Table Of ContentDavid Irving
The War
between the
Generals
The real trouble with the
Yanks is that they are com-
pletely ignorant as to the
I am tired of dealing with rules of the game we are play-
a lot of prima donnas. By ing with the Germans. You
God, you tell that bunch that play so much better when
if they can’t get together and you know the rules.
stop quarrelling like children,
– Field Marshal Sir
I will tell the Prime Minister
Bernard Montgomery
to get someone else to run this
damn war.
n
– General Dwight D.
Eisenhower God, I wish we could forget
our egos for a while!
– Lieutenant General
Everett S. Hughes
Books by David Irving
Und Deutschlands Städte Starben Nicht (with Günter Karweina)
The Destruction of Dresden
The Mare’s Nest
The Destruction of Convoy PQ.17
The Memoirs of Field Marshal Keitel (translator)
Accident. The Death of General Sikorski
The Virus House
Formula 1: The Art & Science of Grand Prix Driving, by Niki Lauda (translator)
Breach of Security (with Prof. D C Watt)
The Service. The Memoirs of General Reinhard Gehlen (translator and editor)
The Rise and Fall of the Luftwaffe
Hitler und seine Feldherren
Hitler’s War
The Trail of the Fox
The War Path
Der Nürnberger Prozess
Mord aus Staatsräson
Wie Krank War Hitler Wirklich ?
Uprising! One Nation’s Nightmare: Hungary 1956
The War between the Generals
The real trouble with the
Yanks is that they are com-
pletely ignorant as to the
I am tired of dealing with rules of the game we are play-
a lot of prima donnas. By ing with the Germans. You
God, you tell that bunch that play so much better when
if they can’t get together and you know the rules.
stop quarrelling like children,
– Field Marshal Sir
I will tell the Prime Minister
Bernard Montgomery
to get someone else to run this
damn war.
n
– General Dwight D.
Eisenhower God, I wish we could forget
our egos for a while!
– Lieutenant General
Everett S. Hughes
Von Guernica bis Vietnam
The Secret Diaries of Hitler’s Doctor
Adolf Hitler: The Medical Diaries
Der Morgenthau-Plan 1944/45 (documentation)
Churchill’s War vol. i: The Struggle for Power
Göring. A Biography
Hess: The Missing Years
Führer und Reichskanzler
Das Reich hört mit
Deutschlands Ostgrenze
Hitler’s War & The War Path (updated, one-volume edition)
Die Nacht, in der die Dämme Brachen
Der unbekannte Dr. Goebbels (1938 diary ed. and transcribed)
Apocalypse 1945. The Destruction of Dresden
Goebbels. Mastermind of the Third Reich
Nuremberg, the Last Battle
Churchill’s War, vol. ii: Triumph in Adversity
Banged Up: Survival as a Political Prisoner in 21st Century Europe
in preparation:
Churchill’s War, vol. iii: The Sundered Dream
Heinrich Himmler
Excerpts from The Patton Papers –, by Martin Blumenson, are reprinted by kind
permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. Copyright © 1974 by Martin Blumenson
Copyright © 1981 by David Irving; first published in August 1981 by Congdon & Lattès,
Inc., Empire State Building, New York, NY 10001 and distributed by St Martins Press, 175
Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, and simultaneously in Canada by Thomas Nelson
& Sons Ltd., 81 Curlew Drive, Don Mills, Ontario m3a 2r1, this edition is
Copyright © 2010 Parforce UK Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by
any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
Publisher. Inquiries should be addressed by email to Permissions, [email protected].
This edition: ISBN.1-872197-28
Focal Point Publications
Printed in the United States of America
Focal Point Classic Edition
Details of first edition: Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Irving, David John Cawdell, 1938 –
The War Between the Generals
446+24p. 24cm.
ISBN: 0865530157
World War, 1939-1945–Campaigns–Western Front.
Eisenhower, Dwight D. (Dwight David), 1890-1969.
Montgomery of Alamein, Bernard Law Montgomery, Viscount, 1887-1976.
Allied Forces.
Generals–United States.
Generals–Great Britain.
D756.3 .I78 1981
940.54 / 12 19
Map by J. P. Tremblay
The War Between the Generals
“One of the most authentic and important books on World
War II. . . . Detailed and fascinating . . . a meticulous piece of
research . . . conspicuously unbiased.”
