Brooke and the Brittany redoubt problem

Alan Brooke returned to France after Dunkirk to command a new British Expeditionary Force built around II Corps. His harsh assessment of the French Army focused on leaders who had failed to maintain discipline, communications, and confidence among their troops. He regarded those failures as a betrayal of the soldiers expected to fight under such conditions. Brooke spent an afternoon trying to convince John Dill, Anthony Eden, and Winston Churchill that Brittany could not serve as a defensible rump of France without prepared redoubts or a strong natural barrier. His warning did not persuade the political and army leadership at once. Naval officers also heard it, however, and commands began preparing for the withdrawal they expected to follow.