Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein was born in November 1887 and died in March 1976. He was a British field marshal and one of the best commanders of the British Empire during the Second World War. Bernard Law Montgomery completed his secondary education at St. Paul's School, and received theoretical military education at the Military Academy in Sandhurst, which he graduated in 1908 at the age of 21. Military service began with assignment to the 1st Royal Infantry Regiment and shipment to India. Bernard Law Montgomery took a very active part in World War I: he fought at Ypres and Baileul in 1914, where he was badly wounded. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for these battles. In 1916, he fought on the Somme as a staff officer. In July 1918 he was appointed lieutenant colonel and chief of staff of the 47th Infantry Division. He also actively served in the British Army in the interwar period, obtaining the rank of brigadier. He started his activities in World War II with the French campaign in 1940, as the commander of the 2nd BEF Corps (British Expeditionary Force). He had earned his credit in the retreat from Dunkirk. He spent the years 1940-1942 in the British Isles. In 1942, he was assigned to North Africa, where he was given command of the 8th Army. Commanding these forces, he first inhibited the German advance at Alam El-Halfa, and later defeated the Axis forces in the Battle of El-Alamein, achieving his greatest and most famous victory. He later commanded the 8th Army during the fighting in North Africa, during the landings in Sicily and in southern Italy in 1943. He was one of the high-ranking Allied officers who planned and implemented the Normandy landing plan in June 1944. After landing, his forces fought in the Caen area where he ultimately won victory despite numerous tactical defeats. Later (September 1944) he oversaw the unsuccessful operation Market-Garden. After World War II, he held important positions in the structure of the British army, and later also in NATO. He ended his military career in 1958.
Winston Churchill (full name: Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill) was born in November 1874 and died in January 1965. He was a British politician, statesman and twice Prime Minister of His Majesty. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest British politicians in all of the country's history. He is also a winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Winston Churchill was a soldier and war correspondent in his youth. His accounts of the Second Boer War brought him considerable publicity and recognition in the UK. Very quickly, continuing his family traditions, he entered political life. Initially, he joined the Tory Party, but in 1904 he joined the Liberal Party (Whigs). It is worth adding, however, that after some time he returned to the bosom of the British Conservative Party. At the outbreak of World War I, he performed the honorable and important function of the First Lord of the Admiralty. He was also the initiator of the operation on Gallipolli in 1915, the failure of which for some time slowed down Winston Churchill's political career. However, in the 1920s, he returned to holding important offices in the state. It was not until 1929 that he saw a marked slowdown in his political career, and many believed that Winston Churchill was finished as a politician. However, in 1940 he became Prime Minister of Great Britain, going down in history as the one who led his country to victory in World War II and who incited the British to resist the Third Reich in the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940. Many of his speeches or statements have gone down in legend, such as the statement about hang gliders fighting over the Isles in 1940: "Never in the history of human conflicts, so many, have owed so much, so few!". He joined the Great Coalition, created by the USA and the USSR, but he was very cool and sober in his assessment of Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union. It is worth adding that in 1945 he lost the parliamentary elections and stepped down as prime minister in favor of the leader of the Labor Party, Clement Attlee. A year later, he made his famous speech at Fulton about the "iron curtain which fell across our continent." In the years 1951-1955 he was the prime minister once again. He died on January 24, 1965, and his funeral was held with all state honors.