Douglas Haig
At the turn of the 20th century, Canada was dependent on Great Britain for rifles to equip her army. In 1901, however, a request by the Canadian government to purchase 15,000 Lee-Enfield Mark I rifles from Britain was denied. Read more
Douglas Haig
British Brig. Gen. Hugh Elles walked past the Mark IV tanks of H Company, a solitary figure amid metal monsters that looked, according to one jaundiced observer, like giant toads. Read more
Douglas Haig
“I’ve been old in all my ranks,” said Henri Philippe Pétain, created Marshal of France on December 8, 1918, at age 62. Read more
Douglas Haig
Early in the morning of July 1, 1916, a mist blanketed the lolling hills of the Somme region of northwestern France. Read more
Douglas Haig
History is full of great men and great deeds. All American schoolchildren know the story of George Washington crossing the Delaware River in the dead of winter during the Revolutionary War. Read more
Douglas Haig
Despite the incessant German shelling that had been hammering away at the French lines to their immediate left near the rubble-strewn city of Ypres in northwestern Belgium, the largely untested soldiers of the Canadian 1st Division found the early spring day of April 22, 1915, surprisingly warm and pleasant. Read more
Douglas Haig
At the start of the Battle of Amiens, Sergeant Paul Maze was in a forward observation post not a thousand yards from the front, peering into the darkness for any signs of enemy activity. Read more
Douglas Haig
Although U.S. Army Captain Eddie Rickenbacker’s victories in World War I were exceptional feats, the exploits of his naval counterpart, David S. Read more
Douglas Haig
The North African campaign has been aptly described as a “tactician’s paradise and quartermaster’s hell.” The contested area was large, stretching some 1,400 miles from Tripoli in the west to Alexandria in the east, a vast expanse of waterless desert wastes. Read more
Douglas Haig
The British soldiers that left the relative safety of their trenches to go over the top on the first day of the Battle of the Somme on July 1, 1916, may well have expected that a week-long artillery bombardment of German positions had either killed every enemy soldier to their front or so incapacitated them that the attack would be an easy success. Read more
Douglas Haig
A century after the bloody Battle of the Somme of 1916 left at least 1.2 million British, French, and German soldiers killed, wounded, or captured, General Douglas Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force, remains one of the most controversial generals to emerge from World War I. Read more
Douglas Haig
The high ground at World War I’s Thiepval Ridge commanded the surrounding area along the banks of the Ancre River and another nearby waterway, the Somme. Read more
