Haig's Command
A Reassessment
Denis Winter(Author)
Penguin Books Ltd (Publisher)
Published on 1. November 2001
Book
Paperback/Softback
416 pages
978-0-14-139093-2 (ISBN)
Description
Denis Winter sets out to expose and analyze a major historical fraud. His theme is the Western Front in Haig's time - from the Somme to the Armistice - and he has uncovered evidence that the documents from which previous histories have been written are tampered-with and often entirely rewritten versions of the truth. For example, a daily war diary was kept by all units up to GHQ and these were often altered by the cabinet office and crucial appendices totally removed; cabinet war minutes were likewise rewritten, With reference to whole meetings often removed. Records such as Haig's own diary were also tampered with, and Denis Winter even claims to have found documents which the war's official historian thought he had deliberately destroyed in the 1940s. Denis Winter's material includes minutes of "missing" cabinet meetings, and other material.
More details
Series
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Edition type
New edition
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Illustrations
48 b&w illustrations, 9 maps
Dimensions
Height: 215 mm
Width: 135 mm
Thickness: 29 mm
Weight
449 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-14-139093-2 (9780141390932)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Denis Winter was born in 1940. After reading History at Pembroke College, Cambridge he taught in London for twenty years. His other books on the First World War are DEATH'S MEN and THE FIRST OF THE FEW which were also published by Penguin.
Content
Part 1 Haig's credentials: personal credentials; professional credentials. Part 2 The attrition battles of 1916-17: the Somme; Passchendaele - the roots; Passchendaele - the battle; Cambrai. Part 3 The attrition period - Haig's weaknesses: the tool; the execution; the common denominator. Part 4 1918 - a year of mobility: March 1918 - the German offensive; August 1918 - a turning point?; the last hundred days - an advance to victory?. Part 5 Falsifying the record: Haig's fictions; the government's support of Haig.