Though his colorful and inspiring speeches fill volumes, it is his keen ability to predict the political future that is often overlooked. His strenuous objections to the outcome of the Yalta Conference are borne out, as Stalin’s Soviet Union seals off most of eastern Europe, including East Germany, from western influence—and in many cases contact of any kind. It is Churchill who describes the Soviet action as the “dropping of an iron curtain.” This antagonism, which was predicted by Churchill (as well as George Patton), results in decades of Cold War between East and West, and the subjugation of nations that resembles in many ways the very conquest Hitler had intended.
A staunch ally of the United States, Churchill befriends every American president and is a welcome guest at ceremonies and official functions in the United States. In 1963, Congress authorizes President John F. Kennedy to declare Churchill an honorary citizen of the United States.
But Churchill’s health fails rapidly, and in January 1965, he suffers a stroke. He survives for nine days, and dies at age ninety. His funeral is the largest of its kind in British history.
Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life and the long continuity of our institutions and our empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be freed, and the life of the world may move forward into broad and sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States and all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister and perhaps more prolonged by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and Commonwealth lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, “This was their Finest Hour.”
—TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, JUNE 18, 1940
BERNARD LAW MONTGOMERY
As soon as I saw what was happening in the Ardennes, I took certain steps myself to ensure that if the Germans got to the Meuse, they certainly would not get over that river … This battle has been most interesting, I think probably one of the most interesting and tricky battles I have ever handled.
—MONTGOMERY, PRESS CONFERENCE, JANUARY 7, 1945
Montgomery’s self-proclaimed heroism for rescuing the Americans during the Battle of the Bulge is a pill that no American and few British commanders can swallow. Forced by the influence of those close to him, including his chief of staff, Freddie de Guingand, and British Chief of the Imperial General Staff Sir Alan Brooke, Montgomery concedes to offer Eisenhower an apology for his statements at the press conference. But the damage has been done. He continues to demonstrate a remarkably oblivious sense of his own importance, which, unfortunately, negates his reputation for accomplishments in the field. Throughout the remainder of the war, Monty’s actions and pronouncements create animosity among even those who had long given him the benefit of the doubt. Though Eisenhower continues to maintain authority to remove Montgomery from his command, he recognizes Monty’s value to the British forces, a political reality Eisenhower despises, as much as he begins to despise Montgomery himself.
Throughout the final year of the war, Montgomery continues his standard practice, insisting on absolute preparation before launching any attack. In fairness, Montgomery is acutely aware that the British and Canadian forces under his command have suffered losses the Americans cannot fully appreciate, losses that have become nearly impossible to replace. If Montgomery is to be blamed for excessive pride and a loud championing of nationalism, he must be credited with maintaining an army in the field that, by 1945, is a shadow of what it had been five years prior. Despite the hostility he engenders from men such as Bradley and Patton, the British soldiers love him, and it is this affection that enables the British to contribute to the final drive that defeats Hitler’s army in the west.
After Germany’s surrender, Montgomery serves as commander in chief of the British army of occupation and is awarded a peerage, thus becoming “First Viscount Montgomery of Alamein.” The American shorthand becomes “Sir Bernard,” which, coincidentally, is a derisive label George Patton had used to describe Montgomery throughout the war.
In mid-1946, he succeeds Sir Alan Brooke as chief of the Imperial General Staff, but his personality will never win him friends, and when he steps down two years later, no one in the British High Command is unhappy.
In 1951, Montgomery becomes Eisenhower’s subordinate once again during the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), but the two men are never close. He serves as inspector general, but negotiating the political minefields in the halls of NATO is a far more complicated exercise than Montgomery had endured at SHAEF, and once again he creates more controversy than goodwill.
He publishes his memoirs in 1958, which results in outrage, particularly among the American military, for his blithe dismissal of Eisenhower’s skills as commander, and he specifically blames Eisenhower for lengthening the war by at least a year. It is not a view shared by many who were there. Though Montgomery’s memoir is an extensive and detailed account of his experiences, his arrogant tone and casual, unmerited claim of credit for successes become the final straw for many who still attempt to support him.
Instead of mellowing into old age, Montgomery becomes abrasively outspoken on sensitive and controversial issues of the day, including apartheid in South Africa, which he vigorously supports. He also expresses support for the regime of Chairman Mao in communist China, which to many lowers him into the role of senile curmudgeon.
He grows more feeble throughout the 1960s, and dies in 1976 at age eighty-eight.
Monty is a tired little fart. War requires the taking of risks, and he won’t take them.
—GEORGE PATTON, DIARY, DECEMBER 27, 1944
ARTHUR TEDDER
Eisenhower’s second in command serves as chief air marshal of the Royal Air Force through the end of the war, when he is awarded the more prestigious title of marshal of the Royal Air Force. He continues in that post until 1950, when he retires from the service. Always a student of military history, Tedder contributes to a historical study of the British Royal Navy, and later, he continues his close ties to the American military by serving in Washington as chairman of the British Joint Services Commission, the liaison between the British and NATO. He returns to England when he is named chancellor of the University of Cambridge in 1951. He serves on the board of directors of the British Broadcasting Corporation and writes his memoirs, considered a fair though slightly pro-American view of the war years. Of all the British commanders who serve Eisenhower, Tedder has the greatest dislike for Montgomery, and endures a feud with Montgomery that lasts until the end of his life.
