Defining Field Marshal General Sir Douglas Haig

Defining Field Marshal General Sir Douglas Haig

Haig was a technical innovator; Haig was an old fashioned fool. Haig

was a brilliant strategist; Haig was ignorant. Haig was a great man;

Haig was hardly a man. Haig was easily the best man for the job; Haig

was obviously the only man left for the job. All these views are

shared by different people about Haig, in my essay I will put forward

my views about Haig and justifications by referring to the facts.

Douglas Haig was born on June 19th 1861. He was the son of John Haig,

a wealthy owner of a whisky-distilling factory. After his education,

Haig joined the army in 1885 and served in India, Egypt, South Africa

and Sudan. He slowly worked up through the Ranks. In 1906, he got to

the rank of Major General and was the youngest Major General in the

British army at that time. In 1914 when World War 1 broke out Haig was

given command of the First Army Corps in France. Haig's part in WW1

became greater when the leader of the British Expeditionary Forces

made some critical errors in the way the war was being fought, and was

sacked. Therefore, on the 10th of December 1915 Haig was appointed the

new leader of the British Expeditionary Forces.

The fact that Haig stayed in some form of military leadership

throughout WW1 immediately tells you that he must have been successful

to stay in such a high-ranking position to the end of such a big war.

In his second year, he was in charge of one of the bloodiest battles

in British warfare: the Somme, which was probably Haig's worst battle.

- Already it sounds like he was a poor strategist and even ignorant-.

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have had the key technological advantage, needed for ending the war.

Haig was on the right lines.

His leadership skills were impressive. He had much experience, in a

world where warfare was changing very rapidly. Some argue he was not

very good, but he was better than the rest. He was keen on some

technologies. At the Somme, his principal aim was to help out the

French at Verdun. He succeeded, and if you look at the figures, more

damage was inflicted to the Germans than to the British. His main

fault though, was to believe that all his troops shared his views

about death. I believe that Field Marshal General Sir Douglas Haig

earned the title of Earl and the £100 000 given to him given to him by

King George V and the government. And that he was a hero, not a leader

who unnecessarily butchered his own men.