“. . . lions led by donkeys . . .”

Book review:

The Donkeys

by Alan Clark

London: Pimlico, 1961, 1994

216 pages

Clark tells the terrible story of high-level British incompetence in leading massed armies in combat with everybody using terrifying weapons.

At the outbreak of World War I, Britain had a relatively small professional army (247,000 men). Nearly half of them were stationed overseas throughout the British Empire.

Thus, on the home island in August 1914, Britain’s generals mustered about 150,000 men to be the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) that crossed the English Channel, to join the French in fighting the German attackers.

Within three months, that half of Britain’s professional army was gone. Most of the men in the BEF were dead. Their generals must take much of the blame.

As the horrific trench warfare became the hallmark of World War I, a German general, Erich Ludendorff (1865-1937), had a disdainful conversation with a fellow officer, Carl Hoffmann (1869-1927):

Ludendorff: “The English soldiers fight like lions.”

Hoffman: “True. But don’t we know that they are lions led by donkeys.”

p.s. Britain’s total WWI casualties: 673,375 dead and missing, 1,643,469 wounded

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Book review: Shawshank Redemption

A world I do not want to know…

by Stephen King

click here

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Writing Rainbows: Poems for Grown-Ups with 59 free verse and haiku poems,

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