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Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke

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Field Marshal The Right Honourable
The Viscount Alanbrooke
Alan Brooke at desk 1942
General Sir Alan Brooke as CIGS, 1942
Birth name Alan Francis Brooke
Nickname Brookie
Colonel Shrapnel[1]
Born (1883-07-23)23 July 1883
Died 17 June 1963(1963-06-17) (aged 79)
Place of birth Bagnères-de-Bigorre, France
Place of death Hartley Wintney, Hampshire, England
Place of burial St Mary's churchyard, Hartley Wintney
Allegiance United Kingdom United Kingdom
Service/branch Flag of the British Army British Army
Years of service 1902–1946
Rank Field Marshal
Commands held
Battles/wars
Awards
Other work
  • Lord High Constable of England
  • Constable of the Tower of London[14]
  • President of the Zoological Society of London (1950–1954)
  • Vice President of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
  • Chancellor of Queen's University Belfast (1949-1963)

Field Marshal Alan Francis Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, KG, GCB, OM, GCVO, DSO & Bar (23 July 1883 – 17 June 1963), was a senior commander in the British Army. He was the Chief of the Imperial General Staff during the Second World War, and was promoted to field marshal in 1944. As chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, Brooke was the foremost military advisor to Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and in the role of co-ordinator of the British military efforts was an extremely important but not always well-known contributor to the Allies' victory in 1945. After retiring from the army, he served as Lord High Constable of England during the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. His war diaries attracted attention for their criticism of Churchill and for Brooke's forthright views on other leading figures of the war.

Background and early life[]

Alan Brooke was born in 1883 at Bagnères-de-Bigorre, Hautes-Pyrénées, to a prominent Anglo-Irish family from West Ulster with a long military tradition.[15] He was the seventh and youngest child of Sir Victor Brooke, 3rd Baronet, of Colebrooke, Brookeborough, County Fermanagh, Ireland, and the former Alice Bellingham, second daughter of Sir Alan Bellingham, 3rd Baronet, of Castle Bellingham in County Louth.[16] Brooke was educated in Pau, France, where he lived until the age of 16. Thanks to his upbringing in the country he became a fluent French speaker.[17]

After graduation from the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich Brooke was, on 24 December 1902, commissioned into the Royal Regiment of Artillery as a Second Lieutenant.[18] During the First World War he served with the Royal Artillery in France where he got a reputation as an outstanding planner of operations. At the battle of the Somme in 1916 he introduced the French "creeping barrage" system, thereby helping the protection of the advancing infantry from enemy machinegun fire.[19] Brooke was with the Canadian Corps from early 1917 and planned the barrages for the Battle of Vimy Ridge having at his disposal the Corps artillery and that loaned from the British First Army. In 1918 was appointed GSO1 as the senior artillery commander in the First Army.[20] Brooke ended the conflict as a Lieutenant-Colonel with two DSOs.

Between the wars he was a lecturer at the Staff College, Camberley and the Imperial Defence College, where Brooke knew most of those who became leading British commanders of the Second World War. From the mid-1930s Brooke held a number of important appointments: Inspector of Artillery, Director of Military Training and then GOC of the Mobile Division. In 1938, on promotion to lieutenant-general he took command of the Anti-Aircraft Corps (renamed Anti-Aircraft Command in April 1939) and built a strong relationship with Air Marshal Hugh Dowding, the AOC-in-C of Fighter Command which laid a vital basis of cooperation between the two arms during the Battle of Britain. In July 1939 Brooke moved to command Southern Command. By the outbreak of the Second World War Brooke was already seen as one of the army's foremost generals.[21]

Second World War[]

Commander in Flanders, France and Britain[]

Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Brooke commanded II Corps in the British Expeditionary Force—which included in its subordinate formations the 3rd Division, commanded by the then Major-General Bernard Montgomery. As corps commander Brooke had a pessimistic view of the Allies' chances of countering a German offensive. He was sceptical of the quality and determination of the French Army. This sceptism appeared to be justified when he was on a visit to some French front-line units. He was shocked to see unshaven men, ungroomed horses and dirty vehicles.[22]

