Haig

by Andrew A. Wiest

"Historians consider Douglas Haig one of the most controversial military leader in British history. Today his career is at the center of a swirling debate concerning the nature of the First World War. The traditional school contends that, like the majority of generals from both sides, he was an overmatched, hidebound relic of a bygone military age who could not come to grips with modern war. Such men allegedly sent their soldiers "over the top" in pointless attacks, with a criminal disregard for the enormous cost in lives. A new revisionist school now contends that many Great War leaders, including Haig, stood at the center of a phenomenal period of military innovation, one that laid the foundations for modern warfare. This learning curve led from the killing fields of the Somme to the protoblitzkrieg tactics of the Hundred Days Battles." "Haig had achieved a measure of fame in Britain's colonial wars and began the First World War as a corps commander. He obtained command of the Britis