"Alan Clark's first book, The Donkeys (1961), was a revisionist history of the British Expeditionary Force's campaigns at the beginning of World War I.

The book's title was drawn from the expression "Lions led by donkeys" which has been widely used to compare British soldiers with their commanders.

The book was considered to be the inspiration for the popular pacifist musical Oh, What a Lovely War! and Clark, after legal wrangles, was awarded some royalties. (Wikipedia)" - GUEST,henryp

Wrong Henry - The expression "Lions led by donkeys" was coined by Alan Clark in order to sell his book.

Google "The Donkey's" and the wiki link gives you this:

"Alan Clark based the title of his book "The Donkeys" (1961) on the phrase. Prior to publication in a letter to Hugh Trevor Roper, he asked "English soldiers, lions led by donkeys etc - can you remember who said that?" Liddell Hart, although he did not dispute the veracity of the quote, had asked Clark for its origins.[7] Whatever Trevor Roper's reply, Clark eventually used the phrase as an epigraph to The Donkeys and attributed it to a conversation between German generals Erich Ludendorff and Max Hoffmann:

Ludendorff: The English soldiers fight like lions.
Hoffmann: True. But don't we know that they are lions led by donkeys."[1][2]

The conversation was supposedly published in the memoirs of General Erich von Falkenhayn, the German chief of staff between 1914 and 1916 but the exchange and the memoirs remain untraced.[1] Clark was equivocal about the source for the dialogue for many years, although in 2007 a friend Euan Graham, recalled a conversation in the mid-sixties, when Clark on being challenged as to the dialogue's provenance, looked sheepish and said "WELL I INVENTED IT"."

Anyone thinking that the likes of "Braveheart", "Blackadder Goes Forth" or "Oh What A Lovely War" cast any light on the times or events around which they were based really needs to have their bumps read. Their perniciousness lies in the fact that they have established and perpetuated idiotic myths and falsehoods related to the actual events and in doing so they denegrate and dishonour the sacrifices made by far,far better men and women. While all may be considered "entertainment" - History they most certainly are not."