Without York's Army tradition, history could have turned out very differently.

So says Charles Whiting, the respected York military historian and author, who is backing our campaign to save the city's Army headquarters.

Under a proposal being considered by defence chiefs, the York-based 2nd Division would be merged with the Scottish Division and the combined HQ located in Edinburgh.

Mr Whiting, who also writes as Leo Kessler, said this would be a blow to York's status as a key military city.

"York has always been a centre where major military leaders have been based," he said. "It helped to produce some of the great generals of the 20th century."

Among them was Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery. He met the man who became his chief of staff in the Second World War, Freddie de Guingand, at Imphal Barracks.

Montgomery's victory at Alamein was the turning point of the North African campaign and the Second World War.

"He was the key figure of the century, the man who brought about the surrender of the German army," said Mr Whiting, who was demobbed at Imphal Barracks after his war service in 1947.

"York played its part in the education of one of the great figures of the age - some call Montgomery the Wellington of the 20th century."

Viscount Montgomery spent the best part of two years in York, between 1925 and 1927. He was Brigade Major in the 49th (West Riding) Territorial Division, and stayed in the Mess at the infantry barracks at Fulford. Mr Whiting said the Brigade Major's job "was to pass on the latest techniques in warfare to the amateur officers and what they used to call the 'weekend soldiers'."

Montgomery met Sandhurst graduate de Guingand - then a lieutenant based at Strensall - in the Mess at Imphal.

"When these two people met in York - the stern disciplinarian Montgomery who didn't like staff officers and had serious conflicts with US General Eisenhower, and de Guingand, the fixer who smoothed things out - they formed a solid, long-term relationship.

"They developed into a war-winning team. Without that situation in York, who knows what the history of the Second World War might have turned out to be?" Mr Whiting said.

Montgomery was land ground commander in the Normandy landings in 1944 and later was in command of the British Army of Occupation.

Mr Whiting's latest book, Bloody Bremen, recounts Montgomery's last campaign in the war, to take Lubeck. Bremen stood in Monty's path, a city that had become a fortress for the last fanatics of the Third Reich.

The battle was to cost more than 21,000 British and Canadian casualties, but brought about the surrender of all German forces in the north of the country.

Another war hero who served at York was Field Marshal Harold Alexander, who later became the first Earl Alexander of Tunis. He was the last man off the beaches at Dunkirk. As Commander-in-Chief Middle East, Lord Alexander was responsible for the Alamein victory fought by Montgomery.

"He spent some time at York in the 1920s," Mr Whiting, 72, explained. "He was based at Northern Command in a house for married senior officers at Clifton Bridge."

Bloody Bremen, by Charles Whiting, is published by Pen & Sword, price £19.95. <!C-#include virtual="/ep/newsfooter.html"

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