Years ago I read Alan Brooke’s diary and have recently revisited it in the light of more forgotten people from history accounts doing the rounds. In the daily entries Brooke often gives his opinions of other military leaders, (which in hindsight often seem very shrewd and insightful knowing what we do now) but which are recorded in the light of the day’s events and then get endlessly re-quoted without any context around them. For instance, I often hear that he did not get on with Churchill but reading the diary I don’t get that impression at all, more that he was exasperated with some of Churchills ideas and impetuosities while being fond of the man and his leadership.
Obviously the diary serves to give one way traffic, I can read what Brooke though of the other commanders as the war progresses but I have never heard what any of them thought of Brooke. Are there any good accounts from others of Brooke that can help me understand the man better?
Brooke was thought very highly of by both his American and British peers on the Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS.) Roosevelt's top military advisor, ADM William D. Leahy, described him as having a "forbidding personality" but an "impeccable military reputation." While it was always assumed that the supreme commander of Operation Overlord would be an American due to the superior number of American divisions, if it had been a British General Leahy was sure it would be Brooke, and he had every bit of confidence that he would have been successful in the role.
Gen George C. Marshall certainly had a rockier start to his relationship with Brooke. He almost certainly was sad to see Gen John Dill be replaced in the role. Marshall and Dill had become close friends from their very first meeting at Argentia. Dill had started to show the strain of managing both the British Army and Churchill's crazier ideas, which led to his replacement by Brooke. Neither Brooke nor Marshall were impressed with each other after their first meeting. Marshall found Brooke icy, imperturbable and condescending. At first, Brooke thought the Americans were green newcomers. Marshall would later say he understood that feeling as Brooke had commanded a Corps during the invasion of France while Marshall's WW1 experience involved staff duty with the 1st Division and later on Pershing's staff. They would later upgrade their opinions of each other's military knowledge and even bonding over Brooke's love of birdwatching. Brooke was a great champion for Churchill's goals in CCS meetings, but the Americans appreciated Brooke's ability to manage Churchill and filter out some of his crazier ideas.
Lord Hastings "Pug" Ismay who was Churchills top military advisor probably gives the best description of how Brooke was viewed:
Brooke was by general consent the best all-rounder in his Service. He had been an unqualified success in all the Staff appointments which he had held in peace and war, and had made a great reputation as a fighting commander in the retreat to Dunkirk. In council he was so quick in the uptake that he was sometimes impatient with those who were slower witted; and his habit of expressing opinions in positive terms led those who did not know him well to regard him as unnecessarily abrupt. He was apt to speak so fast that the Americans found difficulty in following his arguments and were at first inclined to think that he was trying to bounce them. They never gave him the confidence and affection which they gave Dill, but when they got to know him better and became accustomed to his mannerisms, they formed a respect for his competence as a soldier, and a liking for his character as a man. It is a pity that copious extracts from his private diaries have been published verbatim. They were intended for the eyes of his wife alone; many of the entries were made when he was exhausted, irritated or despondent, and a number of minor errors on questions of contemporary fact, though unimportant in themselves, bear witness to the lack of foresight with which the diary was compiled. In these circumstances, the dogmatic, sometimes wounding, and often unjustifiable comments which he makes from time to time on his war comrades, cannot be regarded as considered judgements. Ther is however a danger that posterity, not knowing the circumstances, will take the assertions and criticisms in the diaries at their face value, and will get the idea that Brooke was self-satisfied, self-pitying, ungenerous and disloyal. He was none of these things. On the contrary, his selflessness, integrity and mastery of his profession earned him the complete confidence, not only of his political chiefs and his colleagues in Whitehall, but also of all our commanders in the field. On that count alone, he was worth his weight in gold. In the course of my eighteen years' service in Whitehall, I saw the work of eight different Chiefs of the Imperial General Staff at close quarters, and I would unhesitatingly say that Brooke was the best of them all.
Sources:
Leahy, W. D. (1950). I Was There: The Personal Story of the Chief of Staff to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman Based on His Notes and Diaries Made at the Time
Pogue, F. C. (1965). George C. Marshall: Ordeal and Hope 1939-1942
Ismay, H. L. (1960). The Memoirs of Lord Ismay