The "Donkeys"

Day 1: We depart early and arrive in Ypres where we begin our tour. Today is spent looking at 1914-1915. We examine early experiences of Britain’s generals and what happens when they are too hands on. We look at what might have been with the story of General Johnnie Gough, then we journey on to Loos to look at confused command and what happens whencommand communcations lapse during a large offensive. The answer is: finger pointing! But did they learn anything from the first eighteen months of the war? 

Day 2: Today we begin looking at Sir Douglas Haig’s tenure as Commander in Chief and examine 1st July 1916 from two different perspectives. Disaster at the northern end of the battlefield, and success in the south. We also look at the heartbreaking story of General Congreve, who helped to engineer this success, but when the battle pushed on, lost his eldest son under his own command. 

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Day 3: On our third day we look in depth at the Battle of Passchendaele. We examine the opening throes under the “thrusting” General Gough, before we show Haig’s change of tack and look at Plumer’s effective bite and hold tactics. However, we then learn all about why things went from bad to worse even with him in charge. 

Day 4: To finish our tour, we look at how British generals helped the Allies to victory by learning how to combine everything they had learned since 1914 in one effective strategy. The idea that they did the same thing over and over again for more than four years? You’ll see how misplaced it is...