In 1895 Haig applies for Staff College, where any officer goes to become a high rank. The staff college was at Camberley and the entrance exam was too hard for Haig, who failed his first time. The second time, he got into Camberley, but only because of his connections and not because he was capable now of passing the entrance exam. Though Haig went on to pass the course in less than two years, which again shows he was capable of anything he put his mind to.
From 1899-1902 he was in the Boer War in South Africa. He was appointed to command the 17th Lancers during this war and eventually returned to England as a Colonel. This showed that on this war he was noticed as a worthy officer and was promoted. In his next job he was under the service of Lord Kitchener and together they hoped to revive the cavalry back to its old state. While doing this work he was again promoted to Major General.
In 1915 Haig had his hardest test yet when he was confronted with numerous activities. First he commanded the first army through Neuve Chapelle, Aubers Ridge and Loos. Though all of these battles were losses, Haig was promoted to Chief-in-command of BEF. This was a big step in his life and gave him command over Britain’s main infantry defence.
There would have been many things that affected the way Haig approached a battle and one of these would have been his military experience. The fact that he had been in so many battles would allow him to be in positions twice and no what mistakes not to make. Another factor was his love for cavalry. As he said in 1926 ‘I believe that that the value of the horse and the opportunity for the horse in the future are likely to be as great as ever. Aeroplanes and tanks are only accessories to the men and horse, and I feel sure that as time foes on you will find just as much use for the horse – the well-bred horse – as you ever have in the past’. There were also other comments that he made that showed how wrong, mistaken and foolish he could be. Quotes about the machine gun from 1915 in particular showed this. ‘The machine gun is a much over rated weapon’ and ‘the way to capture machine guns is by grit and determination’ Again this shows a bit of ignorant on his part and the fact that he cannot accept a simple fact like the machine gun was worthy of the front line defence.
We know that Haig knew a lot about military tactics because he had before hand released two books on tactics and strategies. . He wrote two books one with Colonel John French about Cavalry Drill Techniques and he also wrote a misguided piece of work called Cavalry, Studies, Strategically and Tactical, which was not really correct but still was published. As Sir Llewellyn Woodward said, ‘Haig’s knowledge of his profession was sound and solid; he was a man of strong nerve, resolute, patient, somewhat cold and reserved in temper, unlikely to be thrown off his balance either by calamity of success. He reached opinions slowly and held them.’
My conclusion and final answer to this question is that in many ways Haig was unsuited for the job yet at the same time many things made him perfect for the job. Though we look back now and think it was a bad choice, I think if we empathised and went back to that time, we would see that the choices were simple and he was by far the best recruitment for the times and knowledge. Maybe he did make some bad choices; even if the odds were all against him he would still send men in, in order to promote a battle. All of these things contribute to how badly he led the armed forces. However in the end he had some successes.
