Alanbrooke War Diaries

The Chief of General Staff, General Sir Alan Brooke at his desk in the War Office in London.

Alanbrooke was CIGS – Chief of the Imperial General Staff – for the greater part of the Second World War. He acted as mentor to Montgomery and military adviser to Churchill, with whom he clashed. As chairman of the Chiefs of Staff committee he also led for the British side in the bargaining and the brokering of the Grand Alliance, notably during the great conferences with Roosevelt and Stalin and their retinue at Casablanca,Teheran, Malta and elsewhere. As CIGS Alanbrooke was indispensable to the British and the Allied war effort.

Alanbrooke on Churchill:

genius mixed with an astonishing lack of vision–he is quite the most difficult man to work with that I have ever struck but I should not have missed the chance of working with him for anything on earth!