— Baltimore Sunday Sun
“The narrative is lively, the pace quick, and some of the battle
episodes are gripping. The scene in which Brig. Gen. Norman
‘Butch’ Cota, an American assistant division commander at
Normandy, strode about Omaha Beach under murderous fire to
rally his troops, protect the wounded, and save the beachhead,
is such an extraordinary tale, and told so effectively, that it left
this reader clutching the book with excitement.”
— Bradley F. Smith, Washington Post
“Military history buffs will devour it and cherish it. Techni-
cally it is perfect; beautifully edited and printed. As in the case
of all of Irving’s books the writing is vivid; one can hardly put
it down.”
— Kansas City Times
“Absorbing . . . startling.”
— Los Angeles Times Book Review
“Immensely readable.”
— Martin Blumenson, Army Magazine
n
“The book relies upon previously unpublished materials.
The book was reviewed as being highly readable and avoiding
‘muck raking.’”
— A secret report furnished to the Canadian Government in 1991
by the Board of Deputies of British Jews
A man of great
If you want to end the
mediocrity.
war in any reasonable
— General George
time, you will have to re-
S. Patton Jr. about
General Omar Bra- move Ike’s hand from the
dley control of the land battle.
— Sir Bernard Montgomery
about General Dwight Eisen-
hower
A third-rate general. He
never did anything or
won any battle that any
other general could not
have won as well or bet-
If the unhelpful
ter.
British attitude
— General Omar Bradley about continues, then
Sir Bernard Montgomery
I will go home.
— General Dwight
Eisenhower
One thing that might
I feel sorry for
help win this war is to get
the man. He
someone to shoot King.
had it within
He’s the antithesis of co-
his grasp to be
operation -- a deliber-
one of the leg-
ately rude person -- which
endary heroes
means he’s a mental bully.
of his nation. I
— General Dwight Eisenhower
fear he has hurt
about Admiral Ernest King
himself badly.
— Eisenhower on
Montgomery
Eisenhower,
though supposed
to be running the
land battle, is on
the golf links at
Rheims -- entirely
My dear Ike
detached and
... I fear you have lost
taking practi-
many friends in England.
cally no part in
Yrs. ever, Monty.
the running of the
— Montgomery to Eisenhower
war.
— Sir Alan Brooke,
Chief of the Imperial
General Staff
David Irving is the son of a Royal Navy commander.
After visiting Imperial College of Science & Technology and University
College London, he spent a year in Germany working in a steel mill and
perfecting his fluency in the German language.
Among his thirty-odd books, the best-known include Hitler’s War;
Churchill’s War, vol. i: “Struggle for Power,” vol. ii: “Triumph in Adversity”,
and vol. iii: “The Sundered Dream”; Accident, the Death of General
Sikorski; The Destruction of Dresden; The Mare’s Nest; The German
Atomic Bomb; The Destruction of Convoy PQ17; The Rise and Fall of
the Luftwaffe; The Trail of the Fox: the Search for the True Field Marshal
Rommel; Hess, the Missing Years, and Nuremberg, the Last Battle.
He has also translated several works by other authors including Field-
Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Reinhard Gehlen, and Nikki Lauda. He lives in
Windsor, England, and has raised five daughters.
The War
between the
Generals
David Irving
by
“A really fascinating description of behind-the-
scenes strategy and decision-making in which the
actors are giants” — Raleigh Trevelyan in the London
Daily Mail
F
FOCAL POINT
praise, where praise is due
Thomas B. Congdon (1931–2008)
david irving writes: It is nearly thirty years since I completed The War
Between the Generals for Tom Congdon (seen above in ) and his firm
Congdon & Lattès Inc. He was one of Madison Avenue’s most gifted editors.
Before this, Tom had also edited my famous biography Rommel (1977) and
later my Hermann Göring biography (1989). When he took me on, he had
just finished editing a book called “Jaws” for author Peter Benchley, who had
never written a book before in his life. Then came this Göring biography.
Any editor has to be the author’s best friend. His brain is plugged in
throughout the period of gestation, and it provides extra thinking power
where it is so vital – it asks the awkward questions, and refuses to tolerate
sloppiness in any form.
In fact Tom Congdon taught me all over again just how to write – and I
was by then three-quarters through my writing career.
He was a demanding editor, and not easily satisfied. A few weeks after I had
delivered the Rommel typescript, cleared my desk in London, and prepared
to turn to a new subject, a letter came from him congratulating: “David, that
is the finest first draft of a book I have ever read.” He was right, of course,
and I wrote it all over again.
He and his wife Connie retired to Nantucket in 1994. I want my readers to
know how much of the credit for these pages belongs to him.
