Alan Clark appearing on Opinions 21 February 1993

"Lions led by donkeys" is a phrase used to imply that a capable group of individuals are incompetently led. Coined in

classical antiquity Classical antiquity, also known as the classical era, classical period, classical age, or simply antiquity, is the period of cultural History of Europe, European history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD comprising the inter ...

, the phrase was commonly used after

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

to contrast senior commanders who had led armies, most prominently those of the

British Armed Forces The British Armed Forces are the unified military, military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its British Overseas Territories, Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests ...

, with the men they commanded. The

historiography of the United Kingdom The historiography of the United Kingdom includes the historical and archival research and writing on the history of the United Kingdom, Great Britain, England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. For studies of the overseas empire see historiography ...

during the 20th century frequently described the infantry of the British Army as brave soldiers (lions) being sent to their deaths by incompetent and indifferent commanders (donkeys). The phrase was implied by English popular historian

Alan Clark Alan Kenneth Mackenzie Clark (13 April 1928 – 5 September 1999) was a British Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), author and diarist. He served as a junior minister in Margaret Thatcher's governments at the Departments of Employment, Tr ...

in the title of his 1961 study of the Western Front of World War I, ''The Donkeys''. Clark's work typified the mainstream historiographical view of World War I during the mid-20th century, being vetted by fellow historian B. H. Liddell Hart and helping to form mainstream perceptions of the conflict in the

English-speaking world The English-speaking world comprises the 88 countries and territories in which English language, English is an official, administrative, or cultural language. In the early 2000s, between one and two billion people spoke English, making it the ...

Ion Trewin Ion Courtenay Gill Trewin (13 July 1943 – 8 April 2015) was a British editor, publisher and author. Biography Born in London, the son of J. C. Trewin and Wendy Trewin (''née'' Monk), Ion Trewin was educated at Highgate School. He was the l ...

, ''Alan Clark: The Biography'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2009, p. 160. His study, which characterised British

general officer A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...

s of the period as incompetent, has been the subject of intense criticism by other historians such as John Terraine. The phrase has also been used in a variety of other contexts, all with the intent of praising a group of individuals while criticising their leaders.

Origin

Plutarch Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...

(c. AD 46 – after AD 119) attributed to

Chabrias Chabrias (; bef. 420–357 BC) was an Athens, Athenian general active in the first half of the 4th century BC. During his career he was involved in several battles, both on land and sea. The orator Demosthenes described him as one of the most ...

the saying that "an army of deer commanded by a lion is more to be feared than an army of lions commanded by a deer". An ancient Arabian proverb says "An army of sheep led by a lion would defeat an army of lions led by a sheep". During the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

, a letter was reportedly sent home by a British soldier quoting a Russian officer who had said that British soldiers were "lions commanded by donkeys". This was immediately after the

Siege of Sevastopol (1854–55) Siege of Sevastopol may refer to: * Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855), during the Crimean War * Siege of Sevastopol (1941–1942), during the Second World War * ''Siege of Sevastopol'' (panorama), a 1904 painted panorama by Franz Roubaud See also ...

and the failure to storm the fortress which, if true, would take the saying back to 1854–55. The phrase is quoted in Anna Stoddart's 1906 book ''The Life of Isabella Bird'' in the scene where Isabella, en route for America in 1854, passes a troopship taking the

Scots Greys The Royal Scots Greys was a cavalry regiment of the Army of Scotland that became a regiment of the British Army in 1707 upon the Union of Scotland and England, continuing until 1971 when they amalgamated with the 3rd Carabiniers (Prince of ...

out to Balaclava. These and other Crimean War references were included in British

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

television's ''The Crimean War'' series (1997) and the accompanying book (Michael Hargreave Mawson, expert reader).

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

and

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.James Simpson's military leadership of the assault on the Great Redan. ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' reportedly used the phrase as "lions led by donkeys" with reference to French soldiers during the

Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

: There were numerous examples of its use during the First World War, referring to the British and the Germans.Rees, Nigel. ''Brewer's Famous Quotations''. Weidenfeld & Nicolson (2006) In ''Rising Sun and Tumbling Bear: Russia's

War War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

with Japan'' (2003),

Richard Connaughton Richard Michael Connaughton (born 20 January 1942) is a British Army officer and author specialised in military history. Life Connaughton was educated at Duke of York's Royal Military School in Dover, Kent and the Royal Military Academy Sandhu ...

attributed a later quotation to Colonel J. M. Grierson (later

Sir James Grierson ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as part ...

