Monty a B17
p. 93 · Read in the full issue
When Ike Gave Monty a B17
When Eisenhower’s Chief of Staff, Bedell Smith, visited Montgomery in the desert in early 1953, he said, jokingly, that Eisenhower would give Montgomery anything if the Eighth Army could join up with the Americans bv April 15. Montgomery promised he would—and said he would like an aeroplane for his own use.
Monty kept his promise and im mediatelv sent to Eisenhower for the aircraft. He goes on: “It arrived on April 16, a BIT (a Flying Fortress).
It made me a thoroughly mobile general. Later I got properly ticked off by Brooke ... he said that it was all a joke and that Eisenhower was furious . . . Brooke added that the RAF could have provided me with an aircraft; they certainly could —but didn’t in spite of my repeated re quests. Eisenhower produced it at once.”
Brooke, who took a dim view of it, also refers to this incident in his war diaries —but naturally dwells more on his annoyance and Eisenhower’s alleged fury than Montgomery’s convenience.
Montgomery was, nonetheless, supplied by the Americans with a plane and a crew throughout the rest of the war. —From Montgomery’s “Memoirs”.