For too long, Dr. John Laffin maintains, the military reputation of British generals in World War One has not been examined critically enough, and he asks how those responsible for catastrophic defeats were able to retain their commands. Haig, whose army suffered 60,000 casualties on the first day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916, was still in command after five months more fighting and another 400,000 casualties. By the war's end the numbers of dead ran into millions -- doggedly brave British Empire soldiers who, Laffin believes, were killed, wounded or broken by commanders who were vain, egocentric and incompetent. - Back cover.

"First published in the United Kingdom in 1988"--T.p. verso.

Persistent, troubling questions -- The butcher's bill : samples -- Dedicated futility : bloody balls-up -- Gallipoli fiasco : singularly brainless warfare -- Townshend of Kut : futile, expensive disaster -- Haig and the Somme : one day, 20,000 dead -- Haig, Haking and Gough : incompetence, callousness and vanity -- Haig and the H.C.I. fixation : something to answer for -- Carnage at Passchendaele : this senseless and bloody struggle -- Triumph at Cambrai : disaster at Cambrai -- German breakthroughs : a better way to attack -- Master of the field : a confession of impotency -- Who won? : What else? -- What the soldiers say : just one long degradation.