He had also little trust in Lord Gort, the commander of the British Expeditionary Force, whom Brooke thought too much interested in details and incapable of taking a broad strategic view. Gort, on the other hand, regarded Brooke as a pessimist who failed to spread confidence, and was thinking of replacing him.[23]

When the German offensive began Brooke distinguished himself in the handling of the British forces in the retreat to Dunkirk. In late May 1940 the Corps held the major German attack on the Ypres-Comine Canal but then found its left flank exposed by the capitulation of the Belgian army. Brooke swiftly ordered 3rd Division to switch from the Corps' right flank to cover the gap. This was accomplished in a complicated night-time manoeuvre. Pushing more troops north to counter the threat to the embarking troops at Dunkirk from German units advancing along the coast, II Corps retreated to Dunkirk where on 29 May Brooke was ordered to return to England, leaving the Corps in Montgomery's hands.[24]

Shortly after the evacuation from Dunkirk he was again sent to France to take command of the remaining British troops in the country. Brooke soon realized that the situation was untenable and in his first conversation with the prime minister Winston Churchill he insisted that all British forces should be withdrawn from France. Churchill initially objected but was soon convinced by Brooke and around 200,000 British and Allied troops were successfully evacuated from ports in northwestern France.[19][25][26][27]

After returning for a very short spell at Southern Command he was appointed in July 1940 to command United Kingdom Home Forces to take charge of anti-invasion preparations. Thus it would have been Brooke's task to direct the land battle in the event of German landings. Contrary to his predecessor General Ironside, who favoured a static coastal defence, Brooke focused on developing a mobile reserve which was to swiftly counterattack the enemy forces before they were established. A light line of defence on the coast was to assure that the landings were delayed as much as possible. Writing after the war, Brooke acknowledged that he also "had every intention of using sprayed mustard gas on the beaches".[28][29]

Brooke believed that the lack of a unified command of the three services was "a grave danger" to the defence of the country. Despite this, and the fact that the available forces never reached the numbers he thought was required, Brooke considered the situation far from "helpless" in case the Germans invaded. "We should certainly have a desperate struggle and the future might well have hung in the balance, but I certainly felt that given a fair share of the fortunes of war we should certainly succeed in finally defending these shores", he wrote after the war.[30][31] But in the end, the German invasion plan was never taken beyond the preliminary assembly of forces.

Chief of the Imperial General Staff[]

In December 1941 Brooke succeeded Field Marshal Sir John Dill as Chief of the Imperial General Staff ('CIGS'), the professional head of the British Army,[32] in which appointment he also represented the army on the Chiefs of Staff Committee. In March 1942 he succeeded Admiral of the Fleet Sir Dudley Pound as chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee,[33] holding both posts until retirement from active service in 1946.

For the remainder of the Second World War, Brooke was the foremost military adviser to the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill (who was also Minister of Defence), the War Cabinet, and to Britain's allies. As CIGS, Brooke was the functional head of the Army, and as chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, which he dominated by force of intellect and personality, he took the leading military part in the overall strategic direction of the British war effort. In 1942, Brooke joined the Western Allies' ultimate command, the US-British Combined Chiefs of Staff.

Brooke - Churchill - Montgomery

Brooke (on the left) and Churchill visit Montgomery's mobile headquarters in Normandy, 12 June 1944

Brooke’s focus was primarily on the Mediterranean theatre of operations. Here, his key issues were to rid North Africa of Axis forces and knock Italy out of the war, thereby opening up the Mediterranean for Allied shipping, and then mount the cross channel invasion when the Allies were ready and the Germans sufficiently weakened.[34]

Brooke’s and the British view of the Mediterranean operations contrasted with the American commitment to an early invasion of western Europe, which led to several heated arguments at the many conferences of the Combined Chiefs of Staff.

