From Masters and Commanders (Andrew Roberts, 2008) p398
Would Brooke have made a good supreme commander? Sir James Grigg was doubtful, telling an interviewer after the war that his utter disdain for popularity or public relations let alone public opinion would have counted against him. ‘A successful commander in the field must be able to command the imagination of his troops and impress his personality on them,’ argued Grigg. ‘It was doubtful if Brooke had the patience or understanding to do this; rarely did he inspire affection because he was too insular and rarely proffered friendship.’ The lengths to which some commanders went to create charismatic personae for themselves Montgomery, Mountbatten, MacArthur and Patton foremost among them were always dismissed by Brooke as mere ‘stunts’. Meanwhile, several rumours went around the War Office about why Brooke had not been chosen, the most fanciful of which was recorded by Kennedy, who wondered ‘if it can be true that’ Brooke had ‘offended Mrs Roosevelt by some remark about niggers. Less surprising things have happened before.’Four decades after the decision, Jock Colville recalled that ‘Roosevelt was determined the commander should be American, even though neither Marshall nor Eisenhower had Brooke’s experience or strategic brilliance.’ A devil’s advocate and there was no shortage of them in the Pentagon might have pointed out that Brooke’s last two forays on the Continent had both ended in humiliating evacuations. The restriction of the choice of supreme commander of Overlord to Americans was a clear signal that the Atlantic balance of power had shifted, and for all his enthusiasm and bulldog spirit, Churchill was simply not in a strong enough political position vis-a-vis Roosevelt to award the post to Brooke, even though he had thrice promised it him. When it came to the ultimate decision making moment, however, as is clear from several sources, including Ismay’s interview with Pogue ‘Churchill on his own initiative told FDR that the commander should be an American’ there was no contest. Brooke’s subsequent behaviour at the time of the publication of his memoirs was self defeating even, to some, reprehensible but it was entirely understandable.
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