“I don’t care if he is good, is he lucky” Napoleon Bonaparte about 1812.
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“I don’t care if he is good, is he lucky” Napoleon Bonaparte about 1812.[/quote]
“You forget the factors” Erwin Schätzer 2005
One of the skills expected of a General Officer is the ability to manipulate “factors” in his favour so as to be able to take advantage of any lucky breaks that come his way. Montgomery wasn’t a dynamic commander like Rommel, he was cautious and painstaking. That doesn’t make him a bad general, quite the opposite, but it does make him seem less glamourous than Rommel which translates as “worse” in some peoples minds.
In the end though, it was Montgomery’s carefullness that drew out and destroyed the Afrika Korps because of Rommel’s attacking style.
Erwin, there was no BBC TV during WWII, only radio, so Churchill could not have watched anything on it, could he?
Besides he was much to busy “managing” the war, it’s easy to remember his big mistakes but there are so many successes and good ideas that they are difficult to pick out. However excellent ideas of his would be the Mulberry harbours and PLUTO (pipeline under the ocean).
ok,there was a radio of the bbc.i was wrong: WATCH NO,LISTEN YEEEEEES!
The BBC had actually started limited television broadcasts before the war (the first regular service in the world) but had suspended transmission in 1939 to free up frequencies, technicians and equipment for war use.
A completely bizarre and seemingly pointless thread yet again, but I don’t see why we can’t crack a good bit of discussion out of it. 
One of the things that always struck me about Churchill was his attitude when the enemy employed some new daring tactic against the British - such as airborne forces or manned torpedoes… a “Why the hell don’t we have one of these units?” approach.
Not sexy. Not pioneering. But war winning. The right man at the right time.
Unlike Rommel, who in the end was a quite irrelevant man at the wrong time. Sure you can talk him up for his various actions, but ultimately, he lost.
Yeesss… I can’t help feeling he went a bit too far on occasion though - there were often very good reasons why we didn’t have “one of those”…
Right man in the right place at the right time though - if for no other reason than he was one of the few people convinced we could win, and he was right.