8/8: The Commanders: The Leadership Journeys of George Patton, Bernard Montgomery, and Erwin Rommel by Lloyd Clark (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 17 December 2022
⏱️ 7 minutes
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8/8: The Commanders: The Leadership Journeys of George Patton, Bernard Montgomery, and Erwin Rommel by Lloyd Clark (Author)
https://www.amazon.com/Commanders-Leadership-Journeys-Bernard-Montgomery/dp/0802160220/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Born in the two decades prior to World War I, George Patton, Bernard Montgomery, and Erwin Rommel became among the most recognized and successful military leaders of the 20th century. However, as acclaimed military historian Lloyd Clark reveals in his penetrating and insightful braided chronicle of their lives, they charted very different, often interrupted, paths to their ultimate leadership positions commanding hundreds of thousands of troops during World War II and celebrated as heroes in the United States, Britain, and Germany.
Patton was born into a military family and from an early age felt he was destined for glory; following a disjointed childhood, Montgomery found purpose and direction in a military academy; Rommel’s father was a former officer, so his pursuit of a military career was logical. Having ascended to the middle ranks, each faced battle for the first time in World War I, a searing experience that greatly influenced their future approach to war and leadership. When war broke out again in 1939, Montgomery and Rommel were immediately engaged, while Patton chafed until the U.S. joined the Allies in 1942 and the three men, by then generals, collided in North Africa in 1943, and then again, climactically, in France after D-Day in 1944.
Weaving letters, diary extracts, official reports, and other documents into his original narrative, recounting dramatic battles as they developed on the ground and at headquarters, Clark also explores the controversies that swirled around Patton, Montgomery, and Rommel throughout their careers, sometimes threatening to derail them. Ultimately, however, their unique abilities to bridge the space between leader and led cemented their legendary reputations.
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| 0:56.9 | He's a trader. |
| 0:58.9 | What I learned about O. Rommel is that his wife, Lucy, never, never relented on the idea |
| 1:08.3 | that he was persecuted because he was successful and that he was not involved in the plot |
| 1:14.3 | against Hitler. But then, Lucy was looking at it from the point of view of a survivor |
| 1:19.1 | of the Second War in Germany, which was a deprived land for many years afterwards, not until |
| 1:26.1 | the Marshall Plan showed up in the late 40s. Did Germany stop starving? So I don't ask |
| 1:31.9 | Lucy, Rommel, to have an opinion that stands up in the 21st century. Professor, the fact |
| 1:38.7 | that there was a plot against Hitler recommends all of these officers. Is there a moment you |
| 1:45.4 | can see in what we have of the letters to Lucy or his memoirs where Rommel realized |
| 1:52.6 | that he was working for the devil? I think that what we see increasingly is Rommel |
| 2:00.4 | recognizing that Hitler was a very flawed man, not necessarily as a leader or even as |
| 2:08.7 | a politician, but as a personality. His behavior traits were something that Rommel increasingly |
| 2:16.3 | didn't like. If you add on to that the way that he seemed to be so callous with the lives |
| 2:21.4 | of troops, he wouldn't listen to expert comment, including his own. I think by Normandy, we |
| 2:27.7 | see in Rommel's letters to Lucy that he's beginning to change his mind about Hitler and |
| 2:34.3 | he's beginning to be a little less afraid of vocalizing and deep writing to his wife |
... |
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