He dies in 1967 in Surrey, England, at age seventy-six.
ARTHUR “BOMBER” HARRIS
The man whose tactics were chiefly responsible for the utter devastation of every major German city remains at his post until September 1945. He is then promoted to marshal of the Royal Air Force, and promptly retires, raising speculation that the promotion is the carrot that allows him to leave the service with his dignity intact. He writes his memoirs, in which he champions the brilliance of his carpet-bombing strategies, and continues to state publicly that it was his bombers who made possible the defeat of Hitler.
In the postwar years, the British press and public begin to wrestle with the morality of wartime horrors such as the Dresden firebombing and the deaths of so many German civilians, and thus, Harris’s position becomes distinctly out of fashion. Bruised by the lack of credit and respect, Harris moves to South Africa. In 1954, he is persuaded by Winston Churchill to return to England, and is awarded a baronetcy, which only Churchill’s influence can provide. Harris dies in Goring-on-Thames in 1984, at age ninety-one.
Those who condemn Harris and his strategies as inhumane often compare them to the sins of Hitler’s Germany, as though both sides commit e
qually reprehensible acts of slaughter.
Some Germans today brand the bombing of their cities a war crime. This seems an incautious choice of words…. For all its follies and bloody misjudgments, the strategic air offensive was a military operation designed to hasten the collapse of Germany’s ability to make war. It stopped as soon as Hitler’s people ceased to fight. Most of Germany’s massacres, by contrast, were carried out against defenseless people who possessed not the slightest power to injure Hitler’s empire. They were murdered for ideological reasons, devoid of military purpose.
—HISTORIAN MAX HASTINGS, 2004
KENNETH STRONG
Eisenhower’s chief of intelligence endures much postwar criticism for the failures to detect the German plans that resulted in the Battle of the Bulge, but the greatest criticism comes from British commanders, who use the opportunity to lash out at Strong because he has displayed what they feel is a pro-American bias. Always respected by Eisenhower, Strong is instrumental in gleaning as much advantage as possible from the top-secret Ultra program, which has broken the German Enigma codes. What Strong cannot know is that, during planning for the Ardennes offensive, Hitler himself became distrustful of his own Enigma system and avoided using it, thus depriving the Allied intelligence network of critical information. Despite these problems, Strong’s intelligence-gathering network succeeded in thwarting German planning throughout much of the war.
After the war, Strong continues in his role as chief of British intelligence, though his focus is more on political intrigue than military. He retires from the military in 1947, but continues to serve the British government as a valued adviser. In 1952, he becomes “Sir Kenneth” when he is knighted by King George VI.
He writes his memoirs as well as books that examine the role of intelligence in military operations, and he remains highly respected on both sides of the Atlantic. He dies in 1982 at age eighty-two.
THE AMERICANS
DWIGHT DAVID EISENHOWER
With the conclusion of the war in Europe, Eisenhower accepts the position of military governor of the German Occupation Zone. His experiences, particularly as a witness to many Holocaust atrocities, steel him in his anger toward the Germans who blindly followed Hitler, and he advocates the complete dismantling of Germany’s industrial abilities. Because he never enjoys his role in the war’s aftermath, his stay in Europe is not as lengthy as those of many of the troops he commands. In November 1945, he is named to succeed George C. Marshall as army chief of staff, a position many had thought he would have assumed much earlier in the war. He serves until 1948, when he accepts the presidency of Columbia University in New York. While still maintaining that position, he takes a leave of absence and returns to Europe to serve as supreme commander of the new alliance called NATO, which is created as a unified front to deter Soviet expansion in Europe.
In July 1952, Eisenhower officially resigns from the army, resuming his position at Columbia. But Ike is a beloved American hero, and political advisers begin to surround him, encouraging him to seek office. It is a temptation he cannot avoid. He accepts the Republican nomination and in the election of November 1952 handily defeats Democrat Adlai Stevenson. Thus, Eisenhower becomes the thirty-fourth president of the United States. At age sixty-two, he is at that time the oldest man elected to the office. He overwhelmingly defeats Stevenson again in 1956.
As president, Eisenhower continues most of the social programs set forth by Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, and is a witness to the destructive effects of McCarthyism. Before the terms liberal and conservative so actively define the political landscape, Eisenhower seems to take a conservative stance on issues regarding foreign policy, and is chastised severely by Harry Truman for not speaking out against Senator McCarthy’s obvious abuse of power as a rabid anti-communist, whose dragnet unjustly drags down the reputation of many prominent and patriotic Americans. In contrast, Eisenhower appoints Earl Warren as chief justice of the Supreme Court, a court that hands down the momentous Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954, which declares segregated schools to be unconstitutional, thus beginning this country’s inexorable push toward what will become Lyndon Johnson’s Civil Rights Act of 1964. Eisenhower surprises some of his supporters by his virulent antipathy toward segregation, and in 1957, he directly confronts Arkansas governor Orval Faubus by ordering National Guard troops to Little Rock to forcibly integrate the public school system, which Faubus has refused to do.
