Alan Francis Brooke 1st Viscount Alanbrooke

Alan Francis Brooke Alanbrooke, 1st Viscount , 1883-1963, British general. He entered the field artillery in 1902 and served with distinction during World War I. In the 1930s he made himself a master of mechanized warfare. At the beginning of World War II he commanded the 2d Army Corps in France and was (1940-41) commander in chief of the British Home Forces. From Dec., 1941, to 1946 he was chief of the imperial general staff and participated in the war conferences of Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin. He was made Baron Alanbrooke in 1945 and Viscount Alanbrooke in 1946.

Bibliography: See biography by D. Fraser (1982).

Alanbrooke, Alan Francis Brooke, 1st Viscount (1883–1963) British field-marshal. He served with distinction during World War I, and in the 1930s was noted as an artillery expert. In World War II he was a corps commander during the withdrawal from DUNKIRK. Later, as Chief of the Imperial General Staff and Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (1941–46), he represented the service chiefs in discussions with Churchill. As Churchill's chief adviser on military strategy, he accompanied him to all his conferences with Roosevelt and Stalin.

Alanbrooke of Brookeborough, Alan Francis Brooke, 1st Viscount (b. 23 July 1883, d. 17 June 1963). British field marshal Born in Bagnères-de-Bigorre (France) of an Ulster family. Educated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, he served in Ireland and India, before serving with the Royal Artillery in France during World War I. In the interwar period he was heavily involved with the education of soldiers at the School of Artillery and the Imperial Defence College. He also worked in the War Office, before taking over the preparation of the anti-aircraft corps in 1938. In 1940, as Commander of the British Expeditionary Force, he was instrumental in the evacuation of British troops at Dunkirk. A strong influence on Churchill, he became chief of the Imperial General Staff in 1941 and chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee in 1942. He supported forcefully the North African campaigns and subsequent campaigns in southern Europe. This diverted German troops away from the heavily fortified French coast, and thus laid the ground for the eventual success of the Allied D-Day landings at Normandy. He retired in 1946.