During the first years of the alliance it was often the British who got their way. At the London conference in April 1942, Brooke and Churchill seem to have misled George Marshall, the American chief of staff, about the British intentions on an early landing in France. At the Casablanca conference in January 1943 it was decided that the allies should invade Sicily under the command of the American general Dwight D. Eisenhower, a decision that effectively postponed the planned invasion of Western Europe until 1944. The Casablanca agreement was in fact a compromise, much brokered by Brooke’s old friend Field Marshal Sir John Dill, Chief of the British Joint Staff Mission in Washington DC. “I owe him [Dill] an unbounded debt of gratitude for his help on that occasion and in many other similar ones”, Brooke wrote after the war.[35] But many American planners later saw Casablanca as a setback and that they had been outgeneraled by their better prepared British counterparts, with Brooke as chief spokesperson.

However, with a growing American strength it became increasingly difficult for Brooke and his staff to influence the western allied grand strategy. In May 1943 a fixed time was set for Operation Overlord, an agreement that Brooke, who insisted on a flexible strategy, continued to have doubts about for many months. And later in 1944 Brooke was overruled when seven American divisions were transferred from Italy to take part in the landings in southern France, an operation about which Brooke and the British were sceptical.

The post of CIGS was less rewarding than command in an important theatre of war but the CIGS chose the generals who commanded those theatres and decided what men and munitions they should have. When it came to finding the right commanders he often complained that many officers who would have been good generals had been killed in the First World War and that this was one reason behind the difficulties the British had in the beginning of the war.[36] However, he does not seem to have reflected on the fact that the Germans did not suffer from the same problem, which they must have had to the same extent. When General Sir Claude Auchinleck was to be replaced as the commander of the Eighth Army in 1942, Brooke preferred Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery instead of Lieutenant-General William Gott, who was Churchill's candidate. Soon thereafter Gott was killed in an air crash and Montgomery got the command. Brooke would later reflect upon the tragic event which led to the appointment of Montgomery as an intervention by God.[37] Earlier in 1942 Brooke had been offered the command of British forces in the Middle East. Brooke declined, believing he now knew better than any other general how to deal with Churchill.[38]

A year later, the war had taken a different turn and Brooke no longer believed it necessary to stay at Churchill's side. He therefore looked forward to taking command of the Allied invasion of Western Europe, a post Brooke believed he had been promised by Churchill on three occasions. During the first Quebec conference in August, it was decided that the command would go to US General George C. Marshall. (Although in the event Marshall's work as US Army Chief of Staff was too important for him to leave Washington DC and Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed instead.) Brooke was bitterly disappointed, both at being passed over and of the way the decision was conveyed to him by Churchill, who according to Brooke "dealt with the matter as if it were one of minor importance".[39]

Field Marshall Alan Brook

Statue of Field Marshal The Viscount Alanbrooke, MoD Building, Whitehall, London

Brooke or “Brookie” as he was often known, is reckoned to be one of the foremost of all the heads of the British Army. He was quick in mind and speech and deeply respected by his military colleagues, both British and Allied, although his uncompromising style could make the Americans wary.[40]

As CIGS, Brooke had a strong influence on the grand strategy of the Western Allies. The war in the west unfolded more or less according to his plans, at least until 1943 when the American forces still were relatively small compared to the British. Among the most crucial of his contributions was his opposition against an early landing in France, which was important for delaying Operation Overlord until 1944.

He was a cautious general with a great respect for the German war machine. Some American planners thought that Brooke’s participation in the campaigns of the First World War and in the two evacuations from France in the Second World War made him lack the aggression they believed necessary for victory.[41] According to Max Hastings, Brooke’s reputation as a strategist was “significantly damaged” by his remarks at the Trident conference in Washington in May 1943, where he claimed that no major operations on the continent would be possible until 1945 or 1946.[42]

Relationship with Churchill[]

During the years as CIGS, Brooke had a stormy relationship with Winston Churchill. Brooke was often frustrated with the Prime Minister’s habits and working methods, his abuse of generals and constant meddling into strategic matters. At the same time Brooke greatly admired Churchill for the way he inspired the Allied cause and for the way he bore the heavy burden of war leadership. In one typical passage in Brooke’s war diaries Churchill is described as a “genius mixed with an astonishing lack of vision—he is quite the most difficult man to work with that I have ever struck but I should not have missed the chance of working with him for anything on earth!”.[43]

