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Monty and Rommel
Parallel Lives
- Author: Peter Caddick-Adams
- Category: Non-fiction
- Publisher: Preface Publishing
- Pub date: 26 May 2011
- Length: 592 pages
About Monty and Rommel
Two men came to personify British and German generalship in the Second World War: Bernard Montgomery and Erwin Rommel. They fought a series of extraordinary duels across several theatres of war which established them as two of the greatest captains of their age. Our understanding of leadership in battle was altered forever by their electrifying personal qualities. Ever since, historians have assessed their outstanding leadership, personalities and skill.
Born four years apart, their lives were remarkably similar. In this groundbreaking study, Peter Caddick-Adams explores Montgomery and Rommel’s lives from their provincial upbringing, through to the trench fighting of the First World War, where both nearly died in 1914. Obsessed with fitness and training, the future field marshals emerged highly decorated and with a glowing war record. The pair taught in staff colleges, wrote infantry textbooks and fought each other as divisional commanders in 1940.
The careers of both began on the periphery of the military establishment and represent the first time military commanders proactively and systematically used (and were used by) the media as they came to prominence, first in North Africa, then in Normandy. Dynamic and forward-thinking, their lives also represent a study of pride, propaganda and nostalgia.
Caddick-Adams tracks and compares their military talents and personalities in battle. Each brought something special to their commands. Rommel’s breathtaking advance in May–June 1940 was nothing less than inspired. Montgomery is a gift for leadership gurus in the way he took over a demoralised Eighth Army in August 1942 and led it to victory just two months later.
This is the first comparative biography written of the two. It explores how each was ‘made’ by their war leaders, Churchill and Hitler, and how the thoughts of both permeate down to today’s armies. Even though Rommel died in 1944, the rivalry between the two carried on after the war through their writings and other memoirs. This compelling work is both scholarly and entertaining and marks the debut of a major new talent in historical biography.
About the Author
Dr. Peter Caddick–Adams has been Lecturer in Military and Security Studies at the UK Defence Academy since 1999. He was educated at Shrewsbury School, Sandhurst and Wolverhampton University, where he gained First Class Honours in War Studies; he received his PhD from Cranfield University.
A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, he was previously a Visiting Lecturer at Oxford and Birmingham Universities, and now lectures at staff colleges around the world on military history, doctrine, terrorism, psychological and media operations, most recently in Afghanistan. Peter is now widely regarded as the battlefield guide of choice for princes, peers and politicians, military commanders and senior executives. When walking the terrain, he explores the challenges of senior leadership, strategy and logistics in a crisis. With over 500 battlefield visits around the world to his credit, he covers all periods in history from the Romans to the present day, and has also led many official commemorations with serving soldiers and veterans.
Peter has pursued a second career in the UK Regular and Reserve Forces, serving in the Balkans and Middle East. During 1996–7 he was the official NATO Historian in Bosnia, based in Sarajevo. Awarded the Territorial Decoration in 1997, he was also the UK Historian during the Iraq War of 2003, based in Qatar and Iraq, and has written extensively on the campaigns he witnessed. Peter is a member of many organisations, including the Guild of Battlefield Guides and the British Commission for Military History. He also helped found the National Saucer Protection League, which campaigns to protect the humble cup and saucer against the relentless global march of the mug. He lives with his wife and daughter in Oxfordshire.