by Andrew Sangster
Oxford and Philadelphia: Casemate, 2021. Pp. xxiv, 344+.
Illus., append., notes, biblio., index. $37.95. ISBN: 1612009689
Battling Hitler and Churchill
Britain’s Alan Francis Brooke (1883-1963), 1st Viscount Allanbrooke, who served as the British Army’s Chief of the Imperial General Staff from 1941 through the1946), is probably the least well-known of the senior Allied commanders. A seasoned veteran and a thoroughly professional soldier, he was certainly at least as important to the final victory as any other officer. And in contrast to his American counterpart, George C. Marshall, he had a most difficult boss in Winston Churchill.
In his latest work, Dr. Sangster, whose numerous works include biographies of Kesselring, Franco, and others, gives us a good look at Brooke’s life and impressive military achievements, while also showing him as a famliy man and amateur naturalist. Drawing in part from Brooke’s suprisingly detailed and frank memoirs, Sangster devotes two chapters to Brooke’s family background and early military career, during which he rose from artilleryman at the front in W.W. I to head of Britain’s Anti-Aircraft Command and then territorial commander of southern England by the eve of the Second World War.
Sangster then gives us a chapter on Allanbrooke’s role in commanding a corps with the BEF in France, through Dunkirk, and follows with a chapter for each year of the war. He directed preparations to counter an invasion, pressed for unified commands, and in late 1941 became Chief of the Imperial General Staff, a job he performed quite well.
Sangster shows us a very skilled, knowledgeable, and thoughtful soldier, very focused on his mission, willing to criticize his superiors, notably Churchill, with whom he often disagreed and who usually came around to Brooke’s perspective. We also get Brooke’s opinions about quite a number of commanders, including Montgomery and Patton, neither of whom he held in very high regard.
Alan Brooke, Churchill’s Right-Hand Critic rescues a rather over looked commander from obscurity, and will prove an excellent read for anyone interested in World War II or military leadership
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