Haig's Intelligence
GHQ and the German Army, 1916–1918

Haig's Intelligence confronts a perennial question about the British on the Western Front: why did they think they were winning?

Jim Beach (Author)

9781107039612, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 October 2013

386 pages, 17 b/w illus. 3 maps 20 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.68 kg

'Beach's superbly researched and carefully argued study is a rejoinder to … blinkered interpretations of the BEF's war and the role of the army's intelligence system in shaping it … Beach has written what will come to be seen as the definitive work on the BEF's intelligence system.' James Kitchen, Twentieth Century British History

Haig's Intelligence is an important study of Douglas Haig's controversial command during the First World War. Based on extensive new research, it addresses a perennial question about the British army on the Western Front between 1916 and 1918: why did they think they were winning? Jim Beach reveals how the British perceived the German army through a study of the development of the British intelligence system, its personnel and the ways in which intelligence was gathered. He also examines how intelligence shaped strategy and operations by exploring the influence of intelligence in creating perceptions of the enemy. He shows for the first time exactly what the British knew about their opponent, when and how and, in so doing, sheds significant new light on continuing controversies about the British army's conduct of operations in France and Belgium and the relationship between Haig and his chief intelligence officer, John Charteris.

Part I: 1. Organisation
2. Leadership
3. Personnel
4. Front line
5. Espionage
6. Photography
7. Signals
8. Analysis
Part II: 9. Somme
10. Arras
11. Third Ypres
12. Cambrai
13. German offensives
14. Hundred days.

Subject Areas: Military history [HBW]