From this point onward, the result of the war was never in doubt. Cookie Notice He even forbade sorties on the grounds that withdrawing afterwards sapped morale! https://www.britannica.com/list/9-worst-generals-in-history. Hull had served with distinction in the Revolutionary War and was appointed governor of the Michigan Territory in 1805. The main general in question is Haig, many believe that he was the reason behind the tragic loss during the war as he led the Battle of the Somme and many people saw the death . The biggest prize, however, was Singapore, the heavily-fortified port considered the Gibraltar of the East. Fortunately for Japan, its opponent was the singularly inept Arthur Percival. Starting with a 6,000-man force, he divided it into four uneven columns. Thus in July 1916 Haig fought on the Somme largely at the behest of the French, although he would have preferred to attack, somewhat later, in the Ypres salient where there were more important strategic objectives. But it is the bit about the well-bred horse that really gives the game away. The graveyards are everywhere, some of them very small, comprising only a handful of white Portland marble stones, many bearing the inscription, A Soldier of the Great War / Known unto God. This led to the battle of Gunbinnen, where the Germans were badly defeated and lost east Prussia. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Hull, convinced that he was hopelessly outnumbered (he wasnt), surrendered Fort Detroit and its 2,000-man garrison without firing a shot. He encouraged the development of advanced weaponry such as tanks, machine guns and aircraft. Publicly though, he leaped at the chance for glory, dreaming himself Governor of Mesopotamia. He, like Rawlinson and a host of other commanders at all levels in the BEF, learned from experience. In fall 1883, Hicks marched his jerry-rigged 10,000-man army into Sudan. The next major British offensive came at Passchendaele (July 31November 6, 1917), where Haig lost another 275,000 troops in a battle whose name became synonymous with pointless slaughter. Haig evidently believed that will and resolve could carry any obstacle. Dr Gary Sheffield offers an alternative view. The inept Luigi Cadorna of Italy fought a dozen battles on the Isonzo before his army completely collapsed at Caporetto. Read more. His invasion of Canada came to an abrupt halt when he failed to capture Fort Malden, a British position that was a laughably short distance from Hulls headquarters at Fort Detroit. The primary issue was that offensive troops moved at around 1-2 miles per hour, whereas defenders were able to use railway networks to move at around 25 miles per hour. A serious problem that Haig had to contend with was the poor quality of ammunition supplied for much of the war by British factories. It is not true, as some think, that British generals and troops simply stared uncomprehendingly at the barbed wire and trenches, incapable of anything more imaginative than repeating the failed formula of frontal assaults by infantry. Its prewar population was reduced by more than half, and perhaps 90 percent of Paraguays fighting-age men perished. Hulls nerve was shattered. His fantasies of cavalry charges across open country were matched by his insistence on sending infantry against the enemy in neat ranks at a slow walk, the better to maintain control. Again, at Gallipoli, generals caused heavy loss of life through tactical errors. On the day after the debacle, stating that the enemy has undoubtedly been shaken and has few reserves in hand, he discussed with subordinates methods for continuing the offensive. Sitting back and letting Britain's principal ally's army be mauled was simply not an option for Haig. The way that war was conducted and approached from a tactical and a strategic standpoint went through a series of important changes between 1914 and 1918. In fact, he did a lot to ensure that Germany would find itself in another war that it couldnt win, but, since he died in 1937, he gets extra credit for being a bad World War II general from beyond the grave. History Hit brings you the stories that shaped the world through our award winning podcast network and an online history channel. Thus, on July 1, 1916, Haig ordered his men to go over the top at the First Battle of the Somme, and 20,000 of them had the audacity to die almost immediately (there were 60,000 total British casualties on the first day of the attack). Percival folded with a whimper, surrendering to Yamashita in the worst disaster in British history (Winston Churchill). Howe then offered a passive defense of Boston, playing cards instead of campaigning and ultimately abandoning the city without a fight. Do you think that the generals of WW1 were indeed the incompetent butchers as portrayed in such tv series like Blackadder or were they simply misunderstood? As the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles crippled Germany, Ludendorff effectively sabotaged the Weimar Republic by propagating the belief that he and his armies had been undefeated on the battlefield. Percival apparently occupied a strong position. The generals knew exactly what was happening on the battlefields, but they were under pressure to produce results. France had been the major power in Europe for most of the Early Modern Era: Louis XIV, in the seventeenth century, and Napoleon I in the nineteenth, had extended French power over most of Europe through skillful diplomacy and military prowess. The 'lions led by donkeys' tag should be dismissed for what it is - a misleading caricature. Haig needed reinforcements. Sir John Fortescue described Whitelocke as bound up indissolubly with foolish expeditions. He spent most of his career in the West Indies, notably in Britains disastrous attempts to conquer Santo Domingo during Touissant LOvertures slave revolt. A Mark 1 tank in action, 1916 But his men were badly overstretched, with few tanks or modern planes to oppose Yamashita. 