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The Donkeys: A History of the British Expeditionary Force in 1915 by: Alan Clark

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Fluently written as ever with Alan Clark. Very powerful...but how much is real and how much more building on the sterotypical view? I suggest looking at another view such as that in the much more recent and excellent "Forgotten Victory" by Gary Sheffield would help balance the picture.

Rating: - A dated and discredited approach

Alan Clark's The Donkeys was the inspiration for Oh! What a Lovely War, the play that captured the antiwar mood of the 1960's and helped turn the First World War in popular mythology into the futile war of 'mud and blood.' Writing in 1961, before the opening of the documentary evidence under the 50 year rule, Clark relied heavily upon the ideas of his patron, Basil Liddell Hart. This is a shame, since Liddell Hart's bias against the quality of the generalship during the War largely stemmed from his own frustration at never having proceeded beyond the rank of Captain. In castigating the failure of British generals to adapt tactically and strategically to a very different set of circumstances, Liddell Hart and his followers failed to explain how the British Expeditionary Force ultimately led the Allies to victory in the Hundred Days in the autumn of 1918.

The availability of the documents in the Public Record Office at Kew Gardens has shown, instead, that the British Army adapted at every level to the new constraints of trench warfare. The disastrous results of the offensives in 1915, which are the subject of this book, stemmed from the virtual destruction of the old professional army and the difficulties of training and assimilating the New Armies. Once, however, that was achieved, tactical innovation proceeded at a fast pace. Enterprising officers within the British Army, led by Arthur Solly Flood, Director of Training, GHQ, adapted (between the summer of 1916 and spring of 1917) the tactical principle of small-unit, fire and movement and all-arms approach combining infantry and artillery in a deep battle that led the BEF to victory in 1918.

It is a shame that this book should feature so prominently among the 'classics' of First World War Historiography, for it paints a very distorted picture of the standard of the British officer class, which hinders the study of the developments in tactics during the War. Far from being 'lions led by donkeys', it would be more true to assert that the average 18 year old conscript, freshly trained in 1918, was 'a donkey led by a lion'

Rating: - Brilliant! Moving! Powerful! This will fill you with anger!

This is probably the best book I have ever read about the Great War (Only rivalled by Alistair Horne's "the Price of Glory").

Whilst I read the book, my wonder at the level of incompetence displayed by the British General Staff turned to genuine feelings of anger. How could people be sent so blithely to their deaths. The description of the second day of the Battle of Loos, and the destruction of the two raw divisions of the New Army left me feeling particularly numb. One is left with a feeling of how a generation could be so compliant with such utterly ridiculous requirements. Certainly, these days, (and even a generation later) people would not have stood for it. Perhaps this really was the moment where we lost our innocence.

Whatever you may think about Clark as a man, as a historian he is a giant!

Rating: - A hatchet job for all time

Politician, legendary diarist, bon viveur, irresistible to women, a character from the pages of John Buchan, Alan Clark was born not so much with a spoon as a whole canteen of silver cutlery in his mouth. Eton, Oxbridge and the Brigade of Guards, the classic CV of the British upper classes, trained him to enjoy his castle in Kent, deer forest in Scotland, skiing lodge in Switzerland. Bred for a life of idleness, a chance reading of an old regimental diary aroused his interest in the First World War, whose carnage was at that time regarded as unavoidable, an act of God for which no individuals could be held responsible. Not satisfied with this, he asked questions; old men who would never have spoken to an academic historian gave him answers, as one officer and gentleman to another. With a scholar's attention to detail and the narrative skill of a great novelist, he wrote the book which made his reputation as a military historian.

The generals whose dreadful follies he chronicles are mainly allowed to condemn themselves out of their own mouths. Only the rare phrase of glacial contempt betrays the white-hot rage with which this book was written. We are shown some of the most unappealing military leaders in history, for whom the phrase could have been invented, "having all Hitler's faults without any of his redeeming qualities": men who sent their fellow-countrymen to die simply to avoid a tedious lunch engagement. Clark had no objection to their privileged lifestyle, a lifestyle which he himself shared, but to him the price of privilege was noblesse oblige, and their unforgivable crime was to refuse to pay it.

The self-serving memoirs of the generals themselves are long books, now deservedly forgotten. This is a short book by comparison, but at its end their reputations are utterly destroyed, never to recover.

Rating: - One of THE best books on WW1 I have read.

Whatever your opinion of Clark the politician, Clarke the military historian was one the best in this specialised field.

The Donkeys is a short, detailed, to-the-point and extremely readable indictment of British generalship in WW1, concentrating on three British offensives in 1915.

Reading this, I was left wondering how on earth Generals French, Haig, Rawlinson etc were entrusted with their commands, showing as they do, no strategic or tactical nous as well as (infamously) an utter disregard for the soldiers they ordered to execute their often-impossible and farcical orders. (In fact, the only general to emerge with any credit is Smith-Dorrien - who was dismissed!).

No other history of WW1 has made me feel as angry at the incompetence of the British generals or as moved by the plight of the rank-and-file soldiery who were, of course, sacrificed in mind-boggling numbers.

Hugely ecommended to anyone with an interest in military history.

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