Product Description

This is an analysis of the British generals' leadership during World War I. For too long, John Laffin maintains, the military reputation of the generals has not been examined critically enough, and he asks how those responsible for such catastrophic defeats were able to retain their commands. Haig, whose army suffered 60,000 casualties on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, was still in command after five months more fighting and another 400,000 casualties. By the war's end the number of dead ran into millions; doggedly brave British Empire soldiers who, John Laffin believes, were killed, wounded or broken by commanders who were vain, egocentric or incompetent. But the generals, who blamed the dead and junior in rank, cannot be excused on the grounds that there was "nothing else that they could do." This work raises questions that are uncomfortable. Dr Laffin draws on the memories and writings of those who took part and quotes the judgements of other military historians to provide a lucid analysis of just what went wrong in the generals' leadership and how it resulted in such appalling and tragic losses, and concludes that they were not merely incompetant, but uncaring.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #801330 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 280 pages

About the Author
John Laffin, a veteran writer on war, wrote over 70 books on most aspects of military history. He is a well-known and respected author, and wrote many books for us.

Customer Reviews

One sided.
A true student of history will notice that the 'student of history' who has written this book has not looked at all the facts available or has but chosen not to use them. Laffin obviously had preconceived ideas and has manipulated history to prove them correct rather than what the true student of history would do which is to study the full history objectively and give a conclusion based upon balanced arguments. The feeling you gain when reading the book is that Laffin's motivation is somewhat personal and this impression I'm afraid leads me to discount the whole of his argument. I would not consider this a true accounting of history but the venting of personal frustration while looking or should I say hunting for support from history.

Bungler...
Absolutely terrible. This is the book of an extremely biased man with his one sided totally exaggerated story of an attempt to ruin a victorious Generals name. We all know Haig made many mistakes but anything you read in this book can't be taken seriously due to the extensive hyperbole about everything and anything Haig does. He frequently calls Haig a "donkey" and said that Haig was the only British soldier left in the British Army from 1914 - ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.

World War 1 Tabloid Style
In fact that is probably an insult to the Tabloid Press. Indeed I have never read such a biased and ill researched book. The author obviously came up with a catchy title and then twisted the facts to fit in with this. Fortunately I borrowed it off a friend (at least I think he was a friend) and so did not waste any money buying it