Passchendaele 1917 Revisited

” Alternative facts” are nothing new. General Haig was viewed as the principal architect of the WW1 Allied victory and his reputation was very high during the war and long afterwards. Then Lloyd George, having fallen out with Haig in the late 1920’s wrote an account of the war claiming Haig was a butcher, a reputation that has stuck to this day.

Our June 2017 Speaker, Professor Gary Sheffield of Wolverhampton University explained however that the earlier Ypres battles helped the British Army under Haig develop a highly effective approach to battle tactics and the equipment needed . In readiness for the 1918 push against the Germans, a ridge of land known as Passchendaele (the third Battle of Ypres) was taken over a five month period. Three months in the British had lost 200,000 : the test was ,who had the deepest pockets in this war of attrition. The British Army was victorious, however ….. its gains were reversed early in 1918.

Prof Sheffield disproved the Lloyd George’s “alternative facts” !

The next Society meeting is on September 15, “A Medieval Pilgrimage to Gloucestershire”, at the Church Hall Bidford B50 4DA

CHRIS SMITH