ITALY: The Brave Ones

In his newly published memoirs, Britain’s brilliant, opinionated Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery of Alamein stepped on the toes of old friends and old foes alike. Most of the old friends shrugged it off: “You know Monty.” But one old foe, the Italians, complained that Montgomery had pictured their World War II soldiers as something less than lions.

Italian troops, Monty wrote, were “unreliable when it came to hard fighting”; they “surrendered in droves, headed by the generals carrying their suitcases.” Of Italy’s midwar switch from the Axis to the Allies: “This looked like the biggest double-cross in history.” Italian morale, Monty added, was very low, and “that army would not face up to the Germans.”

“Rude,” “uncharitable,” “vulgar,” cried Italian editorialists. Four Italian war veterans’ associations demanded government “action” against Monty. Vicenzo Caputo, president of the Italian Nationalist Association, vainly challenged Monty to a duel, and an old-line monarchist demanded that the duffle coats known in Italy as “Montgomerys” be banned. One Italian newspaper recalled Ernest Hemingway’s definition of a really dry martini—15 to 1 —called a Montgomery because those were the battle odds Monty demanded.

Before long, Premier Amintore Fanfani felt called upon to protest to the British Foreign Office. When the F.O. refused responsibility for Monty’s opinions, Rome’s Fascist ll Secolo snapped: “Pontius Pilate, sneering, washes his hands in the Thames.” The Greeks, indignant about Cyprus and eager to join in any British-baiting, jumped in with praise of the “fighting spirit,” in offense and defense, of the Italians who invaded Greece in 1940. Last week, at the personal request of British Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd, Monty penned a letter to the British Ambassador in Rome, which he said was “no retraction” but was intended to soothe. “In my view, the Italian army is, today, as good as any army in NATO . . . Any remarks I made in my memoirs were not intended to reflect in any way on the courage of the Italian soldier. During the late war his morale was low because his heart was not in the Fascist cause; also, he was not too well equipped.” At week’s end, Italians glowed in the reassurance from their newspapers that they had fought bravely, on both sides.