General Eisenhower stayed the night with me. I liked Eisenhower. But I could not stand him around the place for long; his high-pitched accent, and loud talking, would drive me mad... He knows practically nothing about how to make war, and definitely nothing about how to fight battles. He is probably good at the political stuff.
Monty To Alanbrooke November 19th 1944,
I do not believe Ike is a happy man these days. Whitely says he is certain Ike is worried about something, but cannot find out what it is. I think in his own heart he knows the show is not going well. and the future does not look bright with regards to an early end to the German war, and he does not know how to put the matter right.
He never commanded anything before in his whole career; now, for the first time, he has elected to take direct command of very large scale operations, and he does not know how to do it. Do you think I should approach Eisenhower?"
Monty to General Simpson November 27, 1944:
1. As commander in Charge of Land operations, General Eisenhower is quite useless. There must be no mistake on this point; he is completely and utterly useless.
2. The American conception of War if allowed to continue will mean the war will go on all through 1945.
3. Eisenhower should revert to being Supreme Allied Commander, Bradley to be Land Commander, Monty to command north of the Ardennes (with Patton's 3rd Army transferred north) Devers to command south of the Ardennes.
Montgomery War Diary V-E Day 1945
And so the campaign in NW Europe is over. I am glad; its been a tough business. When I review the campaign as a whole I am amazed at all the mistakes we made. The organization was always faulty.
Eisenhower had no firm ideas as to how to conduct the war, and "blown about by the wind" all over the place; at that business ( Land C-in-C) he was quite useless. Tedder was completely ineffective... The staff at SHAEF were completely out of their depth all the time.
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