FREDDIE: The Field Marshal’s Shadow at Midnight

Author’s Note

If you are an amateur World War II historian, and you’ve heard about the British Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery, you have Montgomery’s Chief of Staff Major-General Francis “Freddie” de Guingand to thank. This play honors the distinguished British officer who did the thankless job of being Montgomery’s Chief of Staff from El Alamein to the end of the war, and during his time as such he saved Montgomery from being fired. Montgomery would have been a footnote in the history of World War II if it had not been for de Guingand. This work takes nothing away from Montgomery’s brilliant military career; it simply casts light on de Guingand’s efforts to save “a man worth saving.”

Synopsis

December 1944. The German offensive in the Ardennes has broken the American line, and General Eisenhower, confined to his quarters at Versailles by assassination threats, hands two American armies to Field Marshal Montgomery. Montgomery steadies the front, and then nearly breaks the Alliance: the London papers crow that he rescued the Americans, he lectures a humiliated General Bradley on Christmas Day, and he sends Eisenhower a letter all but writing his own appointment as overall ground commander, signed “your very devoted friend” and closing with “Do not bother to answer this.” Eisenhower drafts a signal to the Combined Chiefs: one of them must go, and Field Marshal Alexander is waiting.

Only one man moves between both headquarters. Speaking directly to the audience, Montgomery’s Chief of Staff, Major-General Freddie de Guingand, flies through fog to Versailles, persuades Eisenhower to hold the signal for twenty-four hours, and drafts in the air the apology that Montgomery will sign as Ike’s “very devoted subordinate.” An epilogue at Montgomery’s 1976 funeral, where Freddie is a pallbearer, gathers the ghosts of the Alliance to ask what they owed the man who was never in the picture.

About the Play

Characters

• Maj.-Gen. Sir Francis “Freddie” de Guingand, 44, Chief of Staff, UK 21st Army Group
• Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery, 57, C-in-C, UK 21st Army Group
• General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower, 54, US Supreme Commander
• Lt. Gen. Walter Bedell “Beetle” Smith, 49, US, Eisenhower’s Chief of Staff
• Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder, 54, UK Deputy Supreme Commander
• Lt. Gen. Omar Bradley, 51, US 12th Army Group
• Lt. Gen. Courtney Hodges, 57, US First Army
• Lt. Gen. William Simpson, 56, US Ninth Army
• Maj. Gen. William Kean, 47, Chief of Staff, US First Army
• Lt. Col. James Gault, UK, Eisenhower’s military assistant
• Bill Culver, US, Freddie’s American aide
• Bill Bovill, UK, Freddie’s personal assistant
• Jack Race, UK, Freddie’s pilot (voice only)
• American Aide, US Army officer
• Small parts: liaison officers, a British officer, an ADC, a signals officer, a driver, an orderly
• In the Epilogue: Freddie at 76, with Montgomery, Eisenhower, Smith, Tedder and Bradley as figures of memory

Read the Script

Copyright © 2026 Jeff Hendrickson. All Rights Reserved. FREDDIE is an unpublished work protected under the copyright laws of the United States and international copyright treaties. No part of this work may be performed, read publicly, recorded, filmed, broadcast, streamed, adapted, translated, reproduced, or distributed without the prior written permission of the author.