I've recently been rereading JR Colville's biography of Lord Gort, the commander of the BEF from 1939 to the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940. Obviously this was not the British Army's finest hour, for many reasons - the defeat of the French at Sedan, the success of the Sickle Cut, the destruction of the Belgian Army, the failure to break through (as if that was possible) at Arras - but the more I read about the Gort the more I am unimpressed with him (and Colville's book).
Yes, he was the man who took the decision to fall back to Dunkirk, in the process saving the BEF. But I genuinely believe that he should have done more. He seems to have been a man obsessed with irrelevant details (telling divisional commanders like Monty to have fighting patrols out at night) who did not look at the bigger picture in terms of training. He did not carry out war games, he did not have a manageable Op HQ, he did not seem to think ahead a great deal.
Obviously a man who wins the Victoria Cross cannot be dismissed easily. But would it have been better to have Dill or Brooke in charge? Your thoughts?