General Bernard Law Montgomery, affectionately known as Monty, exerted a
more lasting military influence on the Canadian Army than any other
Second World War commander. In 1942 he assumed responsibility for the
exercise and training of Canadian formations in England, and by the end
of the war Canada's field army was second to none in the practical
exercise of combined arms.
In Monty and the Canadian Army, John A. English analyses the way
Montgomery's operational influence continued to permeate the Canadian
Army. For years, the Canadian Army remained a highly professional force
largely because it was commanded by Monty men, found at almost every
lower level of army command, who were steeped in the Montgomery method.
The era of the Canadian Army headed by such men ceased with the
integration and unification of Canada's armed forces in 1964.
The embrace of Montgomery by Canadian soldiers stands in marked contrast
to negative perceptions by Americans, only a few of whom have viewed him
in a favourable light. Monty and the Canadian Army aims to correct
such perceptions, which are mostly superficial and more often than not
wrong, and addresses the anomaly of how this gifted general, one of the
greatest field commanders of World War Two, managed to win over other
North American troops.
