Douglas Haig

Douglas Haig (1861–1928) was a British Field Marshal who commanded the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front from late 1915 until the end of World War I. Few commanders in history have aroused fiercer debate: criticized for the staggering human cost of the Somme and Passchendaele, yet credited with transforming a citizen army into the modern combined-arms force that broke the German army in 1918.

Cavalry Officer and Rise to Supreme Command

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, into the prosperous Haig whisky-distilling family, Haig studied at Brasenose College, Oxford, before graduating first in his class from the Royal Military College at Sandhurst in 1884. Commissioned into the 7th Queen's Own Hussars, he saw combat in the Sudan campaign (1898) and the Second Boer War (1899–1902). Returning to the War Office, he helped create the British Expeditionary Force and the Territorial Army. When World War I began in August 1914, Haig led the British I Corps through the retreat from Mons, the First Battle of the Marne, and the desperate defense of Ypres, succeeding Sir John French as Commander-in-Chief of the BEF in December 1915.

The Somme, the Tank, and the Cost of Attrition

In the summer of 1916, to relieve relentless German pressure on the French at Verdun, Haig launched a massive offensive along the Somme River with newly raised volunteer divisions ('Kitchener's Army'). On the opening day—July 1, 1916—German machine guns inflicted 57,470 casualties, including 19,240 killed, the bloodiest single day in British military history. Despite criticism of his rigid tactics, Haig pressed the offensive for four months while eagerly embracing technological innovation: on September 15, 1916, at Flers-Courcelette, he ordered the combat debut of the world's first tanks.

In 1917, after capturing Vimy Ridge and Messines, Haig launched the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) in torrential autumn rains that turned the Flanders battlefield into a sea of mud, costing another quarter-million casualties on each side.

'Backs to the Wall' and Victory in 1918

When Germany launched its all-out Spring Offensive in March 1918, Haig set aside national pride to support the appointment of French General Ferdinand Foch as Allied Supreme Commander and rallied his hard-pressed troops with his famous order: 'With our backs to the wall and believing in the justice of our cause, each one of us must fight on to the end.'

Starting with the Battle of Amiens in August 1918, Haig's sixty divisions—integrating massed tanks, low-flying aircraft, scientific artillery spotting, and infantry—spearheaded the Hundred Days Offensive, smashing straight through the fortified Hindenburg Line and capturing nearly 200,000 prisoners. After the war, Haig devoted the rest of his life to the welfare of ex-servicemen, founding the Royal British Legion and the Haig Fund (the Poppy Appeal) before dying in 1928 at age 66.