The Alan Brooke Diaries

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A superb account of the Britain's top soldier in WW2. His diaries were never intended for publication and they don't pull any punches. Refreshingly they lack any of the self-aggrandisement found in the accounts by Monty and Churchill.

He wrote a short piece each evening whenever possible, in the style of a short letter to his wife Bonita about the days activities. Reading them, I got to understand the difficulties senior military had when working for Churchill, rewind to 1914 and the Admirals of the Fleet were making the same complaints about Churchill's style of leadership that Brookes did 25yrs later. Initially Alan Brooke is in France and commands the withdrawal. He then takes over as Commander Home Forces in July 1940. At this stage invasion is imminent and Brooke understands the countries lack of preparedness, this is the man at the sharp end of responsibility, he's Monty's boss.

Eventually in 1941 he takes overs CIGS and is now head man of the British Army and Churchill's main adviser. They fight like cat and dog, Brooke having to damp down the prime ministers wild undertakings and ideas. Its a full time job and his writings reveal the stress of that. Sometimes he fails to appreciate the political aspect of the prime ministers decision making, but he was soldier first and that is understandable. The relationship between them though is much deeper and Brooke approaches the task with a sense of duty to his leader and the country. Wiki Notes:

Despite their many disagreements Brooke and Churchill held an affection for each other. After one fierce clash Churchill told his chief of staff and military adviser, Sir Hastings Ismay, that he did not think he could continue to work any longer with Brooke because “he hates me. I can see hatred looking from his eyes.” Brooke responded to Ismay: “Hate him? I don't hate him. I love him. But the first time I tell him that I agree with him when I don't, will be the time to get rid of me, for then I can be no more use to him." When Churchill was told this he murmured, ”Dear Brookie.”

Later, after the war, Brooke was especially hurt by Churchill's lack of acknowledgment in his series of books "The Second World War", in which Brooke barely gets a mention, even now it seems a great injustice was inflicted by Churchill. This was one of the reasons why he eventually allowed publication of the diaries. Remember all the participants were mostly still alive and the book caused an uproar at its publication in the 1950's. This print is from 2001 and lacks any censorship.

In the book you get to read his thoughts on all the main players in World War Two, the politicians and generals are all under his microscope, he quickly identifies strengths and weaknesses in their characters. On occasions his initial judgements were wrong, especially with regard to Eisenhower and Gen Marshall who he describes as "No Strategists". I think he also describes the future American President as lacking big ideas, or similar, but he acknowledges his error. He also fails to appreciate the potential of the atom bomb. But every human has flaws and without this diary, many of Alan Brookes defects would have remained hidden.

What also struck me was his calmness. Through all the disasters, the tempo and style of the diary never alters, only when Churchill gets to much for him do the cracks appear. The wartime lifestyle of a leader is relentless, he seems to spend most of his time travelling. He attends all the main conferences of the Allies and gets up close and personal with Stalin, Roosevelt and De Gaulle. A fascinating time.

His final diary entry on the 31 Aug 1945 is a lesson in understatement and catches the readers breath through its mundane normality.

Highly Recommended.http://www.zoominto.com/zoomapi/ZoomButt.gifhttp://www.zoominto.com/zoomapi/ZoomButt.gifhttp://www.zoominto.com/zoomapi/ZoomButt.gifhttp://www.zoominto.com/zoomapi/ZoomButt.gifhttp://www.zoominto.com/zoomapi/ZoomButt.gifhttp://www.zoominto.com/zoomapi/ZoomButt.gif