When Churchill’s many fanciful strategic ideas collided with sound military strategy it was only Brooke on the Chiefs of Staff Committee who was able to stand up to the Prime Minister. Churchill said about Brooke: “When I thump the table and push my face towards him what does he do? Thumps the table harder and glares back at me. I know these Brookes – stiff-necked Ulstermen and there's no one worse to deal with than that!” [44][45] It has been claimed that part of Churchill's greatness was that he appointed Brooke as CIGS and kept him for the whole war.[46]

A general complaint from Brooke was that Churchill often advocated diversion of forces where the CIGS preferred concentration. Brooke was particularly annoyed by Churchill's idea of capturing the northern tip of Sumatra.[47] But in some cases Brooke did not see the political dimension of strategy as the Prime Minister did. The CIGS, for example, was sceptical about the British intervention in Greece in late 1944 (during the Dekemvriana), believing that this was an operation which drained troops from the central front in Germany. But at this stage the war was practically won and Churchill saw the possibility to prevent Greece from becoming a communist state.[48]

The balance of the Chiefs of Staff Committee was tilted in October 1943 when Admiral Sir Dudley Pound, Brooke's predecessor as chairman, retired as a result of poor health and Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham succeeded Pound as First Sea Lord and naval representative on the Chiefs of Staff Committee. Brooke as a consequence got a firm ally in his arguments with Churchill.[49] This was reflected in the most serious clash between the Prime Minister and the Chiefs of Staff, regarding the British preparations for final stages of the Pacific War. Brooke and the rest of the Chiefs of Staff wanted to build up the forces in Australia while Churchill preferred to use India as a base for the British effort. It was an issue over which the Chiefs of Staff were prepared to resign, but in the end a compromise was reached.[50]

Despite their many disagreements Brooke and Churchill held an affection for each other. After one fierce clash Churchill told his chief of staff and military adviser, Sir Hastings Ismay, that he did not think he could continue to work any longer with Brooke because “he hates me. I can see hatred looking from his eyes.” Brooke responded to Ismay: “Hate him? I don't hate him. I love him. But the first time I tell him that I agree with him when I don't will be the time to get rid of me, for then I can be no more use to him." When Churchill was told this he murmured, ”Dear Brookie.” [51]

The partnership between Brooke and Churchill was a very successful one and led Britain to victory in 1945. According to historian Sir Max Hastings, their partnership “created the most efficient machine for the higher direction of the war possessed by any combatant nation, even if its judgments were sometimes flawed and its ability to enforce its wishes increasingly constrained”.[52]

Brooke's diary entry for the 10th of September 1944 is particularly revealing of his contradictory relationship with Churchill:

.....And the wonderful thing is that 3/4 of the population of the world imagine that Churchill is one of the Strategists of History, a second Marlborough, and the other 1/4 have no idea what a public menace he is and has been throughout this war ! It is far better that the world should never know, and never suspect the feet of clay of this otherwise superhuman being. Without him England was lost for a certainty, with him England has been on the verge of disaster time and again...... Never have I admired and despised a man simultaneously to the same extent. Never have such opposite extremes been combined in the same human being[53]

War diaries[]

Brooke kept a diary during the whole of the Second World War.[54] Originally intended for his wife, Benita, the diaries were later expanded on by Brooke in the 1950s. They contain descriptions on the day-to-day running of the British war effort (including some quite indiscreet references to top secret interceptions of German radio traffic),[55] Brooke's thoughts on strategy, as well as frequent anecdotes from the many meetings he had with the Allied leadership during the war.

