The Generals

New weapons and inappropriate tactics invariably contributed to the death toll, but what of the men who were commanding the offensives and being responsible for the defence? Were their orders responsible for bringing about the severe loss of life? Were they doing their best in a difficult situation? Did they have a choice when it came to expecting heavy casualties?

A very well known general of the First World War was Sir Douglas Haig.

This man is sometimes said to have been the mass murderer of the British soldiers. But it would be fairer to say he was doing the best he could while under a tremendous amount of pressure to succeed.

General Haig could not pick up a book in his residence, the Chateau de Beauvepaire - which was 40 miles from the front – and from it discover the answer to the question of how to defeat the enemy in the opposite trench. He had to find out for himself and the only way to do that was to try different tactics each time: the terrible side effect of this was that men died in the attempt.

From the birthplace of battle plans, Haig could only rely on what his advisors told him. The Chief of Intelligence to the Army was Sir John Charter. In order to make things slightly easier for Haig – who in 1918 was the man in charge of all the forces on the Western Front – Charter tried to bend intelligence information round a bit. He liked to provide evidence that the British were winning instead of informing Haig as to what the Germans were up to. This made Haig think that his men were winning with the tactics in use and so the killing on both sides went on.

To add to the problem, Haig was a typical old-fashioned general with the attitude of the British imperial establishment. He still firmly believed cavalry had a place in modern warfare and artillery was of little significance. He also believed that attrition techniques could win any battle: at the Somme, he continued to press home the attacks even when everything was against the victory of the Allies. Perhaps his warped sense of reality that was painted by the intelligence officers who advised him on what was happening on the field led to Haig losing such a vast number of men. Instead of just concentrating on one corner of a battlefield, he had to take into account everything else that was happening on the front. Some say this was the reason for his actions.

So, from this we can say that General Sir Douglas Haig could not be fully blamed for the loss of men, for a number of reasons. The intelligence information he was fed was not always accurate and did not always help him to make the best decisions as to where to supply troops or press home attacks. His old-fashioned personality did not hold a high regard for modern machinery and so the enemy had a great advantage when the British did not exploit fully the artillery they had at their disposal. Britain, the Empire and the World expected the war to be over within a few months – maybe Haig felt it was his duty to make that so.

In my own opinion, the generals viewed the men too much as resources rather than human beings. Too much was expected of them with not enough organisation and certainly lack of communication hindering progress. Whilst any soldier on the front could best see what the most prudent move would be to make next, the officers and generals were the only ones with the authority to allow such moves to be carried out.

Supposedly, the generals were the ones who had the most experience and could therefore plan the best method of attack. However, those who were actually on the front line, sometimes fighting the enemy with fists, knew full well what should be done. Does this mean that the entire command structure of the Army led to heavy losses? – no; the commanders did not listen to their most valuable advisers, the soldiers themselves, which ultimately led to whole villages being scored off the map after entire brigades of men fell.

It is of no wonder, therefore, that the Army scrapped their policy of obtaining a commission by purchasing it – it always led to death at the hands of men who should have been playing with toy soldiers – not real ones.

Conclusions

Throughout this investigation, I have tried to uncover some of the reasons for trench warfare being so costly in human life. Although the intricate details of various battles have not been looked into here, the general pieces of the death puzzle have been explained here. A few reasons are evident:

• Use of men as resources. The awful use of men as numbers with which to attack the enemy instead of treating them as human beings did not have any effect, seemingly, on the tactics of trench warfare in World War One.
  
  

• New weapons. Gas, mortars, heavy howitzers, grenades… new methods of mechanised death hiked up casualty numbers. First aid posts could do little to help things such as gas wounds, where hydrochloric acid had entered the lungs.
  
  

• Trench design and the hardships of life in them. These trenches were designed to be strong and be disastrous for an advancing enemy to try and attack. Also, the terrible state of mud, infestations and disease led to soldiers having to live a very unpleasant four years – if they lived – many of whom missed out on the best days of their lives.
  
  

• Old fashioned commanders whose ideas were outdated for modern warfare also led to the enemy having a great advantage. With poor execution of plans, men could be ordered over the top then fall right back into the trench after being shot by a machine gun droning out deadly pieces of lead.

A combination of all these things led to so many lives being lost or permanently impaired.

And all because of an assassination in a far away town of an unknown Royal.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Bibliography

Britain at War 1914 – 1919 by Craig Mair

Spartacus website

The Great War 1914 – 1918 (purple cover)

The Last Million by Ian Hay

Some quotes and images taken from investigations already on the Harris Academy website.

Written by Duncan Gauld, June 2003.