Montgomery of Alamein, Viscount

(Bernard Law Montgomery). Born Nov. 17, 1887, in London; died Mar. 24, 1976, in Isington. British military figure; field marshal (1944); viscount (1946). Son of a bishop of Welsh descent.

Montgomery graduated from the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in 1908. He served in World War I (1914–18). As commander of the Third Infantry Division at the beginning of World War II (1939–45), Montgomery fought in France and Belgium. In August 1942 he was placed in command of the British Eighth Army in North Africa, which defeated the fascist German and Italian troops in battles near El Alamein in October and November 1942 and then fought in Sicily and Italy. In 1944 he was commander of the Allied army group that landed in Normandy in June 1944; in August 1944 he became commander of the 21st Army Group, which fought in Belgium, the Netherlands, and northern Germany. He was commander in chief of the British occupation forces in Germany in 1945.

Montgomery was chief of the Imperial General Staff from 1946 to 1948 and chairman of the Commanders-in-Chief Committee of the Defense Council of the Western Alliance from 1948 to 1951. He was first deputy supreme commander in chief of NATO’s armed forces in Europe from 1951 to 1958. Montgomery was a knight of all the highest orders of Great Britain and was awarded many foreign orders, including the Soviet Order of Victory and the Order of Suvorov First Class.