10. Field-marshal Sir Douglas Haig, Kt, Gcb, Gcvo, Kcie, Commander-in-chief, France, From 15 December 1915. Last updated 2011-03-10. the Western Front was a hotbed of innovation as the British and their allies and enemies experimented with new approaches. Conservative estimates of the dead. Why did generals in WW1 think it was a brilliant idea to walk over no mans land against the enemy, despite seeing it spectacularly fail multiple times? The one real achievement of the Anglo-French armies on 1 July 1916 was to relieve pressure on Verdun, as the Germans rushed troops and guns north to the Somme to counter the new threat. Overhead flew the aeroplanes of the Royal Air Force, created in April 1918 from the old Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service. Critics of Haig are remorseless on this pointthe man was so confident in his outdated ideas that he never allowed actual battlefield experience to challenge them. He still had his defenders, but they were in the last trench, barely holding on. The battles at Arras and Loos had been badly planned and managed, captured little ground and resulted in what seemed at the time heavy casualties. The terrain gave the British a chance to flank the fort without difficulty, while unoccupied hills nearby offered prime artillery positions. Pierre de Villeneuve had his first brush with history when he bravely ran away at the Battle of the Nile. The elder Lpez had bequeathed to his son a relatively powerful military by regional standards but had cautioned Francisco against using it to settle diplomatic issues. Of the 1,252 British generals, 146 were wounded or taken prisoner, 78 were killed in action, and 2 were ordered the Victoria Cross for valour. Eschewing a direct overland march to the Confederate capital of Richmond, McClellan orchestrated an impressive amphibious landing of more than 100,000 troops at Fort Monroe, at the southeast end of the peninsula between the James and York rivers. Most of these approaches caused heavy casualties, and there was little manoeuvrability in this regard for generals. By then, Haigs army had suffered more than 400,000 casualties. Townshend became a Lieutenant-General, knight and MP, but history remembers him as an arrogant boob. James K. Polk upon the outbreak of war between Mexico and the U.S. and offered to become an agent for the U.S. (again). Why Was Charlie Chaplin Investigated by the FBI? He earned a B.A. Whitelocke exercised little control, allowing his force to be divided and attacked piecemeal in the streets. A ferocious battle ensued, MacCarthys troops holding their own until ammunition began running out. Into this firestorm stepped William Elphinstone, the only man to lose an entire British army. Patrick Macrory characterizes Elphinstone as [seeking] every mans advice he was at the mercy of the last speaker. Fatally indecisive, he allowed Afghans to kill envoys Alexander Burns and William Macnaghten, capture his supplies and snipe at his men without response. https://www.historynet.com/field-marshal-sir-douglas-haig-world-war-is-worst-general/, Jerrie Mock: Record-Breaking American Female Pilot, This American Banker Adopted His Adult Coworkers to Rescue Them From Saigon, The 20th Maines Little Round Top Hero Had a Hardscrabble Life. On the night of August 15, 1812, Tecumseh led his forces across the Detroit River, and Brock followed the next morning. Reddit, Inc. 2023. First, because he still has defenders whoin spite of those many graveyards and inconclusive, costly battleswould claim he was not in fact an unsuccessful commander. Pillow escaped during the night, leaving Simon B. Buckner to surrender the fort and 15,000 Confederate troops. Franz Conrad von Htzendorf of Austria couldnt decide which country he wanted to invade, so the German General Staff eventually took his armies away. He worked selflessly on veterans causes, and when he died in 1928, 200,000 of them filed by his casketmen who had served under his remote, unflinching command, where generals slept in chateaus and drank champagne while soldiers lived in trenches and shell holes. Poor Edward Braddock always gets a drubbing for his mismanagement of the Monongahela Campaign. At the time, he was leading Germany in battles on two different fronts against the powerful Russia. Defending commanders could use telephone lines to summon troops to the breach, while attackers had no way of doing the same thing. The Ashanti overran and massacred the British force, with only 20 survivors. Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, chief of staff of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and architect of the battle, evidently agreed. After the war, Haig became something of an awkward figure for the British government. Paul von Hindenburg was named the German Eight Army commander in August 1914. A single European, Dr. Brydon, survived of 16,000 whod left Kabul. One myth suggests that the generals were so out of touch as to have no idea as what was actually happening on the frontline. Brock, sensing an opportunity, advised an immediate march on Fort Detroit. This entire list could be populated with Roman commanders, but one manages to rise above the rest with an ineptitude that defies logic. Outstanding commanders such as George H. Thomas, Phil Sheridan, and William Tecumseh Sherman routinely bested their Confederate opponents. To hear Charles Townshend tell it, he was a genius comparable to Napoleon and Clausewitz. Haig had largely dismissed the effect of the machine gun on the battlefield, believing that previous Allied failures owed to something other than an impenetrable wall of lead traveling at ballistic velocity. Affable and well-liked, he had no business commanding an army. For instance, German general Erich von Falkenhayn created a plan to bleed the French white at Verdun. Astonishing that any man who was there could still believe in cavalry 10 years after the Somme. Hull withdrew after a series of harassing attacks by Tecumsehs highly mobile raiding parties. The casualty list - one million British Empire dead - and the bloody stalemate of the Western Front seem to add credence to this version of events. These allied commanders