Field Marshal Alan Francis BROOKE, Viscount ALANBROOKE, KG, GCB, OM, GCVO, DSO & Bar

Discussion in 'Higher Formations' started by CL1, Nov 25, 2013.

  1. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    'Grip'.
     
  2. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

    Screenshot2013-11-28at114817.png
    I think you're confusing "Master of Strategy" with meaning The master of strategy. Reading too much into what isn't actually there... ( hastily putting your own interpretation on things like the "!" on another thread )
    It is respectful of others to recognise Alanbrooke as one Master. He himself certainly seems to have recognised that quality in others.

    (There are plenty of 'best fathers in the world'. So what, I wouldn't expect anything different.)
     
    Last edited: Apr 11, 2019
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  3. Sheldrake

    Sheldrake All over the place....

    I like Brookie's statue. It does capture something of the character of the man.

    We owe him a huge debt for the intellect, judgment, strategic vision that he brought to the Allied cause. He was a very different type of General to those normally regarded as "Great Commanders".

    Unlike, say, Rommel, Montgomery or even Eisenhower, he did not operate as a field commander. He was the senior military adviser to the Prime Minister and War Minister of the British Commonwealth and Empire, a partner in the coalition against the Axis. He had to influence by argument not dictate. The people he had to work with were far from pushovers - Churchill and his cabinet, Portal and the Americans Marshall, Spaatz and King. Even among the other service chiefs he was merely the chairman of a committee - the first among equals. He is a bureaucrats hero - the master of committee meetings and compromises. However, that is how a coalition of democracies has to be run.

    Brooke had probably more experience of planning and conducting military operations than any senior commander on either side. As an artillery planner on the Somme and Arras, he had seen how major operations were conducted and what worked and not. His achievements include forging the strategy which worked and delivered victory in Europe. he prevented the Americans from a premature cross channel crossing and steered Churchill away from follies such as expeditions in Norway or Sumatra.

    I am a bit biased, serving in the battery in which Alanbrooke once served and still has a Troop named after him.
     
  4. Tom Canning

    Tom Canning WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Ahrnem

    You start off by not questioning Alanbrooke's credentials - then you spend the rest of your posting doing exactly that - you really should make up your mind to read a bit more of the man before making any comment - however….Alanbrooke became C.I.G.S. shortly after the US debacle at Pearl Harbour and so his main strategy had been built up long before the US production could be mustered…from his own development of the Artillery "Rolling Barrage"of the first war and his experience of the Gerrman Blitzkreig of the second - and his long experience of ever higher command of the British Army including his second visit to France AFTER Dunkirk - to try and put some steel into the French as well as his interview with the Belgian King before THEY surrendered

    so a man of great experience sitting in the highest chair of the British Army - influenced by a man whose main experience of fighting was from the back of a horse in South Africa years before and a short term in WW1….that had to change… as the ONLY place we are allegedly fighting was tooing and froing in the desert with really only one major victory at Beda Fomm - and that was before Rommel and his Africa Korps.

    therefore knowing the absolute strength of his enemy - the obvious strategy was to weaken that enemy before a large confrontation - and despite all arguments from people who hadn't the slightest idea of what strategy was all about - he prevailed - and we defeated that enemy…….THAT was Alanbrooke's contribution… and the soldiers who assisted in that victory held both him and his loyal student in the highest regard..and many still do...

    AS I advised earlier - start reading before commenting further

    Cheers
     
    dbf likes this.
  5. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    For all those not in Blighty and unable to easily circumnavigate the BBC, this has been uploaded to Youtube.

    Features Horrocks, Hugh Trevor-Roper and Alanbrooke himself:



    His diaries are what sparked my interest in military history. I must say, his voice was not at all what I expected while reading -- it's easy to forget how much further forward and higher in the mouth RP was then.
     
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