View Single Post
Old 4th February 2013, 01:08 PM   #200
Giz
Philosopher
 
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 8,709
Originally Posted by Tolls View Post
In the world of WW1 texts there needed to be a Terraine to act as a counterpoint to the (then) standard texts, eg Liddel-Hart. But he does over-egg it a bit. His 1918 one (To Win a War?) is great, but...he defends Haig's cavalry obsession beyond the point (IMO) that would be reasonable. He downplays the usefulness of tanks in exploitation, which is fair enough to some extent, however he provides the full story of Musical Box...which sort of mucks up that one a bit. And the examples of cavalry exploitation really don't boost his argument.



Travers does a better job of straddling the two camps. He does what Giz talks about above and provides the background to the whole shebang. Haig comes across as a very professional soldier, and not without imagination. He was not the anti-tank commander others have attempted to show him as, for example.
Yes, there's a bit of that in his work. I don't remember too much defensiveness about Haig retaining so much cavalry… I remember him talking about the cavalry taking up a large amount of valuable supplies during the British advances in late 1918 (and him saying or implying that the logistical system could have been put to more efficient use as the cavalry were unable to "breakout" against the German rearguard). However, I also remember reading about (don't know if this was Terraine or someone else) how the retreating British were so glad that the Germans didn't have any cavalry during their Spring Offensives earlier in the year (and Ludendorff was criticized for having omitted his only exploitation troops from the "decisive" battle).

In other words, I think having cavalry on hand is yet another "damned if you do and damned if you don't" WW1 situation. Don't have them, and you have left out your only (limited) exploitation troops, do have them and you are tying up a lot of valuable logistics.

I'll definitely look up Travers. Hopefully it's on Kindle, I feel as if I am (Falkenheyn-like) trying to read unlimited amounts with limited bookshelf resources.


Hmmm, this thread is making me want to pull out my "Paths of Glory" board game.
Giz is offline   Quote this post in a PM   Nominate this post for this month's language award Copy a direct link to this post Reply With Quote Back to Top