were instrumental in achieving a victorious outcome culminating with the Armistice on 11 November 1918. Marcus Licinius Crassus was a self-aggrandizing opportunist who started a pointless war with the Parthians, and Publius Quinctilius Varus lost three legions at Teutoburg Forest, but Proconsul Quintus Servilius Caepio manages to top them both with his actions at the Battle of Arausio. His 85,000 Commonwealth troops vastly outnumbered Yamashitas 36,000 Japanese. It was led by men who, if not military geniuses, were at least thoroughly competent commanders. This time, at the notorious Ypres salient in Flanders, he believed he would get it right and win the war. Their limited grasp of practical warfare came at a serious cost when the Serbians defeated them in a surprise night attack at the Battle of Cer causing Potiorek and his forces to withdraw from Serbia. By Dr Gary Sheffield 25 Oct 2018 Trench warfare in Muz, Slovenia, Italian soldiers lie dead. Famous Generals of the First World War. Some 15,000 talents of gold (the so-called Gold of Tolosa) had vanished under his watch, never to be recovered. He retreated to Malta but was captured when that island fell to the British. The country gentleman meme is especially apt in Haigs case. With Napoleon, for example, we think imagination. In this episode, Dan visits Bristol's newest attraction: an innovative museum celebrating the history of flight. While Maximus was conducting negotiations with the Cimbri, a Germanic tribe that had invaded the Roman province of Transalpine Gaul, Caepio rashly attacked the Cimbri army on October 6, 105 BCE. Privacy Policy. General Sir Frederick Stopford was put in command, despite a lack of experience in the battlefields of World War One. It did not. Top 10 Outstanding World War I Generals Last updated: September 2, 2022 by Saugat Adhikari The First World War, also known as the Great War, which lasted from 1914 to 1918, saw one of the worst losses of human life in history. Armies were too big and dispersed to be commanded by a general in person, as Wellington had at Waterloo a century before, and radio was in its infancy. 1 783 VOTES Luigi Cadorna Luigi Cadorna, Italy's Chief of Staff at the start of the war, was a skilled tactician, but his lack of knowledge of modern artillery led to many casualties and strategic battlefield losses. Daring becomes impetuosity. The alliance between France and Britain was always a somewhat uneasy one. This might have ended okay for Germany, provided they didnt do something like provoke a previously neutral country with Allied sympathies and an effectively bottomless war chest. Abercrombie lost his job to Edward Amherst, who captured Ticonderoga a year later with fewer men at a fraction of the cost. His inability to sort out differences amongst his subordinates, especially cavalry commanders Lucan and Cardigan, led to disaster in Balaclavas infamous Charge of the Light Brigade. David Lloyd Georges war memoirs quickly undermined Haigs standing, and British generals during World War One became increasingly vilified in popular culture. This legacy quickly became tarnished. The indictment against Haig and his pigheaded insistence of fighting Third Ypres at a cost of more than 250,000 British casualties is not simply one of losses, though that would be enough. Haig had no new tactics to offer, and the only technological advance that showed any promise was the tank. His was one of just two French ships of the line to escape the destruction of the French fleet there. It was the bloodiest war in history to that point Getty Images Fifty years before WW1 broke out, southern China was torn apart by an even bloodier conflict. The Romans lost an estimated 80,000 infantry and perhaps 40,000 auxiliaries and cavalry, numbers that dwarf the staggering totals at Cannae. He effectively pledged to become an agent for the U.S. but found that he had been deposed upon his return to Mexico. Get time period newsletters, special offers and weekly programme release emails. Lack of co-operation, let alone British inaction in 1916, might well have caused the coalition to fall apart. Presiding over it was Lord Raglan, a former aide to the Duke of Wellington completely out of his depth. The smallest trench radio required 6 men to carry it, and was thus completely impractical in No Mans Land. Paul von Hindenburg. Unlike Townshend, Percival endured imprisonment just as bad as his men. Despite World War I's reputation as a senseless bloodbath whose military operations were devoid of any intelligent thought, the period 1914-1918 was history's single largest revolution in military tactics and technologies. The stereotype of bayonet charges against machine guns and barbed wire definitely happened in the early days of the war, and that trend of tactics not compensating for new tech continued throughout the war. But there is another interpretation. The contention is that the brave soldiers were sent to their deaths by incompetent and indifferent leaders ().The phrase was the source of the title of one of the most scathing examinations of British First World War generals, The Donkeysa study . At first sight, the neophyte amateur war historian may find the nomenclature of the war of 1914-1918 rather confusing. It is not surprising that in the course of its apprenticeship the BEF had a number of bloody setbacks. Hicks stupendous failure set the stage for Charles Gordons doomed stand at Khartoum and fifteen years of fighting in Sudan. But now the Americans were coming, to replace the wasted battalions. Without the military trappings, wrote Cecil Woodham-Smith, one would never have guessed him to be a soldier.. After several initial victories, stiffening Turkish resistance and heavy casualties stopped Townshends advance. These battlefield bumblers serve to provide that contrast. Answer (1 of 20): The man i would like to introduce, is not the greatest General of ww1. The War of the Triple Alliance devastated Paraguay. He ran as a Democrat against Lincoln in the 1864 presidential election.
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