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From Atkinson’s The Guns at Last Light

And then, with the chronic nescience of a political naïf, he overplayed his hand, again. In a note to Eisenhower on Friday, December 29, Montgomery wrote:

We have had one very definite failure…One commander must have powers to direct and control the operation; you cannot possibly do it by yourself, and so you would have to nominate someone else.

He enclosed a proposal order for Eisenhower to issue to both 12th and 21st Army Groups, decreeing the “from now onwards full operational direction, control, and coordination of these operations in vested in the [commander-in-chief of] 21 Army Group.” In summation, he told the supreme commander, “I put this matter up to you again only because I am so anxious not to have another failure.” However, he added, without “one man directing and controlling…we will win again.”

By chance, Montgomery’s note arrived just before a personal message to Eisenhower from George Marshall, who noted that “certain London papers” were calling for the field marshal to command “all your ground forces.” The chief added:

“Under no circumstances make any concessions of any kind whatsoever. You not only have our complete confidence, but there would be a terrific resentment in this country following such action…Give them hell.”

Precisely who should get hell was ambiguous, but Eisenhower settled on Montgomery. “They are all mad at Monty,” Kay Summersby told her diary on Friday, subsequently adding, “Bedell [Smith] and E. agree that Monty has changed considerably since the day in Italy over a year ago when he said he wanted to join the team.”

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Monty’s failure to Caen early bottled up the entire combined forces in Normandy for weeks.

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Monty’s letter to Ike:

http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/research/online_documents/ardennes_battle_bulge/033_045.pdf

Ike’s reply to Monty:

http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/research/online_documents/ardennes_battle_bulge/033_046.pdf

[colorado tanker]

Drew Middleton and Hanson Baldwin were in a near panic. Today's reporting seems more grounded. It also seems the news is still delayed 48 hours. We found out about the relief of Bastogne on Dec. 28.

Thanks for posting the Ike-Monty letters. Looks like they weren't declassified until 1967. Monty's arrogance really knew no bounds.

His demands were especially ironic given it was his insistence on Market-Garden and failure to clear the Scheldt that led directly to this disaster.