Lot 524
Montgomery of Alamein, Field Marshall Sir B. L. El Alamein to the River Sangro, first edition, folding maps, a few with minor tears, original cloth, spine chipped at ends, 8vo, [Berlin]: Printed for Private Circulation in the British Army of the Rhine, January 1946
PRESENTATION COPY. Front free-endpaper inscribed, 'To Sir Alan Lascelles with all good wishes, B.L. Montgomery F.M., Berlin 6-1-46'.
On June 16th, 1944, Lascelles travelled with George VI to visit Field-Marshall Montgomery at his headquarters near Creully, France. In his diary, Lascelles notes, 'Here, after a visit to his famous caravan, we lunched - the King, Monty, Dempsey (GOC Second Army), Kit Dawnay, Ramsay, two ADCs and myself; a good luncheon, with genuine Camembert cheeses - a thing we'd not seen in London since 1940. The King then held a small investiture, elaborately staged by Monty, who made a speech about each investee (whose decorations, by the way, I had been carting about in a pouch ever since we had left London).' [Hart-Davis, ed. King's Counsellor, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2006, pp.233-234.].
