Monty
Sir: As a former adjutant in the RASC Sir John Waller (Letters, 19 July) must know that the Army has contingency plans for all 'worst possible cases', but these are not the same as intentions.
If England had been invaded by the Nazis in 1940, Churchill and the Cabinet would have moved to Canada and con- ducted what was left of the war from there, but that was a contingency plan, not an intention. There were certainly contingen- cy plans for Cairo; they had been made long before Auchinleck arrived in the Middle East; they ceased to have any importance after Auchinleck had defeated Rommel at Alamein in July 1942.
In fact, Monty had to retract his version of his discussion with Auchinleck as stated in Nigel Hamilton's biography, vol. 3, page 897. But by then the lie had served its purpose.
Philip Warner
The White Cottage, 21 Heatherdale Road, Camberley, Surrey
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