In 1961, he retires from public life and settles in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on a farm he purchased a decade earlier, which sits adjacent to the battlefield. In 1967, he donates that farm to the National Park Service, and it is today a major tourist destination.
During his presidency, and after, Eisenhower suffers from heart ailments, and he dies in March 1969 at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington. He is buried beside his young son Doud in Abilene, Kansas, on the grounds of the Eisenhower Presidential Library. His wife, Mamie, dies in 1979, and is interred alongside him.
In any examination of his career as commander in chief of Allied forces in Europe, a case can be made that Dwight Eisenhower is possibly the only man at the time who could have performed that job with the skills and excellence it required. His efforts put to rest the claim made by Napoleon that “there is no easier enemy to defeat than a coalition,” a notion Hitler would have taken to heart. In uniting the Americans alongside their British, Canadian, Polish, and French allies (among others), Eisenhower created a fighting force with a single focused goal, and in the process overcame the jealousies, egos, personality clashes, and animosities inherent in all of those relationships. By never tolerating the nationalistic backbiting that lay under the surface, he guided the energies of his subordinates toward their common goal instead of myriad individual ones, something Hitler could never accomplish. Eisenhower’s ability to relate to the soldier in the muddy field, as well as the field marshal in his palatial headquarters, made him a leader who, during that period in world history, was unequaled. More amazing is that, in his long military career, he never actually led troops on a battlefield.
In our history, there are many examples of hero-worshipping American voters who enthusiastically elevate a general to the office of president. From George Washington to Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, and Ulysses Grant, no one else except perhaps Teddy Roosevelt proved to be as competent a president as he was a military commander. And while Dwight Eisenhower has his detractors, and while he most certainly made mistakes, there is no other individual among the western Allies who can claim more responsibility for defeating the armies of Adolf Hitler.
Not only did he take the risk and arrive at the fence, but he cleared it in magnificent style.
—WINSTON CHURCHILL, JUNE 1945
GEORGE PATTON
The man who engenders either reverential respect or dismissive loathing is, in terms of accomplishment against the enemy, the finest battlefield general of the Second World War.
With the war in Europe concluded, Patton is named military governor of Bavaria, a political post that is completely inappropriate to his personality. In September 1945, he once again invites a circus of controversy by publicly comparing “this Nazi thing” to a political election in the United States, equating Nazis to Democrats. The Democrats in Congress are not amused, and Patton’s career in postwar politics is brief. He is replaced in Bavaria by General Lucian Truscott.
In June, Patton allows himself a brief visit to the States and, alongside another war hero, Jimmy Doolittle, is received in Los Angeles by enormous crowds in a parade and public appearances, which include an event at the Rose Bowl. Patton addresses a crowd estimated to exceed one hundred thousand people, and his remarks are laced with the same astounding variety of profanity he has always used on his troops. Though somewhat shocked, the civilian audience nevertheless regales Patton as the hero he is.
Despite Patton’s urgent desire to continue fighting in any capacity open to him, including especially the ongoing campaigns in China, he
will never again see combat. In August 1945, when the war in the Pacific comes to a close, Patton becomes a warrior without a war, and grudgingly accepts that his only option is retirement. On December 9, 1945, he embarks on a pheasant hunt near Mannheim, Germany, with his chief of staff, General “Hap” Gay. Patton and Gay ride in the backseat of a Cadillac that is struck head-on by an American deuce-and-a-half truck, near a railroad crossing at the town of Neckarstadt. Both vehicles are traveling at slow rates of speed, and at first the accident seems minor, but Patton’s head strikes a steel bar, part of the partition that separates him from the front seat. Though the others in the car are virtually unharmed, Patton’s scalp is split open, and he labors to breathe. True to his personality, he responds by cursing, but it becomes immediately apparent that he is paralyzed. He is rushed by MPs to the army hospital at Heidelberg, and as the doctors begin to treat him, he remarks, “Jesus Christ. What a way to begin a leave.”
The doctors quickly determine that Patton’s spine has been dislocated, but the question remains how badly his spinal cord is damaged. Contact is made immediately with Washington, and on the recommendation of the American surgeon general, a neurosurgeon at Oxford University, Dr. Hugh Cairns, is contacted, and agrees to fly to Heidelberg. Notified of her husband’s accident, Beatrice Patton is provided a plane by Eisenhower himself, and within forty-eight hours of the accident Patton’s wife has crossed the Atlantic and is at his bedside. Accompanying her is Colonel Glen Spurling, an American army doctor specializing in neurosurgery