Monty And Rommel: Parallel Lives - Peter Caddick-Adams

Peter Caddick-Adams wanted to compare and contrast two important World War 2 field marshals, and that's how you get Monty and Rommel. He starts from their earliest days, and the final two chapters deal with each man's legacy after the war. Somewhat different circumstances, since Montomgery was still alive and serving as a NATO commander, and writing books about the war, while Rommel was, obviously, dead. Which meant his legacy had to be determined by others, and in some ways, I think he fared better. Possibly because he wasn't around to annoy people with his abrasive attitude.

That's something that shines through in the book, the similarities between the two. Born within four years of each other almost to the day, neither to an aristocratic family (Rommel's father was teacher, Monty's a pastor/bishop), no strong military tradition in the family. Both served in World War 1, and both became known later for a style of command that emphasized contact with the rank and file. In Monty's case, this was in direct response to what he perceived as a distance between the higher ups and the people actually doing the fighting and dying. It may have been similar in Rommel's case - he certainly recognized that his presence could boost morale - but I think he liked to be on the front lines, taking an active hand. The brief time during WWI he spent in a staff office was a horrible time for him. Which is a pity, because there were probably some valuable lessons he could have learned*. Rommel strikes me as someone not comfortable delegating, he always wanted to be there, making certain things were done properly. Which is not really practical when you reach the higher levels of command he did later on.

Another thing the two had in common was their prickly nature with superiors and equals. Both of them tended to piss off their bosses, as well as anyone they were supposed to be coordinating with. They both tended to think they knew what was best, and they both tended to hog the credit (and shift the blame) after. About the only person in High Command Rommel had in his corner was Hitler (since Rommel didn't care much for the Nazi Party in general), which meant he was up the creek once der Fuehrer decided Erwin was in on the assassination plot**. Monty irritated Eisenhower (and Omar Bradley, Churchill, and a host of British Army and RAF officers), but none of them were likely to shoot him, and Ike was willing to calm down once Montgomery uttered appropriately groveling apologies.

Caddick-Adams lays things out quite thoroughly, and isn't afraid to digress into biographies or anecdotes about other people as they enter the story. At times, this can feel like meandering, or padding for areas where the subjects are not dominant, but it serves as a useful reminder that war isn't a one-man band. However skilled these two were, they both needed help to succeed. They needed superiors to recognize their skills and give them the chance to succeed (and also the protection to fail). They needed soldiers willing to listen and learn (both of them, but Monty, especially, were big on training for quick response), and cooperation from other branches of the service (Rommel certainly could have vouched for how much the RAF helped in the desert, even if Montgomery wouldn't).

It's interesting how accurate the title "Parallel Lives" is. They were never on the front lines in the same fight in WWI, especially with Rommel spending time on the Eastern Front and Italy. Rommel suffered some health issues around the time Montgomery was starting out in the desert, and left that theater entirely later on. Then he missed D-Day because he was home for his wife's birthday. Then within a month and a half, he got strafed by an Allied airplane, which took him off the lines for awhile, then there was the Hitler assassination attempt fallout. For the most part, the two went on about their business, only briefly intersecting

* There was a quote in Neptune's Inferno, to the effect: 'Amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics.' I think Monty, maybe owing to his greater experience in handling such things, was much more aware of logistics than Rommel. Rommel seemed to regard supply lines as something for him to complain that others weren't maintaining sufficiently.

** Caddick-Adams does discuss all that, and notes that Rommel destroyed a lot of his personal papers from the Normandy campaign, so it's difficult to tell how much he might have known. I believe his impression is Rommel was aware there were people unhappy with Hitler, and ready to remove, even kill, him, but that Rommel was not on board. Which doesn't mean other people didn't think he was, or didn't think they could convince him to be a figurehead after.