The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-01-15

CdIl Ar1IllSS, CIlGIGUy CdklIlS There are also interesting req sons why it was kept such hush-hush matter form the Amer ican public.
 General Bradley has now been awarded the bronze star by Eisen- hover and congratulated by Churchill to take the sting out of his loss of the first and ninth Armies. The idea that Bradley made the transfer himself also has been publicized. Despite these maneuverS it is known inside the War Department that highest U. s. war chiefs opposed the trans fer to Montgomery and that it was put across by General Eisen- hover anyway.
 Background of the reshuffle goes back to the landing in Nor mandy last summer when Mont gOmery was given Caen as his objective, while Bradley was to take CherbOurg. Bradley reached his objective ahead of schedule in a new type of offensive fight ing, in which U. $. troop did not wait for supplies to come up nor for snipers to be wiped out.
 Montgomery, using more con- servativeS, sloW-moVing old-faSh- toned tactics, sat with his Army at Caen and either could not or would not break thorugh un- til long after schedule, and until Bradley, ignoring Montgomery, smashed the Nazi lines to the south and started the lightning dash to Paris.
 MONTGOMERY DENOTED"
 Afterwards, The Stars and Stripes carried a story that Brad ley was being promoted to the rank of full general and would supersede Montgomery. The Stars and Stripes being an official Army newspaper, the story naturally was true. But publication in London caused such furor among the British that the British Broadcasting company went on LllC dll WlVll uAl CAlPAAelIAS NS nial.
 After that the shift of Armies was held up for while, until Montgomery could be made a Field Marshal to appease both him and British public opinion. Brad ley then took over command of all the American Armies under Eisenhower and Montgomery was left only with the two British and Canadian Armies in Holland and Belgium.
 Since then Monty has been waiting for his chance to stage a comeback. His friends of the British press-Of whom he has many-has been doing the same. So immediately follow ing the German breakthrOugh, he began pressuring Eisenhower to give him the American first and ninth Armies.
 Montgomery is a superb de- fenSiVc fighter. When his back was to the wall at Fl Alamein just a few miles from Cairo, he did a great job. When given of- fensive jobs as in Sicily. at Caen and at Arnhem he failed to make the grade.
 How much of Eisenhower'S de- cision to put Montgomery in com- mand of the two American Armies depended upon his ability as de- fensive fighter, and how much on British pressure is not known. It is known, however, the trans fer of commands was opposed in the War Department and was carefully hushed up for two weeks and not even all of the top-ranking executives in the Pentagon Building knew about 1t.
 Also it is a significant fact that Eisenhower is answerable to Churchill as well as ROOse- welt. He cannot be removed by Roosevelt without Churchilps OK and he has to get along with both. That is an import ant point not realized by many. But not to be forgotten.
 NOTE: Rivalry among high ranking generals exists in every war, probably worse in the last