SIXTY YEARS ON: "Before Alamein we never had a victory; after Alamein we never had a defeat," wrote Winston Churchill.Field Marshall Viscount Montgomery, credited with winning the greatest tank battle of World War II, and chasing the Germans and Italians from Alexandria to Tunisia, made a pilgrimage to the site of his most important victory 25 years after the event, in 1967, at the age of 80.
Invited by Al-Ahram newspaper, he met with President Nasser, and delivered a lecture at the Nasser Higher Military Academy. In an interview with Mohamed Hassenein Heikal, Montgomery said: "We won on the level of strategy and tactics... however, we lost what was more important, namely, the Grand Strategy... the use of all national resources in all methods to achieve peace."
photo: Mohamed Youssef