soc.history.war.world-war-ii

This is correct, but Brooke did not command in the field after the Dunkerque
evacuation, and therefore did not command troops in battle on any larger
scale, even though he must have (as you point out) had both the ability and
seniority to do so. He never exercised command under circumstances like
those of Monty or Patton.

Regards

Hans
"Don Phillipson" skrev i melding
news:fseeva$ktg$1@theodyn.ncf.ca...
> "Hal Hanig" wrote in message
> news:dhVFj.2582$gx.1082@newsfe07.lga... (March 24)
>
>> That may well be true, and it would be consistent with the original
>> statement made about the high regard in which he was held by his fellow
>> Brits. I have yet to hear from anyone from what was the Commonwealth in
>> those days, i.e. - Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa,
> etc.
>> on the subject.
>
> My post in this thread dated March 21 cites a recent Canadian source.
>
>> Hans Christian Hoff wrote:
>> > One from time to time get the impression that some of the best military
>> > minds of WWII (on the allied side at least) were not commanders in the
>> > field; Marshall and Brooke spring immediately to mind.
>
> HCH seems wrong about Brooke. He commanded a
> division or corps in France in 1940 and because of his
> performance there (compared with other British generals)
> was in charge of the land defence of England 1940-41,
> later becoming CIGS (equivalent to Marshall.) Brooke
> thought he had been promised command of the Normandy
> invasion and was initially hurt that that post went to
> Eisenhower, who had not Brooke's field experience: but
> came to agree SHAEF had to be an American since
> the USA was providing most of the men and munitions,
> no one was suitable to replace him as CIGS (i.e. no British
> general had both Brooke's status and the personality to
> moderate Churchill's passions on a daily and continuous
> basis) thus accepted his lot (blowing off steam only in
> his private diary, later published. This interesting document
> suggests the main function of a top-level i.e. political
> commander is selecting which generals to place in
> command of armies and corps.)
> --
> Don Phillipson
> Carlsbad Springs
> (Ottawa, Canada)
>