WWI Poll - Best of the Army Commanders of the BEF

[Nytram01]

Moving on to more specific based polls, this one asked who was the best Army Commander in the BEF. I debated with myself about including Haig and Allenby but decided I would in the end and ask that they be judged purely on their time in command of an Army in the BEF and not for their service elsewhere or when they commanded the BEF itself.

Douglas Haig (1914-1915) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Haig,_1st_Earl_Haig
Henry Rawlinson - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Rawlinson,_1st_Baron_Rawlinson
Henry Horne - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Horne,_1st_Baron_Horne
Horace Smith-Dorrien -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Smith-Dorrien
Herbert Plumer - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Plumer,_1st_Viscount_Plumer
Edmund Allenby - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Allenby,_1st_Viscount_Allenby
Julian Byng - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Byng,_1st_Viscount_Byng_of_Vimy
Hubert Gough - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Gough

 

[Bernard Woolley]

Overall I'd say Plumer. However in 1914-15 Haig was, IMVHO the best of the corps and army commanders in the BEF at that time. He was certainly well served by his staff, as was Plumer.

Allenby never seems to have been a great success as an army commander in France, however as a CinC in Egypt and Palestine he showed what he could do in other circumstances. I suspect those who have voted for him have been influenced by the 1917-18 campaign in Palestine and Syria. His performance in France in no way, IMVHO, makes him better than Rawlinson, or Byng, never mind Plumer.

Gough is an interesting one. Fifth Army's staff was famously dysfunctional under him and he was certainly unsuited to positional warfare. However I have a sneaking suspicion that he would have done well in the Hundred Days.

What is interesting is that by the time of the Hundred Days it is difficult to say that any of the BAF's Army commanders are head and shoulders above the rest. Which says a lot about the development of the British Army and how much it had learned since 1914.

 

[Kome]

Overall I'd say Plumer. However in 1914-15 Haig was, IMVHO the best of the corps and army commanders in the BEF at that time. He was certainly well served by his staff, as was Plumer.

Yup. Whatever else could be said about Haig's later service, no one can dispute that he definitely earned his promotion.

 

[Thoresby]

Henry Horne, developer of the creeping barrage.