REHABILITATING THE GENERALS
The courage of the thousands of soldiers who died in the First World War will forever be commemorated, yet the bravery of the generals who commanded them has often been overlooked. In the books and films to have emerged since peace was declared in 1918, the generals are usually depicted as a champagne swilling elite who planned their campaigns from positions of safety while their troops died around them. The mud sticks to this day although historians Frank Davies and the late Graham Maddocks have tried to set the record straight.
Bloody Red Tabs reveals the bravery of the generals and how David Lloyd George crucified their reputation to manipulate a public disillusioned with the emotional and economic aftereffects of the Great War.
In his 1933 memoir Lloyd George bragged that it was the politicians who won the war while senior officers made a difficult situation worse by interfering and “getting in the way”.
Davies and Maddocks do admit there were occasions when poor “generalship” let the side down, yet that shouldn’t detract from the point that many senior officers showed phenomenal bravery under fire. To paraphrase the authors, when the poppy petals are dropped from the ceiling of the Royal Albert Hall during November’s Service of Remembrance let “some of them fall for the generals.”
Reviewed by Juliette Foster
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