Haig and his Dominion Commanders

In this presentation, which was delivered 'live' to an online audience Dr Chris Pugsley talks about Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig who presided over the largest army in British history.

Haig shaped the British Expeditionary Force into an effective fighting formation that played a decisive role in the defeat of Germany in the titanic battles of late 1918. He was also instrumental in creating the combined Allied command structure that coordinated the march to victory. Haig appreciated the military prowess of his colonial and dominion troops, but chaffed at the political conditions sometimes attached to using them in battle.

In the spring of 1918, he was particularly incensed at Canada’s insistence that its divisions fight together as a corps instead of as reinforcements as needed elsewhere in the Allied lines.