Referring to the Generals in the First World War in the Interpretation of Lions Led by Donkeys

Referring to the Generals in the First World War in the Interpretation of Lions Led by Donkeys

The First World War took place from 1914 to 1918. Some historians

describe the First World War as “The Great War” this was due to the

sheer size and tragic of human loss during the war, which was

responsible for thirteen million people dying the first time the war

had been fought on three levels air, sea, and land.

On the Western Front, the battle was fought on land. The battles on

land consisted if trench warfare there were four different lines of

trenches these were the front line, support, reserve and communication

trenches. For the first time in war, the air was used as a military

tactic. The air would be used by respective air forces to gain

intelligence about the enemy attack. The sea was also used. There was

a naval campaign where submarine were used to destroy ships, which had

supply on board this war was very much a defensive war the winner

would be the country, which could continue their war effort longest

possible time.

After the aftermath of the Great War, brought General Field Marshal

Haig under heavy scrutiny for the approach he used during the war, due

to the fact that so many British soldiers lost their lives at the

battle of the Somme. Many people argued that the generals were poor

leaders whose stupidity led to the death of millions of soldiers. John

Laffin named the interpretation “lions led by donkeys” which implied

that Haig was an inadequate leader of the brave British soldiers in to

war.

John Terraine in response to John Laffin’s criticism of the generals.

The source is a diagram, which shows the different...

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...Which make me believe he his a bit of a

hypocrite as what the source does not tell us is that his role of

First Lord of the Admiralty which meant he was the one who was

responsible for giving Haig and the other general weapons and men to

fight the war.

In conclusion, the title, which was given to Haig and the other

General claiming that they were “donkeys” which led brave soldiers to

their death, could be said to be fair. The death toll was very high,

however I feel that this was inevitable for the type of war that was

seen, also the French allies did not help the general’s situation. So

to complely scapegoat the generals of the war would be wrong, thought

they may have made some mistakes but they were doing their job to the

best of their ability. The General successfully did their job, which

was to win the war.