The Counterfeit General Montgomery

Book excerpt: Deception and intrigue: the top-secret plot behind the D-Day landings... To Adolf Hitler, aware in 1944 that the Allied invasion of Europe was imminent, General Montgomery was the embodiment of Allied might, and they knew that wherever the blow fell “Monty” would be in the van of it. Knowing this, M.I.5 conceived the idea of finding a “double” for Monty and so E. Clifton James, a Lieutenant in the Royal Army Pay Corps, suddenly found himself whisked into a world of cloak and dagger, because he was Monty’s double. Here is the story of a man whose superlative performance in his role hood-winked Hitler and his Generals, and whose contribution to the success of Operation Overlord even now cannot be fully assessed.