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Haig – An Assessment. Career. Born 1861, Edinburgh. Son of a whisky distiller. Educated at Clifton School, Oxford and Sandhurst. Army career: Cavalry officer fought in the Sudan and with distinction as a staff officer in the Boer War.
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Career • Born 1861, Edinburgh. Son of a whisky distiller. • Educated at Clifton School, Oxford and Sandhurst. • Army career: Cavalry officer fought in the Sudan and with distinction as a staff officer in the Boer War. • Replaced Sir John French as Commander-in-Chief after the failure of the battle of Loos. • Well-connected, married to a maid of honour to Queen Alexandra.
Career • A deep-thinking person and very determined. • Serious-minded Christian. • Battle tactics: artillery bombardment to break defences; infantry to move under ‘creeping barrage’ to take the trenches. • Poor relationship with Lloyd George, who was horrified at the high casualties.
Career • Lloyd George attacked Haig in his memoirs (1936), causing huge damage to Haig’s reputation. • This attack coincided with first books from authors unhappy with the war. As a result, Haig’s name became shorthand for military incompetence.
Historians’ opinions • 1953: Major-General Sir John Davidson, Haig – Master of the Field. Defends ‘loyalty and imperturbability’. • 1958: Leon Wolff, In Flanders Fields. Severe criticism of the Third Battle of Ypres. • 1961: Alan Clark, The Donkeys. Characterised the British army as ‘lions led by donkeys’.
Historians’ opinions • 1963: John Terraine, The Educated Soldier. Defence of Haig’s character and battle tactics; necessary to wear down the enemy and win the war. • Haig’s Final Dispatch, 1919: ‘It is in the great battles of 1916 and 1917 that we have to seek for the secret of our victory in 1918’.
An assessment • Different from the stereotype; ruthless and indifferent. • Graduate of the army’s Staff College. • Director of military training. • At the centre of the thinking that created the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). • Operational experience in the Sudan and the Boer War.
An assessment • Commanded the Aldershot garrison and trained the troops that went to war as 1 Corps. • Ambitious and exploited social connections; as did every other successful officer. • Inherited stalemate situation, but orders were to defeat Germany.
An assessment • Commanded an army learning as it went along, not professional soldiers. • Decided on tactic of ‘big battles’. • Only other tactic, ‘bite and hold’, still would have had high casualty rates. • Over optimistic that the battles of 1916–7 would achieve a breakthrough. • Army lacked the troops and firepower to achieve a breakthrough.
An assessment • Attacks probably continued for too long. • Some attacks, eg the Somme, continued to help allies. • Haig could be difficult and touchy, but was not out of touch with his soldiers. • Mental toughness to order men into battle. • Central role in creating the British Legion and Earl Haig Fund – work that helped lead to an early heart attack.
