HAIG'S MEMOIRS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22211, 11 September 1935, Page 17

HAIG'S MEMOIRS

Sir, —We do not get enough truth about war. Duff Cooper's "Haig's War Diary" is an example. By the adroit use of favourable extracts he makes out a fairly good case. Neuve Chapelle was a costly experiment, and Lcos — where men died on the uncut wire, or were mown down in the front of it, by thousands —was a ghastly and useless bungle. The 60,000 British killed on July 1, 1916 —the opening day of the Battle of the Somme —is not mentioned. They were the greatest losses in the military history of England. But even Duff Cooper will surely not attempt to justify, in the subsequent memoirs, the third Battle of Ypras and the military crime of Passchendaele. Both Foch and Petain exerted themselves to dissuade Haig from that terrible adventure, as did Lloyd George and some of his highly-placed advisers, and the French General Staff. To his refusal to listen is attributed the reluctance of Foch to come to the help of the Fifth Army in the March, 1918, debacle. No, from a humble foot-slogger's point of view, I disagree with Duff Cooper, and maintain that history places Earl Haig in the "butcher" class. Escaped Gunmeat.