The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #152785   Message #3581940
Posted By: Teribus
06-Dec-13 - 04:24 AM
Thread Name: BS: Armistice Day (debate)
Subject: RE: BS: Armistice Day (debate)
Greg F you have been asked on at least two occasions to provide sources and names of "Historians" that support your contentions - to date you have provided none - That speaks volumes.

Musket - Was the British Army well led during the First World War? I would say that under the circumstances all combatant nations found themselves in - Yes it was. They most certainly were not worse led than anyone else - it was the Turks who had the "hardest war" in terms of casualties, which was odd as they mostly fought on the defensive.

In terms of casualties the major combatant nations were roughly on a par with one another. You can only ever go to war with what you have, not with what you'd like, that always comes later for the side that is victorious, so let's take a look at the British armed forces in 1914 compared to what they had become by November 1918.

1914 - A regular army of around 80,000 men with a reserve of around 770,000 men, sufficient to halt the massive initial German onslaught and force the abandonment of their Schlieffen Plan or "Race to the sea".   
1918 - Britain had 5.5 million men serving under arms, which after the German Hindenberg offensive in the Spring and early summer of 1918 remained cohesive enough and resilient enough to mount the final offensive that finally defeated the German Field Armies.

No two British offensives were conducted using the same tactics (I know that flies against what most learned watching "Blackadder Goes Forth" and "Oh what a lovely war" but never mind, neither represent history or fact.), lessons learned tended very much to be applied, what was lacking in all armies at the time was efficient and effective tactical command and control that would have enabled commanders at the front to fine tune and adjust to situations as they arose - but that was the same for everybody, not just the British.

Throughout the War the British were by far the most innovative of the
combatant powers, both in the creation of new weapons and in countering advances made by the enemy. Those innovations saved lives and provided solutions that ultimately broke the deadlock of trench warfare that had existed since the winter of 1914.

That there are differing opinions regarding the performance of Haig is not surprising, the same is true of opinions on Montgomery and Wellington - Fact still remains that against the best their respective enemies threw at them in their day - all three won.