Monty and the Canadian Army details the lasting influence of General B.L. Montgomery, whose military competence shaped the Canadian Army in the Second World War.
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.
