Person:Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig (1)

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Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig
b.19 Jun 1861
d.29 Jan 1928
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  1. Lady Victoria Doris Rachel Haig1908 - 1993
  2. George Haig, 2nd Earl Haig1918 - 2009
  3. Irene Astor, Baroness Astor of Hever1919 - 2001
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Facts and Events
Name Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig
Gender Male
Birth[1] 19 Jun 1861
Marriage to Dorothy Vivian
Death[1] 29 Jan 1928
Reference Number? Q312564?


the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, (; 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 of Arras, the Third Battle of Ypres, the German Spring Offensive, and the Hundred Days Offensive.

Although he had gained a favourable reputation during the immediate post-war years, with his funeral becoming a day of national mourning, Haig has, since the 1960s, become an object of criticism for his leadership during the First World War.[1] He was nicknamed "Butcher Haig" for the two million British casualties endured under his command. The Canadian War Museum comments, "His epic but costly offensives at the Somme (1916) and Passchendaele (1917) have become nearly synonymous with the carnage and futility of First World War battles."

Conversely, he led the BEF during the final Hundred Days Offensive when it crossed the Canal du Nord and broke through the Hindenburg line, capturing 195,000 German prisoners. This campaign, in combination with the Kiel mutiny, the Wilhelmshaven mutiny, the proclamation of a republic on 9 November 1918, and civil unrest across Germany, led to the armistice of 11 November 1918. It is considered by some historians to be one of the greatest victories ever achieved by a British-led army.[2][3][4]

Major-General John Davidson, one of Haig's biographers, praised Haig's leadership, and since the 1980s many historians have argued that the public hatred with which Haig's name had come to be associated failed to recognise the adoption of new tactics and technologies by forces under his command, the important role played by British forces in the allied victory of 1918, and that high casualties were a consequence of the tactical and strategic realities of the time.[2][3][4]

This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
References
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.
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