Haig, the Good Soldier

Books regarding Field Marshall the Earl Haig tend to be either all for him or all out against him, few are objective.  Gary Mead in 'The Good Soldier' claims to come at his subject from a point of view of ignorance of the man and therefore objective.  He makes a decent attempt at objectivity it must be said.  At first I thought he was going to be a faithful acolyte but by the end he is clear on the faults in the man as well as his strengths.
Douglas Haig was born on the 19th June 1861 in Charlotte Square Edinburgh.  The address alone indicating the family money!  His father John came from a family of distillers and opened a whisky distillery in Fife, then spent his life drinking much of it!  This in spite of the family being respectable Presbyterian's and his mother keen to ensure bible knowledge and prayers were part of the family life.  How this squared with the distillery is not made clear.  However Haigs religion was not that of a fervent believer.  One General remarked after an Episcopalian service that Haig preferred a service that said 'God is with you' rather than anything else.  His religious influence was deep but not evangelical.  He was devoted to his sister Henrietta all his life, something which rubbed his wife Doris up the wrong way.  Henrietta had a habit of visiting seances and telling her brother that various people, long dead, were on his side, Napoleon was one of them!  How much credence Douglas put into these 'messages' is not clear but he listened to his sister.  No Christian would accept such 'messages.'
Not the greatest intellect Douglas struggled at educating himself.  he was not a 'swot' even 'crammers' did not do much for him and he failed to make much intellectually though he did get into Oxford.  It was not Latin, Greek or maths that appealed, it was action, sports, games and horse riding.  
Cramming and swotting were required when he sought entrance into the army however.  He just made it into Sandhurst but his sheer doggedness and determination saw him end up as top student!  It was the doggedness, the steadfastness shown here that was to be reflected during his army career.  Men of high intellect often surrounded him but the man of action, who could respond to the changing situation was the one who succeeded.
Joining the 7th Hussars, a cavalry regiment with many connections to those at the top and thus influence which could aid his career was a wise move.  Similar knowledge of those he met at army colleges were also the men he later served among.
His active service started under General Kitchener in the Sudan.  Here he was recognised as a talent and later moved to South Africa for the Boer War.  His talent for organisation was later used during the army reorganisation in 1905 when Haig worked alongside those modernising the army.  Such understanding of the needs of the army was a strong point in his favour.
By steadily climbing the ranks of the army bu the Great War Douglas Haig was in command of I Corps (the army was divided into two Corps and one Cavalry Brigade) and endured the retreat from Mons, an inauspicious beginning where his life was endangered on occasion.
Gary Mead does not go into the details of the fighting during the war, he does instead concentrate on Haig at this time.  At the battle of Loos, under Sir John French, and then at the Somme where he himself was commander in chief, the British army fought battles it did not wish to fight.  Both were ordered by the French and on both occasions the British government bowed to what they considered the better army.  They were wrong.
Haig and sir John French when commander in Chief both had the choice to refuse to fight these battles as they would waste men's lives, both continued to obey orders.  Why?  Had they refused they would have been removed and another would certainly have obeyed and taken the blame, both men would have been dumped by the politicians and their careers at an end.  Both men fought the wrong battles either through loyal obedience expected from a 'Good Soldier' but both knew lives would be lost.  It must be said that while the 'Somme' is seen as a disaster more lives were lost at a higher rate at the Battle of Arras, that battle is never mentioned by anyone.    
1917 saw the Battle of 3rd Ypres, Passchendaele!  Starting well and looking on for success the rains came.  It normally rains at that time of year but on this occasion rainfall not seen in a lifetime fell.  The ground became a waste of mud full of holes and wounded men drowned there as the rain fell.  This was not a glorious episode.  There is no doubt Haig knew the conditions, understood the situation yet continued the fight.
Had the rains not arrived as they did it was likely the battle would ave been successful, the high ground taken and a possible advance towards Ostend and the submarine pens achieved.  The mud ended this yet Haig persisted.  
At the beginning of the year Haig made clear to the cabinet the way the war would probably turn out, he was right!  He expected a 'German Push' after which we could shove back at the enemy and return his home.  He knew this was likely but still planned for war into 1919.
The German attack in March that year failed to break the thin British lines.  Pushed back for miles the line held and the German attack ran out of energy.  From then on the exhausted enemy was on the run and the armistice was signed in November 1918.  Haig had won the war, however that was not how he would see it, his army, and allies had won the war, though he would be a very happy man indeed.
Throughout the war, and afterwards, Haigs greatest enemy was Lloyd George the Prime Minister.  His constant interference, his refusal to free reserves, his many attempts to remove the General, all which failed as Haig was the only man fit for the job as all Lloyd Georges men could confirm.  
After the war, Douglas Haig refused rewards until Lloyd George had guaranteed pensions for his men, off al ranks.  Only Haigs insistence on this brought that pension about.  Until his death in 1928 Haig spent his time aiding ex-servicemen, many of whom could not get work as they were disabled.
They had won the war but got little reward.
This book goes into much detail regarding the Field Marshall and I found it tedious at times.  However it gives a good honest objective insight into a strong willed man with vast army experience who obeyed the call and behaved as a 'good soldier.'  Not a charismatic leader, his stability was his strength, especially in dark times.  It is interesting to note that after Lloyd Georges memoirs arrived Haig lost popularity, the media friends of the PM publishing his side of the story.  Haig took the blame for the war dead, yet German generals, French and Italian generals who lost more men, often more incompetently, never received such abuse.  One man alone is responsible for blackening Haigs name and that is the lying, self seeking Prime Minister who shifted responsibility to this general.
Read this book.