Douglas Haig

World War I’s Second Battle of Ypres: Salient of Death

By Mike Phifer

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

Patton in WWI

By John Mikolsevek

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

Tank Attack at Cambrai

By Eric Niderost

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

Armored fighting vehicles gain prominence in World War II’s fight for North Africa.

Douglas Haig

Armor vs. Armor in the Desert

by Eric Niderost

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

Advancing technology, particularly the machine gun, took a heavy toll at the Battle of the Somme.

Douglas Haig

The Machine Gun’s Role at the Battle of the Somme

by Michael Haskew

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

General Douglas Haig led British forces during the 1916 Battle of the Somme and has been roundly criticized for his conduct of the offensive.

Douglas Haig

General Douglas Haig at the Battle of the Somme

by Michael Haskew

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