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Alan
Brooke
Alan Francis Brooke, 1st Viscount
Alanbrooke (July 23, 1883 - June 17, 1963) was a British
Field Marshal during World War II.
Born at Bagn?res de Bigorre to a prominent Northern
Irish family, Alan Brooke was educated in France and at
the Royal Military College, Woolwich. During World War I
he served with the Royal Artillery in France, ending the
conflict as a Lieutenant-Colonel. Between the wars he was
a lecturer at Camberley Staff College and the Imperial
Defence College, where he worked with most of the leading
British officers of the Second World War.
Following the outbreak of World War II, Brooke commanded
the II Corps of the British Expeditionary Force and
played a leading role in the evacuation of Allied troops
from Dunkirk. In July 1940 he was appointed to command
United Kingdom Home Forces and in December 1941 was
promoted Chief of the Imperial General Staff and Chairman
of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, a post which he held
until 1946.
In this role, Brooke served as the foremost military
advisor to the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and to
Britain's allies. He was offered command of British
forces in the Middle East, which he declined, believing
that that he ought to remain in Britain to prevent
Churchill from leading the country into any foolhardy
military adventures. He believed that the Prime Minister
had offered him command of the Allied invasion of Western
Europe and was bitterly disappointed to be passed over in
favour of General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Brooke was created Baron Alanbrooke of Brookeborough in
1945 and Viscount Alanbrooke in 1946.
The publication in 2001 of Alanbrooke's uncensored War
Diaries attracted attention for their insight into the
day-to-day running of the British war effort and their,
at times, forthright criticism of Winston Churchill and
other leading figures of the time.
Text is available under
the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
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