Editing Bernard Montgomery (section)

==Personality==
Throughout the war, Montgomery was notorious for his lack of tact and diplomacy. Even his "patron", the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, General Sir Alan Brooke, frequently mentions it in his war diaries: "he is liable to commit untold errors in lack of tact" and  "I had to haul him over the coals for his usual lack of tact and egotistical outlook which prevented him from appreciating other people's feelings".{{sfn|Alanbrooke|2001|pp=418–419, 516, 531, 550, 638}} Montgomery suffered from "an overbearing conceit and an uncontrollable urge for self-promotion." [[Hastings Ismay, 1st Baron Ismay|General Hastings Ismay]], who was at the time Winston Churchill's chief staff officer and trusted military adviser, once said of him: "I have come to the conclusion that his love of publicity is a disease, like alcoholism or taking drugs, and that it sends him equally mad."<ref>''World War II in Europe: A Concise History'', p. 168, by Marvin Perry, Cengage Learning, 2012, {{ISBN|978-1285401799}}</ref><ref>''A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II'', p. 1103, by Gerhard L. Weinberg, 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press, 2013, {{ISBN|978-0511252938}}</ref><ref>''The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943–1944'', Volume 2 of The ''Liberation Trilogy'', p, 126, by Rick Atkinson, Henry Holt and Company, 2007, {{ISBN|978-1429920100}}</ref> The psychiatrist [[Michael Fitzgerald (psychiatrist)|Michael Fitzgerald]] has argued that Montgomery was likely [[Autism|autistic]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fitzgerald |first=Michael |date=January 2000 |title=Did Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery (Montgomery of Alamein) have Asperger's Syndrome? |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/50399899 |journal=Indian Journal of Psychiatry |volume=42 |issue=1 |pages=73–76 |pmid=21407912 |pmc=2957007 |via=ResearchGate}}</ref> and it has been speculated that this was the cause of many of apparent behaviours and eccentricities.<ref>{{Cite news |last=de Bruxelles |first=Simon |date=23 May 2015 |title=Montgomery 'was Asperger's sufferer' |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/montgomery-was-aspergers-sufferer-2wmwh87ngbm |access-date=28 February 2025 |work=The Times}}</ref>

A notorious instance of Montgomery's behaviour occurred during the North African campaign when he bet [[Walter Bedell Smith]] that he could capture [[Sfax]] by the middle of April 1943. Smith jokingly replied that if Montgomery could do it he would give him a [[Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress|Flying Fortress]] complete with crew. Smith promptly forgot all about it, but Montgomery did not, and when Sfax was taken on 10 April, he sent a message to Smith "claiming his winnings". Smith tried to laugh it off, but Montgomery insisted on his aircraft. The incident was finally resolved by Eisenhower who, with his renowned skill in diplomacy, ensured Montgomery did get his Flying Fortress, though at a great cost in ill feeling.<ref>{{harvnb|Corrigan|2010|p=312}}</ref>{{sfn|Alanbrooke|2001|pp=417–418}}

[[Antony Beevor]], in discussing Montgomery's counterproductive lack of tact in the final months of the war, described him as "insufferable". Beevor says that in January 1945 Montgomery had tried to claim far too much credit for the British (and for himself) in defeating the German counter-attack in the Ardennes in December 1944. This "crass and unpleasant blunder" helped make it impossible for Churchill and Alan Brooke to persuade Eisenhower of the need for an immediate thrust—to be led by Montgomery—through Germany to Berlin. Eisenhower did not accept the viability of the "dagger thrust" approach, it had already been agreed that Berlin would fall into the future Soviet occupation zone, and he was not willing to accept heavy casualties for no gain, so Eisenhower disregarded the British suggestions and continued with his conservative broad front strategy, and the Red Army reached Berlin well ahead of the Western Allies.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Beevor |first1=Antony |title=The Fall of Berlin 1945 |date=2002 |publisher=Penguin |location=London|isbn=978-0-141-90302-6 |pages=84 |edition=2007}}</ref>

In August 1945, while Brooke, [[Andrew Cunningham, 1st Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope|Sir Andrew Cunningham]] and [[Charles Portal, 1st Viscount Portal of Hungerford|Sir Charles Portal]] were discussing their possible successors as "Chiefs of Staff", they concluded that Montgomery would be very efficient as [[Chief of the General Staff (United Kingdom)|CIGS]] from the Army's point of view but that he was also very unpopular with a large proportion of the Army. Despite this, Cunningham and Portal were strongly in favour of Montgomery succeeding Brooke after his retirement.<ref>{{harvnb|Alanbrooke|2001|p=720}}</ref> Churchill, by all accounts a faithful friend, is quoted as saying of Montgomery, "In defeat, unbeatable; in victory, unbearable."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Enright|first1=Dominique|title=The Wicked Wit of Winston Churchill|date=2001|publisher=Michael O'Mara Books Limited|location=London|isbn=978-1-85479-529-8|page=63}}</ref>