The diaries have become famous mostly because of the frequent remarks on and criticisms of Churchill. Although the diaries contain passages expressing admiration of Churchill, they also served as a vent for Brooke's frustration with working with the Prime Minister. The diaries also give sharp opinions on several of the top Allied leaders. The American generals Eisenhower and Marshall, for example, are described as poor strategists and the British Field Marshal Lord Alexander as unintelligent. Among the few individuals of whom Brooke seems to have kept consistently positive opinions, from a military standpoint, were General of the Army Douglas MacArthur,[56] Field Marshal Sir John Dill, and Joseph Stalin. Brooke admired Stalin for his quick brain and grasp of military strategy. Otherwise he had no illusions about the man, describing Stalin thus: "He has got an unpleasantly cold, crafty, dead face, and whenever I look at him I can imagine his sending off people to their doom without ever turning a hair."[57]

Edited by the distinguished historian Sir Arthur Bryant, the diaries were first released (in abridged versions) during 1957 (The Turn of the Tide) and 1959 (Triumph in the West). Originally the diaries were never meant to be published. One reason why Alanbrooke (as he had become) changed his mind was the lack of credit to him and the Chiefs of Staff in Churchill's own war memoirs, which essentially presented their ideas and innovations as the Prime Minister's own. Although censorship and libel laws accounted for numerous suppressions of what Alanbrooke had originally written concerning persons who were still alive, the books became controversial even in their truncated state. This was not only as a result of the many comments on Churchill and others, but also because they launched the idea of Brooke as being, ultimately, the sole commander behind the Allies' victory. Churchill himself did not appreciate the books.[58] In 2001 the publication of the uncensored "War Diaries", edited by Alex Danchev and Daniel Todman, again attracted attention to one of the most influential strategists of the Second World War.

Post-war career[]

Following the Second World War and his retirement from the regular Army, Brooke, who could have chosen almost any honorary position he wanted, chose to be the Colonel Commandant of the Honourable Artillery Company. He held this position from 1946 to 1954. In addition, he served on the boards of several companies, both in industry and in banking. He was director of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, the Midland Bank, the National Discount Company and the Belfast Banking Company. Brooke was particularly fond of being a director of the Hudson's Bay Company where he served for eleven years from 1948.[59]

Private life and ornithology[]

Alan Brooke was married twice. After six years of engagement he married Jane Richardson in 1914, a neighbour in County Fermanagh in Ulster. Six days into their honeymoon Brooke was recalled to active duty when the First World War started. The couple had one daughter and one son, Rosemary and Thomas. Jane Brooke died following a car accident in 1925 in which her husband was at the steering wheel.[60]

He regained happiness when he met Benita Lees (1892–1968), daughter of Sir Harold Pelly, 4th Bt., and the widow of Sir Thomas Lees, 2nd Bt., whom he married in 1929. The marriage was very happy for the uxorious Brooke and resulted in one daughter and one son, Kathleen and Victor.[61] During the war the couple lived in Hartley Wintney, a village in Hampshire. After the war, the Alanbrookes' financial situation forced the couple to move into the gardener's cottage of their former home, where they lived for the rest of their lives. Their last years were darkened by the death of their daughter, Kathleen, in a riding accident in 1961.[62]

Alan Brooke had a love of nature. Hunting and fishing were among his great interests. His foremost passion, however, was birds. Brooke was a noted ornithologist, especially skilled in bird photography. He was president of the Zoological Society of London from 1950 to 1954 and vice-president of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.[63][64] During breaks in the war planning, the CIGS could sometimes be seen in London book shops looking for rare bird books. He bought a precious collection of books by John Gould, but financial considerations forced him to sell these volumes after the war.

After the Second World War, the citizens of Bagnères-de-Bigorre presented him with a Pyrenean Mountain Dog, "Bédat de Monda". Back in England, Bédat de Monda was very successful in shows and, through breeding, was strongly influential on the Pyrenean breed.

Death[]

AlanbrookeGrave

Lord Alanbrooke's gravestone

On 17 June 1963, Alanbrooke suffered a heart attack and died quietly in his bed with his wife beside him. The same day, he had been due to attend the Garter Service in St George's Chapel, Windsor. Nine days later he was given a funeral in Windsor and buried in St Mary's churchyard, near his home in Hartley Wintney,[62] which is where his son, the last heir to the Alanbrooke viscountcy, still lives.

