I'm John Bachelor with Professor Lloyd Clark, the leadership journeys of George Patton,

Bernard Montgomery and Erwin Rommel, the book is entitled The Commanders.

Ramil goes to North Africa in March of 41.

It goes to Libya.

We're going to start with what we believe to be the successful rise of Bernard Montgomery's

skill set as a trainer, as a lecturer, as a

scholar of the battlefield, a man who pictures things in his mind before he gives the

order and he's not looking for debate.

He's not looking for another method or committee work. This is a man who dictates.

He had a father who preached and when he gets into the pulpit, this is the word of the Lord and it is the word of Bernard Montgomery.

So Bernard Montgomery is assigned to the 8th Army, my note here, with some expectation that he will be able to turn around what has been a

catastrophe so far with the Germans and the Italians pushing them around.

So by January of 42 is my reading here.

I'm going pretty fast.

By January of August of 42, yeah it's August of 42. He takes up the

southeastern command with a hundred thousand and then he's pushed to the 8th Army, which is in Cairo. He takes Freddie Deacon

Nunn, his brother-in-law with him and everybody in the 8th Army is curious about this man.

What was his reputation before him when he joins North Africa?

There was not much known about him in the wider army.

Alan Brooke, the chief of the Imperial General... in the

why are the chief of the Imperial General Staff, the head,

the professional head of the British Army.

...