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

Montgomery, and Irwin Rommel. The book is entitled to the commanders.

Rommel goes to North Africa in March of 41. He goes to Libya.

But 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 Eighth 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 100,000,

and then he's pushed to the 8th Army, which is in Cairo.

He takes Freddie Deaconan, 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 Staff,

the head of the British Army,

is his great patron, and I think that Montgomery owes a great deal to him.

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