Honours[]

Brooke was created Baron Alanbrooke, of Brookeborough in the County of Fermanagh, in 1945,[65] and Viscount Alanbrooke in 1946.[66][67] Other awards included:

He also served as Chancellor of The Queen's University of Belfast from 1949 until his death. At the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II he was appointed Lord High Constable of England, thus commanding all troops taking part in the event.[83] In 1994, a statue of Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke was erected in front of the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall in London. The statue is flanked by statues of Britain's other two leading generals of the Second World War, Viscount Slim and Viscount Montgomery.

Coat of arms[]

His Coat of Arms as issued to him by the College of Arms is: "Or, a cross engrailed per pale Gules and Sable, in dexter chief a crescent for difference."

Memorials[]

Welbeck College[84] and the Duke of York's Royal Military School[85] named one of their houses after him. In each institution, all houses are named after prominent military figures.

Several military barracks are named after him, such as Alanbrooke Barracks in Paderborn Garrison, Germany[86] and Alanbrooke Barracks in Thirsk, North Yorkshire.[87]

In Popular Culture[]

Field Marshal Alan Brooke was portrayed in the television drama Churchill and the Generals by Eric Porter.[88]

Notes[]

  1. ↑ Alanbrooke (2001), Introduction, p. xv
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "No. 37807". 3 December 1946. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/37807/page/ 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "No. 35793". 20 November 1942. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/35793/page/ 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "No. 37598". 4 June 1946. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/37598/page/ 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "No. 39863". 26 May 1953. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/39863/page/ 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "No. 29886". 29 December 1916. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29886/page/ 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "No. 30563". 5 March 1918. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/30563/page/ 
  8. ↑ "No. 36200". 1943-10-05. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/36200/supplement/ 
  9. ↑ "No. 38288". 1948-05-11. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/38288/supplement/ 
  10. ↑ "No. 30631". 12 April 1918. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/30631/supplement/ 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "No. 37761". 15 October 1946. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/37761/supplement/ 
  12. ↑ "No. 37761". 15 October 1946. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/37761/supplement/ 
  13. ↑ "No. 36398". 25 February 1944. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/36398/supplement/ 
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 "No. 40557". 1955-08-09. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/40557/page/ 
  15. ↑ Roberts (2008), p 12–13.
  16. ↑ Roberts (2008), p 12.
  17. ↑ Roberts (2008), p 14.
  18. ↑ "No. 27528". 24 February 1903. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/27528/page/ 
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Fraser (1982), pp.72–73.
  20. ↑ Vimy Ridge: A Canadian Reassessment edited by Geoff Hayes p98-99
  21. ↑ Mead (2007), p. 78.
  22. ↑ Reagan, Geoffrey. Military Anecdotes (1992) p. 166, Guiness Publishing ISBN 0-85112-519-0
  23. ↑ Fraser (1982), pp. 135–140.
  24. ↑ Mead (2007), pp. 78–79.
  25. ↑ Brooke, p. 2 in "No. 37573". 21 May 1946. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/37573/page/ 
  26. ↑ Alanbrooke (2001), entry 14 June 1940.
  27. ↑ Hastings (2009), pp. 51–53.
  28. ↑ Alanbrooke (2001), entry 22 July 1940.
  29. ↑ Fraser (1982), pp.172–186.
  30. ↑ Alanbrooke (2001), entries for 29 July and 15 September 1940.
  31. ↑ Fraser (1982), pp.178–184.
  32. ↑ "No. 35397". 26 December 1941. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/35397/supplement/ 
  33. ↑ Dear and Foot 2005, pp. 131 & 711.
