Nightmare in the Trenches

- Episode 07 -

The King, the lies and the whitewash

Nightmare in the trenches 1914-16
Wednesday 16 February 2022
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Before the infantry attack, a successful bombardment had demolished many German front line trenches, 14 July 1916

The grandly named 'Battle of Bazentin Ridge' for which Haig tried to take the credit

On 3 July 1916 Haig's officers were taking things into their own hands. Henry Rawlinson, effectively Haig’s deputy, began planning to capitalise on the uncharacteristic successes at the southern end of the line (by the French and XIII Corp). But Haig vetoed the plan. 

Rawlinson told Haig what he thought of him, and the attack was finally launched on 14 July. What makes it significant is that, with Haig’s bungling interference this time kept to a minimum, the British were able to put into practice everything that had been known for months but which Haig had until then vetoed. 

Noel ‘Curly’ Birch, in command of artillery, had told Haig plainly it was madness to spread his big guns so thinly. This time Birch collected two thirds of the big guns that had been available on 1 July and concentrated them on a front that was much less than a third as long and much less deep.  And Curly Birch made sure they used delayed action fuses to blow up the deep German dugouts. The attackers would also get out into no man’s land under the cover of darkness and attack at dawn.

The pre-bombardment worked! The infantry reported that the German lines had been so comprehensively shelled, that they crossed over several of them before they even realised it.  It confirmed, once again, that trench defences were by no means an insuperable problem. The key thing you had to do was to ignore Douglas Haig. Oh, and do your artillery preparation properly.


Episode 07 - The King, the lies and the whitewash



The cavalry were 'waiting about in the mud' 12 miles back. The Secunderabad Cavalry Brigade arrived too late.  Most never received orders to advance. 

Nobody at the front could take a decision

On 14 July, the British infantry successfully advanced to the German second line across a three and a quarter mile front. There were no Germans ahead. The infantry had 'broken in'. NOW they needed to advance for a major 'breakthrough'.

But middle-ranking officers at the front had been ‘strictly enjoined’ (by their commanders in their comfy chateaux) to go no further or risk the sack. And the cavalry were no where to be seen.

When tanks joined the British attack on 15 September 1916, they too broke through. But again, the British did not follow up. German operations officer, von Papen could see the danger the Germans were in: ‘[The British] did not seem to realise it. A few dozen administrative personnel were all that stood between the enemy and a major victory.’

But the battle, concluded historian Tim Moreman, was lost because the gentleman sportsmen and hunters decided everything, and they were in their chateaux miles behind the lines. ‘Confusion and uncertainty [were] endemic.’ 

The British never acquired the ability to convert a break-in to a break-through. The quicker-thinking Germans always had the time to organise defence and counter-attack before the British could exploit a success. 

By now the French had come to believe that the British officers were so incompetent they would have to insist on inserting French officers into the British command structure to show them how it should be done.

Haig's promotion 1 January 1917 and his final disgrace 26 March 1918
The Accrington Pals - men from a community who signed up to fight together - were effectively wiped out in the first half hour on 1 July 1916. 585 out of 700 killed and wounded

Historian Elaine McFarland has written, ‘the war elevated "whitewashing" to a new military art form.’

Commanders where the bombardment had been criminally ineffective covered their tracks. 'It was magnificent. The trenches in front of Serre changed shape and dissolved minute by minute under the terrific hail of steel,' wrote Hubert Rees, temporarily in charge of the Pals at Serre on the first day.

Whereas the reality was the bombardment lifted far too early, leaving the men totally exposed. One German machine-gun crew actually ran out into No Man’s Land to get a better shot. Haig then accused the Pals at the northern end of the line of cowardice. ‘I am inclined to believe from further reports that few of the VIII Corps left their trenches!’ Yes, Douglas. It was because most of them were killed or wounded before they even reached their front trenches. 

The whitewash continued. Intelligence officer, John Charteris, faked his own diary. Artillery commander Curly Birch persuaded the editor of the Official History of the Great War to tone down any criticism of Haig, and blame the failures on ‘persistent pressure from [the French commander in chief] Joffre.’

Haig's Chief of Staff, Montgomery-Massingberd, stole the 4th Army diary for this period and replaced it in the archives with his own version of events. And Haig himself simply lied his way out of trouble: the French army ‘lacks discipline and thoroughness’; the British attack on the Somme had been the only way to save the French. It was a deeply dishonourable slur. Which persists to this day.
Stained glass window, Hotel de Ville, Doullens where control of the war was handed to French General Foch (red hat, centre), and Haig (in khaki, seated facing) was stood down

Haig would have to give up ultimate control of the British army. Now. Before it was too late

After the loss of more than half a million men at the Somme, Prime Minister Lloyd George and others tried to remove Haig. But on 1 January 1917, Haig was promoted to Field Marshal. He was saved perhaps by the Tories in Lloyd George's war coalition government, and more likely by the King, his friend.  George V congratulated Haig: 'I hope you will look upon this as a New Year's gift from myself and the country'.

This story however has a more satisfactory coda. The date is 26 March 1918, and the scene is the the town hall in Doullens, 15 miles from the northernmost end of what had been the British line on the Somme.

Five days before, the Germans had launched a massive assault on the Somme. Field Marshal Douglas Haig seemed completely unable to prevent what would be a catastrophic German breakthrough.

On that day French and British politicians and generals took a huge decision. There was only one way to stop the Germans. Haig would have to give up ultimate control of the British army. Now. Before it was too late.

They signed a paper. One man would now be ‘charged by the British and French governments with the co-ordination of the action of [both] the Allied Armies on the Western Front.’ That man, the man who in reality, over the following months, successfully planned and executed the final defeat of the Germans, was of course not British at all. He was the best military mind in his generation, the French General Ferdinand Foch.
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