Page "Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein" Paragraph 13

On his return Montgomery antagonised the War Office with trenchant criticisms of the command of the BEF and was briefly relegated to divisional command.

He was however made a Companion of the Order of the Bath.

In July 1940, he was appointed acting lieutenant-general, placed in command of V Corps, responsible for the defence of Hampshire and Dorset, and started a long-running feud with the new commander-in-chief, Southern Command, Claude Auchinleck.

In April 1941, he became commander of XII Corps responsible for the defence of Kent.

During this period he instituted a regime of continuous training and insisted on high levels of physical fitness for both officers and other ranks.

He was ruthless in sacking officers he considered would be unfit for command in action.

In December 1941 Montgomery was given command of South-Eastern Command overseeing the defence of Kent, Sussex and Surrey.

He renamed his command the South-Eastern Army to promote offensive spirit.

During this time he further developed and rehearsed his ideas and trained his soldiers, culminating in Exercise Tiger in May 1942, a combined forces exercise involving 100, 000 troops.