  34. ↑ Alanbrooke (2001), entry 17 July 1942.
  35. ↑ Alanbrooke (2001), entry 18 January 1943
  36. ↑ Alanbrooke (2001), entry 8 October 1941.
  37. ↑ Alanbrooke (2001), entry 7 August 1942
  38. ↑ Alanbrooke (2001), entry 6 August 1942
  39. ↑ Alanbrooke (2001), entry 15 August 1943. See also entries for 15 June, 7 and 14 July 1943.
  40. ↑ Fraser (1982), pp.525–539.
  41. ↑ Roberts (2008), p 140.
  42. ↑ Hastings (2009), p 378–379.
  43. ↑ Alanbrooke (2001), entry for 30 August 1943.
  44. ↑ Winston S. Churchill (1948-1954). The Second World War, 6 vols. Vol II. London: Cassell. pp. 233–34. 
  45. ↑ Colville, John (1986 and 1987). The Fringes of Power: Downing Street Diaries, 2 Vols. Vol. 1. London: Sceptre. p. 530. 
  46. ↑ Roberts (2004) pp.134–135
  47. ↑ Alanbrooke (2001), entries for 8 and 19 August 1943, 28 September 1943 and 8 August 1944.
  48. ↑ Fraser (1982), pp.471–473.
  49. ↑ Reynolds (2005), p 405.
  50. ↑ Fraser (1982), pp.410–421.
  51. ↑ Fraser (1982), p 295.
  52. ↑ Hastings (2005), p 195.
  53. ↑ Alanbrooke (2001),p. 590
  54. ↑ Alanbrooke (2001)
  55. ↑ Alanbrooke (2001), see for example entry for 4 November 1942.
  56. ↑ Alanbrooke (2001), see for example entry for 20 November 1943.
  57. ↑ Alanbrooke (2001), entry 14 August 1942.
  58. ↑ The Churchill Centre
  59. ↑ Fraser (1982), pp.514–515.
  60. ↑ Fraser (1982), pp.55, 58, 92–93.
  61. ↑ Fraser (1982), pp.96–102.
  62. ↑ 62.0 62.1 Fraser (1982), p.524
  63. ↑ Fraser (1982), pp.518–519
  64. ↑ Alanbrooke (2001), p. xxv–xxvi
  65. ↑ "No. 37315". 19 October 1945. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/37315/page/ 
  66. ↑ "No. 37407". 28 December 1945. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/37407/page/ 
  67. ↑ "No. 37461". 8 February 1946. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/37461/page/ 
  68. ↑ "No. 34365". 29 January 1937. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/34365/supplement/ 
  69. ↑ "No. 34873". 14 June 1940. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/34873/page/ 
  70. ↑ "No. 36309". 31 December 1943. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/36309/page/ 
  71. ↑ "No. 37673". 30 July 1946. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/37673/page/ 
  72. ↑ Galloway (2006), p 433.
  73. ↑ "No. 39347". 28 September 1951. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/39347/page/ 
  74. ↑ "No. 37725". 13 September 1946. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/37725/supplement/ 
  75. ↑ "No. 40265". 27 August 1954. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/40265/supplement/ 
  76. ↑ "No. 37803". 29 November 1946. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/37803/page/ 
  77. ↑ "No. 40937". 27 November 1956. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/40937/page/ 
  78. ↑ "No. 38997". 18 August 1950. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/38997/page/ 
  79. ↑ "No. 41034". 27 March 1957. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/41034/page/ 
  80. ↑ "No. 38974". 21 July 1950. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/38974/page/ 
  81. ↑ "No. 39008". 1 September 1950. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/39008/page/ 
  82. ↑ "No. 41055". 26 April 1957. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/41055/page/ 
  83. ↑ "No. 40020". 17 November 1953. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/40020/page/ 
  84. ↑ "Alanbrooke Team Building". Welbeck Defence 6th Form College Website. http://www.dsfc.ac.uk/Social/AlanTeam.asp#.UgNyjm1EL0c. Retrieved 8 August 2013. 
  85. ↑ "Divided into ten houses". Duke of York's Military School website. http://www.doyrms.com/structure.html. Retrieved 8 August 2013. 
  86. ↑ "Paderborn Garrison Labour Support Unit". http://bfgnet.de/employment/contacts/paderborn-garrison-labour-support-unit.html. Retrieved 8 August 2013. 
  87. ↑ "Alanbrooke Barracks, Thirsk, North Yorkshire". streetmap.co.uk. http://streetmap.co.uk/street/ALANBROOKE_BARRACKS_in_THIRSK_in_NORTH_YORKSHIRE_in_YO7_540563_580297.htm. Retrieved 8 August 2013. 
  88. ↑ "Churchill and the Generals". IMDb.com database. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078970/. Retrieved 8 August 2013. 

