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pictures in the living room, and there are books everywhere. Howard’s long-suffering wife Anne knows that wherever he goes he is on the lookout for more items, and she often notices that the collection of bayonets on the wall seems to have grown overnight. Howard showed members a German helmet and a British helmet acquired on his first trip to France. Other items included a memorial sword for Rudyard Kipling’s son John, an Australian bayonet with hooked quillon, and a WWI service revolver used by G C Heseltine at Gallipoli. Howard spent eight years researching and writing a 600 page tome The Great War Medal Collectors’ Companion with colour illustrations. The book covers many aspects relating to the medals – including practical information on buying, storing and cleaning, and a chronology of all the battles of the Great War. There are the campaign medals such as the Stars, the British War Medal, the Victory Medal and Mercantile Marine Medal, and the Memorial Plaques. There are also the gallantry medals such as The Victoria Cross, the Distinguished Service Order, the Military Cross and the Distinguished Conduct Medal. There will be a second volume of The Great War Medal Collectors’ Companion at some stage. It will include more detail, such as information about the 8,000 or so abbreviations found on First World War medals. The Great War Medal Collectors’ Companion costs £60 from the author via email: howard@williamson2844.fsnet.co.uk Howard’s ongoing project is to produce a Roll of Honour of the 115,000 recipients of the Military Medal and publish it in book form by 2014. In 1996 Howard and fellow enthusiast Chris Bate learned that the wartime index cards kept at the MoD were to be destroyed. National Archives staff had only copied the fronts of these cards so it was vital that these records were saved as most of the citations had been burnt to a cinder when enemy action destroyed a warehouse in the City of London during the Blitz. Chris and Howard took home 40 boxes of cards. Approximately 9,000 cards had citations or other data on the back. Not all medal-holders are recorded on the cards, but they all appear in the London Gazette. Chris has a complete set of London Gazettes for the period, so he’s working through Howard’s list to verify awards, add missing names and make corrections. LP In November the Branch welcomed back John Derry who spoke very eloquently for over an hour about Field Marshal Sir Douglas (later Earl) Haig. Haig commanded the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) from 1915 to the end of the War. He was commander during the Battle of the Somme, the Third Battle of Ypres, and the Hundred Days Offensive, which led to the armistice in 1918. Haig’s part in WW1 was controversial at the time and still divides historians today. Haig’s most extreme critics accuse him of being an incompetent butcher, responsible for sending thousands of men to unnecessary deaths. More recently historians have taken a more lenient view of Haig’s strategy in WW1 and portray him as one of the great British commanders. When “Reconsidering Haig” John argued that Winston Churchill was more generous in his attitude to Haig than Lloyd George, who was vitriolic in his condemnation. In his book World Crisis written during Haig's lifetime, Churchill called him a surgeon acting dispassionately for the long-term good of the patient, no matter how messy the short-term means. He conceded later that Douglas Haig was a man in the classic mode and doubted whether any other commander would have had the fortitude, courage and integrity to secure a British victory. Churchill also suggested that Haig and his staff failed to make the most imaginative use of the military technologies available during the war. Most historians including Brian Bond accept now that under Haig the British army on the Western Front pushed the available military technology to its limits, especially in 1918. Lloyd George in his War Memoirs described Haig as "intellectually and temperamentally unequal to his task" and criticised Haig for lacking the personal magnetism of a great commander, and for his intrigues against his predecessor Sir John French. Liddell Hart, military historian, accused Haig of being a man of supreme egoism and utter lack of scruple. Critics of Haig suggest that, largely owing to Haig’s stance and that of Sir William Robertson, Chief of the Imperial General Staff 1915–1918, the British concentrated their efforts on the Western Front and failed to take
full advantage of opportunities in other theatres. Sir James Edmonds and John Terraine disagreed. Terriaine published a biography of Haig in 1963 and felt that Haig pursued the only possible strategy, that of attrition which eventually wore down the German army. Australian historian Les Carlyon argued that while Haig was slow to adapt to the correct use of artillery, which contributed to operational failures and heavy losses, he was fully supportive of commanders such as Herbert Plumer, Arthur Currie and John Monash. Canadian historian Tim Travers blames the management of early campaigns on the ethos of the pre-war officer corps which meant the army was poorly positioned to adapt quickly. Haig was an experienced and truly professional soldier from a disciplined Presbyterian background born in Edinburgh as the eleventh child of John Haig, head of the successful whisky distillery. He was an inarticulate speaker but cogent on paper. After officer training at Sandhurst he was commissioned into the 7th (Queen's Own) Hussars in 1885 and promoted to lieutenant shortly afterwards. He became a squadron commander in India in 1892. Colonel John French and Haig thought British cavalry should still be trained to charge with sword and lance. Haig helped French write the cavalry drillbook in 1896. They were to work together for the next twenty five years. A new edition of the manual “Cavalry Training” reflecting Haig's views was published in 1907, and cavalry training still continued with sword and lance. In October 1906 Haig was appointed Director of Military Training on the General Staff at the War Office. The militia, yeomanry and volunteers were reorganised into the new Territorial Army. Haig’s skills were employed setting up an Expeditionary Force of 120,000 men in 1907. Haig then became Director of Staff Duties and published the “Field Service Regulations” used when expanding the BEF in WW1. He was also involved in setting up the Imperial General Staff. Haig had had a long and distinguished career in India, the Sudan and South Africa. When war broke out in August 1914, Haig helped organise the BEF, commanded by Field Marshal Sir John French. Haig like Kitchener predicted that the war would last for months if not years and that an army of a million men, trained by officers and NCOs withdrawn from the BEF, would be needed. The French army command favoured offensive action and were impatient for Britain to commit more soldiers on the Western Front. John French and Haig were under orders to collaborate with the French. By 1915 French’s limitations had become apparent and Haig was accused of undermining him. Haig’s appointment as Commander-in-Chief BEF was announced on 10 December 1915, and Robertson became Chief of the Imperial General Staff in London, reporting directly to the Cabinet rather than to the War Secretary. Both men hoped that this would lead to a more professional management of the war. Haig thought that a decisive victory was possible in 1916, and wanted to regain control of the Belgian coast to bring the naval bases at Bruges, Zeebrugge and Ostend into Allied hands. Kitchener sided with Robertson in telling the Cabinet that the Somme offensive should go ahead to relieve pressure on the French Army at Verdun. On 1 January 1917, Haig was made a field marshal but Lloyd George infuriated Haig by placing Britain's forces under the command of new French C-in-C Robert Nivelle.. Haig’s first objective in the 3 rd Battle of Ypres at Passchendaele was to commit a large part of the German Army in Belgian Flanders. The second objective was to liberate the North Sea coast of Belgium from which German U-Boats were operating. Passchendaele resulted in huge casualties for very little territorial gain. Lloyd George was unhappy about Haig's strategic operations but it was not until the end of 1917 that he began to assert his authority over the generals and dismissed First Sea Lord Admiral Jellicoe. In January 1918 Haig predicted that the war would end within a year and that a German offensive would be a “gambler’s throw” as Germany had only a million men as reserves. He also predicted correctly that the balance
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east_kent_winter_ 2012.pdf - The Western Front Association

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