What is a fact about general Montgomery leading the allies to a victory over the axis troops in north Africa?

Answer 1

Montgomery commanded the British 8th Army, operating from Egypt and Libya as the Germans in North Africa were squeezed into Tunisia and eventually forced to surrender. There were British commonwealth troops under his command, but no Americans. At the other end of North Africa the Operation Torch landings of November 8, 1942 put ashore a force of American and British troops. This force was under the command of Dwight Eisenhower, an American general (and later the 34th president). Eisenhower was also Supreme Allied Commander Mediterranean, which meant that in theory at least, it was Eisenhower, and not Montgomery, who led the Allied forces to victory over the Axis troops in North Africa. Montgomery had not been the first choice to go in as a replacement in commanding the 8th Army, but the chosen officer died in a plane crash on the way to assume the command, so Montgomery was sent in. Montgomery did win a victory at El Alamein, which was in fact the first British victory of the war. Montgomery refused to launch this attack until he was absolutely certain that he outnumbered his opponent in every category, from crackers to cannon, as well as men, tanks and trucks, by a three to one margin. He was greatly assisted in this by the inertia of his vastly overrated opponent, the German General Rommel, who first crawled six hundred miles out on a limb from this base of supplies, placing himself in a position where he was dependent on a single fragile six hundred mile long supply line running along the North Africa coast, and thus subject to interruption anywhere along that entire length, at a time when he had command of neither the sea or the air. Rommel then squatted in place and obligingly waited while Montgomery meticulously accumulated his edge in equipment and supplies, which made the British victory possible.

Answer 2

November 1942