References[]

  • Alanbrooke, Field Marshal Lord (2001). Danchev, Alex; Todman, Daniel. eds. War Diaries 1939-1945. Phoenix Press. ISBN 1-84212-526-5. 
  • Brooke, Alan (1940). Operations of the British Expeditionary Force, France from 12th June to 19th June 1940.  Alanbrooke's Official Despatch published in the "No. 37573". 21 May 1946. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/37573/page/ 
  • Dear, I.C.B.; Foot, M.R.D., eds (2005) [1995]. The Oxford Companion to World War II. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-280666-1CITEREFDear_and_Foot2005. 
  • Fraser, David (1982). Alanbrooke. Hamlyn Paperbacks. ISBN 0-600-20816-8. 
  • Galloway, Peter (2006). The Order of the Bath. 
  • Hastings, Max (2005). Armageddon. The battle for Germany 1944-45. Pan Macmillan. ISBN 0-330-49062-1. 
  • Hastings, Max (2009). Finest years, Churchill as Warlord 1940-45. Harper Press. ISBN 978-0-00-726367-7. 
  • Heathcote, Tony (1999). The British Field Marshals 1736-1997. Pen & Sword Books Ltd. ISBN 0-85052-696-5. 
  • Mead, Richard (2007). Churchill's Lions: A biographical guide to the key British generals of World War II. Stroud (UK): Spellmount. ISBN 978-1-86227-431-0. 
  • Reynolds, David (2005). In Command of History, Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-101964-6. 
  • Roberts, Andrew (2004). Hitler and Churchill: Secrets of Leadership. Phoenix. ISBN 0-7538-1778-0. 
  • Roberts, Andrew (2008). Masters and Commanders. How Roosevelt, Churchill, Marshall and Alanbrooke won the war in the west. Allen Lane. ISBN 978-0-7139-9969-3. 

External links[]

Commons-Logo Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke.
Military offices
Preceded by
New Post 		GOC Mobile Division
November 1937–July 1938 		Succeeded by
Roger Evans
Preceded by
New Post 		GOC-in-C Anti-Aircraft Command
April 1939 – July 1939 		Succeeded by
Sir Frederick Pile
Preceded by
Sir Archibald Wavell 		GOC-in-C Southern Command
July 1939 – August 1939 		Succeeded by
Sir Bertie Fisher
Preceded by
Sir Archibald Wavell 		GOC II Corps
September 1939 – June 1940 		Succeeded by
Bernard Montgomery
Preceded by
Sir Bertie Fisher 		GOC-in-C Southern Command
June 1940 – July 1940 		Succeeded by
Sir Claude Auchinleck
Preceded by
Edmund Ironside 		GOC-in-C Home Forces
July 1940 – December 1941 		Succeeded by
Bernard Paget
Preceded by
Sir John Dill 		Chief of the Imperial General Staff
1941–1946 		Succeeded by
The Viscount Montgomery of Alamein
Honorary titles
Preceded by
The Lord Milne 		Master Gunner,
St. James's Park
1946–1956 		Succeeded by
Sir Cameron Nicholson
Preceded by
Earl Wavell 		Constable of the Tower of London
1950–1955 		Succeeded by
Lord Wilson
Preceded by
The Earl Wavell 		Lord Lieutenant of the County of London
1950–1956 		Succeeded by
Earl Alexander of Tunis
Academic offices
Preceded by
The Marquess of Londonderry 		Chancellor of Queen's University of Belfast
1949–1963 		Succeeded by
Sir Tyrone Guthrie
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Viscount Alanbrooke
1946–1963 		Succeeded by
Thomas Brooke
Baron Alanbrooke
1945–1963



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