As late as March 1916 Douglas Haig, the commander-in-chief who led British efforts in World War 1, sought to limit the number of machine guns per battalion in case it “dampened the men’s fighting spirit”. He used the same reasoning to explain his resistance to steel helmets.
Haig was old school. So old school that even in 1926, a full decade after the disastrous Battle of the Somme (the bloodiest in British military history), he held tight in his dismissal of modern technology. “I believe that the value of the horse and the opportunity of the horse in the future are likely to be as great as ever. Aeroplanes and tanks are only accessories to the men and the horse”. And with that, Haig’s place in history as a caricature was secure. Those who don’t embrace changes in technology mostly get run over by it...
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