"Overlord’s” commander

And his diary entry for November 1 is even more revealing;

"When I look at the Mediterranean I realise only too well how far I have failed. If only I had had sufficient force of character to swing those American Chiefs-of-Staflf and make them see daylight, how different the war might be. We should have had the whole Balkans ablaze by now, and the war might have finished by 1943.” (Arthur Bryant Triumph in the West)

Light is cast on this whole question by the matter of the appointment of an Allied supreme commander for "Overlord”. It had long been understood between Brooke and Churchill that Brooke should be that commander. At Quebec, however, Churchill told Brooke that because of the preponderance of American over British land forces in "Overlord” after the first few weeks, the appointee must be American. In his war memoirs Churchill states that "I myself took the initiative of proposing to the President that an American commander should be appointed for the expedition to France. He was gratified at this suggestion, and I dare say his mind had been moving that way.” [author’s italics]. When Stimson’s warning to the President about the prospects for the invasion under a British general is taken into account, it seems possible that it was not only the ultimate preponderance of American strength that dictated an American commander, but also the deep, ineradicable and perhaps justified American mistrust of Brooke’s personal commitment to "Overlord”.