“A month later – at the end of October – Montgomery swung again, this time with power so tremendous that the German and Italian armies reeled and broke, reorganized clumsily and fled in what seemed like panic. They fled out of Egypt into Cyrenaica, fled back through their own mine fields, fled westward on the one main highway along the Mediterranean coast, fled along desert tracks hub-deep in sand… And Montgomery stayed on their heels. Montgomery, in his tent or in his dugout, riding in his tank or his jeep in the field, talking of ‘my plan’ with other generals putting his plan into effect. Now, without question, where a succession of other British generals had failed.”
