Notes

The reputation of General Douglas Haig after WW1 was a mixed one, some thinking he was a good general with good war tactics but got overruled by politicians even though he was known for standing up to political pressure and argued back. Also in his defence he had to deal with the Germans being already dug in to their bunkers making his job much more difficult stopping any kind of aerial assault. He was also very stubborn which was good and bad for a few reasons. It was good as he didn’t give up and kept going at the Germans but this was also bad as he kept pushing at the Germans with the same old tactics and this led to loss of life. But many had thought he was a bad general as he had a lot of political pressure on him as David Lloyd George did not like him. Also he expected a lot of casualties but carried on with what he was to do anyway. Under Haig, the British Army had its highest death rate ever, but under the circumstances I wouldn’t put all of that blame on Haig. Also he was over-optimistic, thinking that every battle would be the last one. He received a lot of criticism for never going to the front line, living in a chateaux miles away meaning he didn’t really know what the soldiers had to go through in the trenches.