Field Marshall Bernard Momgomery

[jobee]

Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery.
London 1887-1976.Hampshire.

His father a Bishop with prayer in mind,
But Monty's thoughts were war inclined,
Different they were as chalk and cheese,
With driving ambition and ways to succeed.

St Paul’s in London- Monty's chosen school,
Impish and playful but no bodies fool,
Sandhurst academy he eventually went.
The Warwicks Reg. he began his ascent

Off to India to assist the Raj,
His five years there he didn't enlarge,
1914 he returned to these shores,
Eagerly entering Europe's wars.

Badly wounded in a machine gun tirade.
A young medic came to his aide,
A snipers bullet hit the medics head,
Falling on Monty and instantly dead.

The young medic Monty claimed,
Saved his life as the sniper aimed,
Two years in hospital Monty spent,
Then returned to this ghastly event.

Surviving this war with great valour,
He then addressed the Second World War,
On Dunkirk beaches -on the retreat,
To blitzkrieg tactics he conceded defeat.

Learning from this traumatic event,
To African deserts he next was sent,
A man named Rommel was in command,
Ruling the roost in this desert land.

Methodically assembling all he could get,
Leaving nothing to chance- with this little bet,
With set piece tactics and classical war,
He relieved Gen.Rommel of his African tour.

Now the world looked with the greatest of awe,
Not one more battle would he lose in this war,
Like Wellington before him- he had found,
His own ideas were most profound.

Alas on D Day he was not selected,
Although on all sides most respected,
The great American Eisenhower,
Was elected to lead - this finest hour.

After the war he settled down.
Not to far from a Hampshire town,
He bought a mill on the river Wey,
In Binstead churchyard his body does lay.

JB. A Coy 3 para.55/57.