The Allied strategist who put preparation before a premature landing
In 1943, he argued that a landing in France was unsafe without sufficient troops, landing craft, and air superiority.
Alan Brooke was the field marshal who coordinated Britain's professional army leadership and much of Allied grand strategy during the Second World War. In 1943 he judged a cross-Channel invasion unsafe without enough troops, landing craft, and air superiority, and supported Mediterranean operations aimed at removing Axis forces from North Africa and Italy. His caution was not a simple rejection of Normandy, but an argument to build the logistical and air conditions for a viable assault. His postwar war diaries preserved sharp judgments of Winston Churchill and the Allied commanders.
Career Timeline
- 1902Commissioned into the Royal Artillery
- 1914–1918Artillery staff officer on the Western Front
- 1938–1940Commander of Anti-Aircraft Command and Southern Command
- 1940–1941Commander-in-Chief, Home Forces
- 1941–1946Chief of the Imperial General Staff
- 1942–1946Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee
- 1953Lord High Constable at Elizabeth II's coronation