John Keegan, a modern historian, suggests that Haig was a ‘highly skilled, effective and successful commander’. How fair is this verdict? Use sources F to L and your own knowledge to explain your answer.
Some of the sources agree with the statement that Haig was a highly skilled, effective and successful commander, however others do not and they agree more with the statement: ‘lions led by donkeys’. The sources can be grouped together, those that agree with Haig and those that do not.
Source F was written just before the third battle of Ypres, until then British forces had been suffering and had lost many men. Lloyd George wanted the army to support Italy rather than Germany. This source is very good evidence of self-justification. Haig who had made the decision to carry on fighting against the Germans was to trying to reassure himself that he had made the right decision. This source is also a useful evidence of the slowly deteriorating relationship between Lloyd George and General Haig. Lloyd George was correct to think that the battle would have ended by 1918, however he was wrong to tell Haig that he had to help Italians.
Source G was written after the battle by General Gough who would have most probably been affected by post war controversy. This source is useful as information because it tells us the awful condition the men had to go through and how little they progressed. This source is evidence of what Gough thought Passchendale was like. We also have to look at a major decision made in the battle when Plumer replaced Gough. This perhaps shows Gough’s jealousy of Plumer, because Gough is no longer in charge. So in this source he may exaggerate the conditions the men had to suffer because Plumer led them into this. So he is trying to say that had Haig kept him as commander, the British troops would not have had to suffer as much as they did under Plumer. Gough says at the end of the source that he informed Haig that success was not possible, under such conditions. He may be trying to tell us that Haig listened to him; things would have turned out better (in terms of number of casualties). This source also tells us that Haig was prepared to sack people in order to get results. This source was written by Gough In order to defend himself and perhaps change other peoples views, because the British public would have been thinking that they had only succeeded in the battle because Haig had replace Gough with Plumer. Gough wanted to change that view and so he published this source. This source is most certainly against Haig and it supports the lions led by donkey’s statement.
