Anotehr incident deal#t with by Paxman was the Battle of Loos - again a fiasco caused largely by underestimating the opposition - neatly summed up here -
"The failure at Loos led to the removal of General French from his position as commander-in-chief of the British Army and he was replaced by General Haig on 19 December 1915. Despite the severe setbacks, volunteers continued to swell the ranks of Kitchener's New Army which was fortunate because by March 1916 the British sector of the front extended from Ypres to the Somme, the French having abandoned Artois to fight in the infernal cauldron of Verdun.
Astonishingly, the grave errors committed by the British High Command at the Battle of Loos were not learnt from and were to be repeated on the first day of the Battle of the Somme which ended on 1 July 1916 in the greatest disaster in the history of the British Army."
Dare we mention Gallipoli?
Would you likje to tot up the number of dead that resulted because of these cock-ups
Good leadership my arse.
It was the job of the leaders to send the soldiers they had at their disposal (excellent word to describe their job) over the top in enough numbers to make headway - how long did it take to take Passchendaele, how many lives were expended and what was gained at the end of it?
That is good butchery, not good leadership.
Jim Carroll