Mud, Blood and Poppycock cover art

Mud, Blood and Poppycock

Britain and the Great War

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Mud, Blood and Poppycock

By: Gordon Corrigan
Narrated by: Roger Davis
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About this listen

 The true story of how Britain won the First World War.

The popular view of the First World War remains that of BLACKADDER: incompetent generals sending brave soldiers to their deaths. Alan Clark quoted a German general's remark that the British soldiers were 'lions led by donkeys'. But he made it up.

Indeed, many established 'facts' about 1914-18 turn out to be myths woven in the 1960s by young historians on the make. Gordon Corrigan's brilliant, witty history reveals how out of touch we have become with the soldiers of 1914-18. They simply would not recognize the way their generation is depicted on TV or in Pat Barker's novels.

Laced with dry humour, this will overturn everything you thought you knew about Britain and the First World War. Gordon Corrigan reveals how the British embraced technology, and developed the weapons and tactics to break through the enemy trenches.©2019 Gordon Corrigan (P)2019 Orion Publishing Group Europe Great Britain Military England War Solider Imperialism Witty Royalty

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Strident & cocksure the authors delivery begins to grate & I found myself questioning much of his assertions. The section about those who were shot at dawn was quite alarming particularly the views on the existence of the memorial to those men.

In seeking to challenge prevailing views on the conflict the author for the most part seemed intent on reinforcing old stereotypes & tropes. At no point do we hear from those who served & the books focus is consistently on the strategic at the expense of actual lived experience which might i suspect challenge some of the authors more rigid views.

Nevertheless there is a good overview of the various campaigns & some excellent statistical analysis. Just a shame the work descended too frequently into polemic.

As ever of course, excellent narration by Roger Davis.

Thought provoking yet flawed

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if you love statistics, you'll love this. Some very interesting stuff here but at times I just lost interest due to repetitive statistics. Didn't hold my attention and lost track of what had been read.

Statistics

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Stout defense of Haig as modernizer, planner deliverer of victory as opposed to Butcher/Donkey.

Narrator excellent. Accents very good and very subtle.

A well argued rebuttal of Haig as donkey

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the author is an ex officer and throughout he seems to have a biassed view on the lower ranks . whilst some.myths are disputed I found ot heavy going with constant statistics. some points he just seems to brush over such as the underground war and the use of flame throwers .

the point I stopped listening was when he claimed the memorial to those shot at dawn is an insult and they do not deserve such a memorial. he gives a one sided view and picks on two stories. I feel if you are to justify such a point of view then each execution should be looked at and disected . he picks two stories that suit his own personal narrative which I found was quite common throughout.

one sided view throughout

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The book is supposed to bust the myths of the first world war. Instead it is a bland collection of largely uninteresting facts. the chapter on the Calvary started with a tedious section on the height of different horses before fundamentally failing to set out what myth was being busted.

There were tedious sections on grenades and shells and gas none of which bust myths nor was any of it new. A lot of it was just a dull recital of facts.

the book fundamentally failed to advance any new theory as to why the 1914 British Army was so ill prepared despite having just fought a very similar attritional war in South Africa - i.e the top brass were arrogant idiots.

the chapter on the 'donkeys' ended so abruptly I thought the recording was wrong. it started with a section on whether the senior command were experienced enough before tediously setting out the army life length of about 40 officers.

this book fails on so many levels. if anything this book reinforces the perspective, through a failure to advance any new position, that General Melchett was a very accurate portrayal.

disappointing

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