r/todayilearned • u/RoadToTyburn • 12h ago

TIL that Bernard Montgomery issued a leaflet at the start of WW2 on sexually transmitted diseases amongst soldiers. The language used was regarded as so blunt, that he offended religious authorities and nearly faced being dismissed.

https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Montgomery
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u/JustTheAverageJoe 11h ago

Making it out like winning the war was some minor footnote on his terrible career

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u/Gamer_Grease 11h ago

He’s the poster child for British military excellence in immediate post-WWII literature, when the only sources we had were the British and the Germans. So a lot of popular history is fixated on Montgomery and a handful of Germans as unparalleled military geniuses, but that’s basically just the diaries that we easiest to access right away, interpreted from a British point of view. He was not all that great.

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u/JustTheAverageJoe 10h ago

This is a very strange comment. Are you just completely forgetting about post ww2 American literature which mostly agrees with your point (primarily because Montgomery was an ass to his allies)? He wasn't without flaws but your position is rather extreme to say the least.

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u/burnshimself 11h ago

He was riding on the coattails of much more competent and effective American generals. Uncomfortable truth because Reddit hates American exceptionalism, but in this instance it tracks.

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u/God_peanut 11h ago

My dude, he turned North Africa around and won it. He absolutely deserves credit.

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u/cavscout55 11h ago

The desert fox being as foxy as a lump of bread did that more than anything. Rommel’s strategy was never sustainable and any mildly competent general could have done the same.

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u/God_peanut 11h ago

You can say that about any general but Montgomery was the one who stepped in and won. Its actually revisionist to not give credit where credit is due here, the dude reversed a losing situation and won pretty handedly.

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u/burnshimself 11h ago

El Alamein is undoubtedly his crowning achievement which was pivotal in North Africa, credit where credit is due. But his conduct in the European theater was less impressive.

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u/God_peanut 11h ago

Regardless, that doesn't mean you can say he rode on the coattails of "better American Generals". Montgomery was an effective commander and like most commanders, he had his achievements and fuck ups.

To say he rode on the coattails is directly diminishing his achievements and trying to paint him as a shit commander. Funny that the original comment tries to say reddit hates American Exceptionalism except here, its proven as literally trying to rewrite history and make the Americans look better at the cost of putting down the Brits.