Bernard Montgomery...
It is sad that several generations of Americans have chosen to believe the nonsense that 'Monty' was an incompetent who was 'too slow'.
ANYONE with any knowledge of Montgomery and the British(also the Canadians and Poles) in Normandy knows EXACTLY what they had to face:
75% of all German armour in Normandy...
90% of all SS,SS Panzer or SS Panzer Grenadier units(not to mention crack Wehrmacht units such as the 21st PZ Div and the 'Panzer Lehr')...
ALMOST ALL armoured reserves sent to Normandy by Hitler in the summer of 1944(the Brit-Can-Polish forces even faced troops taken by the Germans FROM THE AMERICAN SECTOR!)
How ANYONE can,then or now,criticise the Anglo-Canadian-Polish forces for being 'slow' is beyond me.And shows utter ungratitude on the American part,then and now....
The Anglo-Canadian-Polish forces SOLE JOB was to tie down the Germans in the east,so as to allow US troops an easier job in the west.
And those forces under Monty did a FANTASTIC JOB under incredible pressure.They DID it.They DID what was asked of them and DEFEATED the cream of German armour in the summer of 1944...
And lets not forget Monty's actions in the Ardennes:
'Even though he was still very much in the dark about the enemy's intentions and Eisenhower's reaction to them,he decided,without orders from Allied Supreme Command,to do something.He would place his veteran 43rd Infantry Division and the Guards Armoured Division on standby alert,on a mere six hours notice to move south.At the same time,he would send out his eyes and ears,six young officers,three British,two American and one Canadian,to find out what was happening on the long Ardennes front'
from 'Britain's Battle of the Bulge:The Untold Story' by historian(and ww2 veteran)Charles Whiting (1999)
that's 'Limey'