Major-General Sir Kenneth William Dobson Strong KBE CB (9 September 1900 – 11 January 1982) was a senior officer of the British Army who served in the Second World War, rising to become Director General of Intelligence.

In March 1943, Strong was appointed Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence (G-2) at General Dwight D. Eisenhower's Allied Force Headquarters (AFHQ).

In May 1944 he joined Eisenhower's Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), and played a leading part in the negotiations for the unconditional surrender of Germany in 1945.

[1] In March 1943, Strong was appointed Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence (G-2) at General Dwight Eisenhower's Allied Force Headquarters (AFHQ), replacing Brigadier Eric Mockler-Ferryman, whose over-reliance on Ultra sources had led to a misinterpretation of the enemy's intentions leading up to the disastrous Battle of the Kasserine Pass.

Stephen Ambrose wrote, Strong had an explosive laugh, an appreciation of the wisecrack, and an easy acceptance of the West Pointers' rough language and casual manner rare in British officers.

In his memoirs he endeared himself to all those from the New World side of the Atlantic Ocean who had been put off by British stuffiness and snobbery when he remarked "The best time in a man's life is when he gets to like Americans.

"[7]In August 1943, Smith and Strong flew to Lisbon via Gibraltar in civilian clothes, where they met with Generale di Brigata Giuseppe Castellano at the British embassy.

[9] For his work at AFHQ, Strong was promoted to major general on 11 January 1944,[10] and awarded the Legion of Merit by the United States in March 1944.

[11] When Eisenhower was appointed Supreme Allied Commander in December 1943,[12] he naturally wished to take key members of his AFHQ staff, including Strong, with him to his new assignment.

A heated exchange resulted, with Smith demanding Brooke explain how Operation Overlord could be a success if the British Army withheld its best talent.

However Eisenhower and Smith eventually had their way, going over Brooke's head to Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Strong assumed the post on 25 May 1944, with Brigadier General Thomas J. Betts as his deputy.

[17] In September 1944 an intelligence crisis similar to Kasserine arose, when the cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park did not locate the 9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen and 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg in the Arnhem area, but information from the Dutch resistance and a consequent photo reconnaissance ordered by Major Brian Urquhart, the Intelligence Officer at I Airborne Corps, confirmed the German presence.

For SHAEF, the outcome meant that attention had to turn to the Battle of the Scheldt to open the approaches to Antwerp and to building up resources for an invasion of Germany in 1945.

The Germans devised an elaborate deception plan, and because the troops were being assembled inside Germany, they relied on secure phone and teleprinter lines rather than radio.

In early December, SHAEF detected tank movements in the Bitburg area, and Strong became worried about a possible counterattack against the Allied lines in the Ardennes or the Vosges.

[22][23] On 15 April 1945, Nazi governor ('Reichskommissar') of the Netherlands, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, offered to open Amsterdam to food and coal shipments to ease the suffering of the civilian population.

They successfully negotiated for the provision of food to the starving Dutch civilian population in the cities in the west of the country, and opened discussions for the peaceful and complete German capitulation in the Netherlands that would follow on 5 May.

Smith and Strong met with the representatives of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, Generaloberst Alfred Jodl and Generaladmiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg.