Over 16 million people lost their lives in a total war unlike any that had come before it. There is no disputing that the First World War was a bloodbath of epic proportions. But today, historians are challenging this idea of lions led by donkeys and looking anew at Haig and his commanders to produce a more nuanced view of of their command and generalship in the First World War. Fantastic comedy, but not great First World War history. And then after the 1960s the lions led by donkeys idea comes into popular culture and in 1989 we have Blackadder Goes Forth. And then after the Second World War there were growing social movements that attacked the establishment and we have the play and film Oh! What a Lovely War which castigates the Western Front tactics in general. He was joined in that attack on Haig by Basil Liddell Hart the populist military strategist who wrote in newspapers and books. Lloyd George was a great adversary of of Haig during the First World War. Firstly in the 1930s he was attacked in Lloyd George's war memoir. But after his death his reputation started to go downhill. But up until 1928 when he died, Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig was held in high regard across Britain and the empire. But were British soldiers really lions led by donkeys? Or are we looking at the First World War in the wrong way? Well to find out we first need to understand where this idea comes from.Īlan Wakefield, Head of First World War, IWM: So the idea of lions led by donkeys is really popular right up until today. In Britain in particular it's the mud soaked trenches of Passchendale which capture public imagination, while Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig is remembered as 'the butcher of the Somme'. A pointless slugging match that saw uncaring commanders send thousands of young men to their untimely deaths. The First World War is often remembered as a futile waste of life.

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