This episode deals with Field Marshall Bernard Law Montgomery. He was badly wounded (and highly decorated) in World War I. The experience made him a cautious commander who cared for his men. They loved him for it. He's best known for his achievements in North Africa but he was involved in some of the major battles in Europe as well, and it sometimes landed him in trouble.
He won many victories against the Germans in North Africa, replacing an inept commander, and revitalizing the Eighth Army. And he was effective in moving from the beaches of Normandy to the city of Caen despite heavy opposition and many casualties.
The Americans at the time criticized him for his slow progress but the fact is that the Germans considered him a more dangerous foe than the Americans and threw most of their elite units against him. Moreover his position on the east flank of the Allied advance made him an easier destination for German troops drawn from the Russian front. In a way, it was Montgomery's slogging assaults that made it possible for the US Army to break out of the bocage country and sweep down into France. We shouldn't have criticized him. We should have decorated him.
He made two mistakes. He pleaded for, and was given charge of, a single charge through Holland into the heart of Germany's industrial center, which would have ended the war more quickly. It was called Market Garden and it failed miserably, partly through hasty planning and partly through dumb luck.
The other error wasn't military but political. The "bulge" in The Battle of the Bulge was a bulbous protrusion of German forces through some weakly defended Allied lines. The Germans were running out of resources like fuel and were ripe for a pincer movement. Patton attacked the base of the bulge from the south, Montgomery from the north. Together, they repulsed the Germans and saved isolated places like Bastogne.
Montgomery and Patton were equally vain although Patton was by far the more flamboyant of the two. Yet Montgomery implied in his reports that it was he who had saved the Americans from being wiped out. This attempt to garner all the glory led Eisenhower to threaten to fire Montgomery, who quickly and sincerely apologized.
The series is a bit easy on old Monty, highlighting his victories and his personal virtues and slighting his mistakes. But it's still a fine episode in a fine series that doesn't hesitate to illuminate both sides of its subject.