Field-Marshal Montgomery Letters to Generals Simpson and Leese

Acquisition of 49 letters written between 1942 and 1945 by Britain's outstanding field commander of the Second World War to General Sir Frank Simpson. They provide a revealing chronicle of the Eighth Army's campaign in North Africa, the invasion and occupation of Sicily, the first stages of the Italian campaign and Montgomery's command of 21 Army Group in North West Europe. Although it was a private and forthright correspondence, Montgomery always intended that Simpson, as Deputy Director and then Director of Military Operations at the War Office, should tacitly convey his views to other senior officers since his official reports were, necessarily, much more circumspect.