Douglas Haig

Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, KT, GCB, OM, GCVO, KCIE, ADC (19 June 1861 – 29 January 1928) was a senior officer of the British Army. During the First World War he commanded the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front from late 1915 until the end of the war. He was commander during the Battle of the Somme, the battle with one of the highest casualties in British military history, the Third Battle of Ypres, and the Hundred Days Offensive, which led to the armistice of 11 November 1918.

Haig's reputation is disputed among two schools of thought. One intensely criticises "Butcher Haig" for his leadership during the War, which led to two million British casualties under his command. This version makes Haig the model of class-based incompetent commanders unable to grasp modern tactics and technology. The other argues that the public hatred in which Haig's name had come to be held, failed to recognise the adoption of new tactics and technologies by forces under his command, the important role played by British forces in the Entente victory of 1918, and that high casualties were a consequence of the tactical and strategic realities of the time.

Douglas Haig in The War That Came Early
Field Marshal Haig's pyrrhic tactics in World War I were proverbial among British military personnel of World War II, even those who hadn't been born at the time. During the Battle of France, young Nigel made an off-hand remark about Haig "doing his worst in the last war." Staff Sergeant Alistair Walsh, who'd lost an older cousin at Passchendaele, was inclined to agree.