinate their offensive. The forces were distributed so as to occupy the city from the Pasteur Street towards the Jeanne d'Arc square, on Saint-Germain Street, on Emile Samson and towards the crossroads of Jeanne Bacon Street and Joffre Boulevard. However, British resistance was by now organised as the Germans had lost surprise. One 6-pounder anti-tank gun of the 1/7th Queen's, placed in Jeanne Bacon Street, managed to score hits on three Tigers of which only one could be repaired.

German propaganda throughout the Second World War tended to elevate individual fighters to 'hero' status. The events at Villers-Bocage were thus ascribed almost entirely to Wittmann who was given credit for 27 of the 30 destroyed British tanks.

Postwar, hobbyist interest in Wittmann has not wained. It must be pointed out that Wittmann's Tiger tank greatly outclassed the British vehicles he faced in firepower and armour. However, it is also true that in the close quarters of this battle, the British 17-pounder was capable of defeating the armour on Wittmann's tank. Even the towed 6 pounder and 75 mm guns on the Cromwells and Shermans could defeat German armour under ideal conditions.