What was Bernard Montgomery's biggest or greatest accomplishments?

Answer 1

Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery was probably the best known British General of WW2. He was appointed to lead the 8th Army, along with General Sir Harold Alexander, before the defeat of the Afrika Korps at el Alamein. In this he typifies his style as a General, being seen conversely as good to his own forces, in that he appears cautious, and yet he promotes a brash, grating personality against opponents. His main drawback in exemplified in this: He is uncompromising, even with his allies and many US personalities found him uncooperative at times. The sad truth is that Montgomerys' greatest achievement should have been Market-Garden. (Leading the Allies to Victory by Christmas 1944) but the British, having taken on the lead role of taking the Arnhem bridge over the Rhine, had to relieve these forces much, much faster than thy actually did. ( Indeed most of the Parachutists were either killed or captured.) It's my personal feeling that this was due to a lack of adequate air support to the ground forces (Horrocks XXX corps) led by the Guards Armoured brigade. It therefore remains then that Montgomerys' greatest achievement is the removal from North Africa of the Axis Forces. It's also probably true to say that Montys' biggest drawback was his infuriating habit of making it sound as though it had all gone to plan, when in fact what he does is just to deny his own flexibility as a commander.