'Lions Led by Donkeys' How Valid is this Interpretation of the Conduct of the British Soldiers on the Western Front 1914 - 1918?

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‘Lions Led by Donkeys’ How Valid is this Interpretation of the

Conduct of the British Soldiers on the Western Front

1914 - 1918?

Although the bravery of the soldiers of the First World War has never been doubted the leadership of there generals has been constantly under attack up to present day.  In particular the Commander-in-Chief, Sir Douglas Haig.  Some people hold the view that the British soldiers of the First World War were ‘Lions lead by donkeys’.  The accusations are that the generals controlled the army with poor leadership with no remorse to the high numbers of deaths and casualties.  They weren’t in contact with the front-line enough to understand conditions and so they sent wave after wave of soldiers ‘over the top’ to their deaths.

On 28th June, 1914, the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and his wife sparked a war, from this plans were made and strategies were thought up, however these didn't account for new weapons.  There was a problem with this right at the start as Britain was the only country that didn’t conscript soldiers.  Generals didn't have many trained soldiers and at the beginning of the war, most of the soldiers were volunteers and were therefore unskilled.

The Western Front stretches from the North Sea to the Swiss boarder.  This spanned for approximately 400 miles.  The relief of the land was fairly flat with some low points near rivers.  In 1916 the allies started to push the German army back as shown on Source A1. That suggests that the generals knew what they were doing.  However in 1918 the allies were pushed further back then the original front-line in 1914.  This tells us that the generals were incompetent.  This source shows that the soldiers were defiantly lions as they courageously continued to fight through impossible circumstances.

Despite the British having new technology and artillery, so too did the Germans.  The soldiers had to face huge, heavy weapons being fired at them.  This was also experienced by the Germans off the same guns which were being fired from the British.  This is shown in source A2.  There were all types of new weapons which were being used from both sides.   Machine guns had been introduced.  These guns were capable of causing mutilating injuries.  The soldiers had to deal with this night and day with very little in the way of protection such as body armour which would have been capable of stopping a bullet.

Source A5 (i) shows us how the soldiers had to face agonising waits to go ‘over the top’.  They were expected to carry with them all of there equipment and were to fight for their lives with bayonets.  However they were bombarded with heavy machinegun fire as soon as there heads were out of the trenches.  It would be highly unlikely for any soldier to make it to the German trenches under these circumstances.  This again shows how brave these men really were in the war.  The generals sent waves of soldiers over to face the same agonizing deaths as they were miles away from the frontline living in the ‘cushy life’s’.  This is more evidence to say that the generals were incompetent and were unable to fight a war with these new technical advances.

Sir Douglas Haig was a very experienced soldier and had commander-in-Chief for three years.  He had fought in the Sudan and the then the Boer war in 1899-1902.  However these wars were very one sided as the enemy were poorly equipped.  He was appointed commander-in-chief of the British forces on the Western Front in 1915 and was then promoted to the rank of Field Marshal on 3rd January 1917.  However Haig could have got this position sourly because he was married to one of the Queens, ladies in waiting.  At the end of the war he was made an Earl and awarded £100,000 by parliament.  Whilst Haig was in charge of the British army approximately half a million soldiers died.  However it has to be kept in mind that Haig got Britain through the war to a victory.

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At first Haig was seen (by some) to be an excellent choice to take over Sir French’s position because of the need for new tactics, this is shown in source B2, a letter to Sir Haig off King George V.  This shows that they must have a reason to have such faith in his ability.  However a very frequent complaint off soldiers was that commanders didn’t have a clue what to do.  George V wouldn’t know much about Haig’s military skills as he had never witnessed his command.  In the letter George V mentions seeing Lady Haig who was ...

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