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Bernard Montgomery
Person page: Bernard Montgomery →
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1942
August
13
Montgomery takes command of the Eighth Army
On 13 August 1942 Lt Gen. Bernard Montgomery took command of the Eighth Army at El Alamein after Auchinleck’s removal and the death of Gott, the first choice.
30
The Battle of Alam el Halfa begins
On the night of 30–31 August 1942 Rommel struck the southern flank of the El Alamein front. His panzer divisions were halted before Alam el Halfa ridge.
October
23
Key event
The Second Battle of El Alamein begins
At 9.40 p.m. on 23 October 1942 almost 900 Eighth Army guns opened fire at El Alamein. The infantry of four divisions advanced into the Axis minefields.
24
The crisis at El Alamein
On 24 and 25 October 1942 British tanks stuck in the minefield corridors at El Alamein. Montgomery ordered them to keep attacking despite the losses.
31
The fighting for Thompson's Post at El Alamein
On the night of 30/31 October 1942 the Australians reached the coast road at El Alamein. Beating off counter-attacks, they drew Rommel's reserves north.
November
01
Operation Supercharge
On the night of 1/2 November 1942 the Eighth Army struck at Tel el Aqqaqir. The charge of the 9th Armoured Brigade and a tank battle broke the Afrika Korps.
03
Key event
Rommel's retreat from El Alamein
On 3 November 1942 Hitler forbade Rommel to retreat from El Alamein. A day later the front broke and the Axis army fled west, abandoning the Italian infantry.
10
“The end of the beginning”
On 10 November 1942 Churchill called El Alamein “the end of the beginning”. Montgomery was knighted and made a full general; on 15 November the bells rang.
13
The Eighth Army retakes Tobruk
On 13 November 1942 the Eighth Army entered Tobruk for the third time. Two days later the pursuit of Rommel took Derna and the Martuba airfields Malta needed.
20
The capture of Benghazi
On 20 November 1942 the Eighth Army entered Benghazi for the third and last time. Rommel, against Hitler's and Mussolini's demands, fell back to El Agheila.
December
12
Rommel leaves El Agheila
On 12 December 1942 Rommel began pulling his last units out of El Agheila. A New Zealand outflanking move failed to cut off his army on its way west.
1943
January
15
The offensive on Tripoli
On 15 January 1943 the Eighth Army attacked Rommel’s position at Buerat. Montgomery gave himself ten days to take Tripoli, some 320 km away.
23
The capture of Tripoli
On 23 January 1943 British patrols entered Tripoli. The Eighth Army took the capital of Italian Libya exactly three months after El Alamein began.
February
02
Rommel on the Mareth Line
In early February 1943 Rommel's army fell back from Libya behind the old French Mareth Line in Tunisia. The Eighth Army entered Tunisia on 4 February.
March
06
The Battle of Medenine
On 6 March 1943 three German panzer divisions attacked the Eighth Army at Medenine and lost dozens of tanks in a single day. Rommel’s last battle in Africa.
20
The Battle of the Mareth Line begins
On the evening of 20 March 1943 the Eighth Army attacked the Mareth Line. The frontal assault over the Wadi Zigzaou failed; the New Zealanders swung west.
26
Breaking the Mareth Line
On 26 March 1943 the New Zealanders and 1st Armoured Division, backed by aircraft, broke through at the Tebaga Gap. Messe’s army had to quit the Mareth Line.
April
07
The Battle of Wadi Akarit
On 6 April 1943 the Eighth Army broke the Axis position on the Wadi Akarit, and on 7 April its patrols met Americans of II Corps on the road to Gabès.
10
The Eighth Army in Sfax
On 10 April 1943 the Eighth Army took Sfax, Tunisia’s second-largest city, and Sousse two days later. The Axis forces fell back to Enfidaville.
September
03
Operation Baytown
On 3 September 1943 the British Eighth Army's XIII Corps crossed the Strait of Messina to Calabria. The Allies were back on the mainland almost unopposed.
November
20
The Eighth Army on the Sangro
On 20 November 1943 the British 78th Division seized a bridgehead over the Sangro, but downpours and floods again halted Montgomery's Eighth Army.
1944
January
16
Eisenhower in London
On 16 January 1944 General Eisenhower, newly arrived in London, took command of US forces in Europe (ETOUSA) while building SHAEF, the invasion staff.
April
30
Preparations for D-Day
By late April 1944 southern England was a vast camp. The Allies massed troops, landing craft and artificial harbours and fooled the Germans with a ghost army.
May
08
The D-Day date set
On 8 May 1944 Eisenhower fixed the invasion for 5 June. The date was dictated by the moon, the tides and dawn, and the final word was to rest with the weather.
15
The St Paul's School briefing
On 15 May 1944, at St Paul's School in London, the King, Churchill and the invasion commanders heard the last joint presentation of the Normandy landing plan.
June
07
The liberation of Bayeux
On 7 June 1944 the British 50th Division from Gold Beach took Bayeux almost without a fight – the first major French town liberated after D-Day.
19
The Channel storm
The storm of 19–22 June 1944 wrecked the American Mulberry A artificial harbour off Omaha and almost halted the unloading of supplies in Normandy for days.
September
01
The Canadians in Dieppe
On 1 September 1944 the 2nd Canadian Division entered Dieppe unopposed, scene of its bloody defeat two years earlier. The Germans had left the day before.
04
The liberation of Antwerp
On 4 September 1944 the British 11th Armoured Division and the Belgian Resistance took Antwerp, its port almost intact. The Scheldt estuary stayed German.
17
Key event
Operation Market Garden begins
On 17 September 1944 the Allies dropped three airborne divisions in the Netherlands and XXX Corps set off towards the Rhine. The goal was the bridge at Arnhem.
October
05
The Canadians in the Netherlands
On 5 October 1944 the Canadian 2nd Infantry Division took Putte and entered the Netherlands, as the battle to open the port of Antwerp on the Scheldt went on.
December
24
The counter-offensive in the Ardennes
On 24 December 1944 Collins’s VII Corps resolved to strike the German 2nd Panzer Division at Celles. Patton had been driving on Bastogne since 22 December.
1945
January
03
The attack on Houffalize
On 3 January 1945 the US First Army attacked from the north towards Houffalize. The Allies chose a shallow pincer at mid-salient, not a cut at its base.
March
23
Operation Plunder
On the night of 23–24 March 1945 Montgomery's 21st Army Group forced the lower Rhine at Rees and Wesel. Germany was now under attack from almost every side.
24
Operation Varsity
On 24 March 1945 the British 6th and US 17th Airborne Divisions landed beyond the Rhine north of Wesel – the largest single-day airborne drop in history.
May
04
The surrender at Lüneburg Heath
On 4 May 1945, in Montgomery's tent near Lüneburg, the Germans signed the surrender of their forces in the Netherlands, north-west Germany and Denmark.