Passchendaele and the Royal Navy

by Andrew A. Wiest

Overview

There are two competitive views of Passchendaele and its commander, Sir Douglas Haig. One school contends that the battle was a very costly failure and that Sir Douglas Haig, the architect of the battle, was a blundering murderer. A second school of thought argues that Passchendaele was in many ways a success and that Haig learned much during the campaign and went on to put his learning to good use during the victorious offensive of 1918. This study removes some of the blame for the failure from Haig by examining the involvement of the Royal Navy in the planning and prosecution of the campaign. Documentary evidence demonstrates that the actions of the Admiralty were decisive in attracting the attention of the army to Flanders and in gaining approval for the battle itself. The Admiralty had a hitherto unknown effect on the prosecution of the battle. The fact that the British fought the battle for the wrong reasons and that the army on the coast waited while soldiers at Passchendaele died raises Passchendaele to an even higher plane of tragedy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313290480
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	03/23/1995
Series:	Contributions in Military Studies , #15
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

ANDREW A. WIEST is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Table of Contents

Maps
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction
Clash of Arms, 1914
Planning and Battle, 1915
The Navy, Flanders and the Somme, 1916
Submarine Menace and Flanders Planning, 1917
Governmental Decision
The Coastal Operation
The Navy and Passchendaele
Appendix
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Tells the story of a bloody and unsuccessful WWI military operation that is often condemned as Douglas Haig's greatest mistake, and puts the Passchendaele offensive into the context of British strategy, based on soldiers' diaries, cabinet papers, and letters among senior commanders. This revision of the author's doctoral dissertation is more accessible to undergraduate students, and includes personal experiences of fighting men and material outlining the course of the war. Contains b&w photos. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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