) in 1901, when reporting on the Russian contingent to the

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, was an anti-foreign, anti-imperialist, and anti-Christian uprising in North China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by the Society of Righteous and Harmonious F ...

, describing them as 'lions led by asses'. In his 1933 autobiography, member of parliament and retired naval officer

Joseph Kenworthy Joseph Montague Kenworthy, 10th Baron Strabolgi (7 March 1886 – 8 October 1953), was a Liberal Party (UK), Liberal and then a Labour Party Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom. Education and naval ...

(later Lord Strabolgi) lamented that the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

's reputation had suffered in the First World War, and that "It was a case of lions being led by asses."

More recent usage

In the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, German general

Erwin Rommel Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel (; 15 November 1891 – 14 October 1944), popularly known as The Desert Fox (, ), was a German '' Generalfeldmarschall'' (field marshal) during World War II. He served in the ''Wehrmacht'' (armed forces) of ...

said it about the British after he captured

Tobruk Tobruk ( ; ; ) is a port city on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near the border with Egypt. It is the capital of the Butnan District (formerly Tobruk District) and has a population of 120,000 (2011 est.)."Tobruk" (history), ''Encyclop� ...

. In 2018, a British

political campaign A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making progress within a specific group. In democracy, democracies, political campaigns often refer to election, electoral campaigns, by which representatives a ...

organisation named Led By Donkeys was established to oppose

Brexit Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...

. The activists thought the name aptly described the relationship between the British people and their Brexit leaders.

Attribution

Evelyn, Princess Blücher, an Englishwoman who lived in Berlin during the First World War, in her memoir published in 1921, recalled

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

general

Erich Ludendorff Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff (; 9 April 1865 – 20 December 1937) was a German general and politician. He achieved fame during World War I (1914–1918) for his central role in the German victories at Battle of Liège, Liège and Battle ...

at German General Headquarters' () praising the British for their bravery: "I will put it exactly as I heard it straight from the Grosse Hauptquartier: 'The English Generals are wanting in strategy. We should have no chance if they possessed as much science as their officers and men had of courage and bravery. They are lions led by donkeys.'" The phrase ''Lions Led by Donkeys'' was used as a title for a book published in 1927, by

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

P. A. Thompson. The

subtitle Subtitles are texts representing the contents of the audio in a film, television show, opera or other audiovisual media. Subtitles might provide a transcription or translation of spoken dialogue. Although naming conventions can vary, caption ...

of this book was "Showing how victory in the Great War was achieved by those who made the fewest mistakes". Alan Clark based the title of his book ''The Donkeys'' (1961) on the phrase. Prior to publication in a letter to Hugh Trevor Roper, he asked "English soldiers, lions led by donkeys etc. – can ''you'' remember who said that?" B. H. Liddell Hart, although he did not dispute the veracity of the quote, had asked Clark for its origins. Whatever Trevor Roper's reply, Clark eventually used the phrase as an epigraph to ''The Donkeys'' and attributed it to a conversation between Ludendorff and

Max Hoffmann Carl Adolf Maximilian Hoffmann (25 January 1869 – 8 July 1927) was a German military officer and strategist. As a staff officer at the beginning of World War I, he was Deputy Chief of Staff of the 8th Army, soon promoted Chief of Staff. Hoff ...

: The conversation was supposedly published in the memoirs of General

Erich von Falkenhayn Erich Georg Sebastian Anton von Falkenhayn (11 September 1861 – 8 April 1922) was a German general and Ottoman Field Marshal who served as Prussian Minister of War and Chief of the German General Staff during the First World War. Falkenha ...

, the Chief of the German General Staff of the German Army between 1914 and 1916, but the exchange and the memoirs remain untraced. A correspondent to ''The Daily Telegraph'', in July 1963, wrote that librarians in London and

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

had not traced the quotation and a letter to Clark was unanswered. Clark was equivocal about the source for the dialogue for many years, although in 2007 a friend Euan Graham, recalled a conversation in the mid-sixties, when Clark on being challenged as to the provenance of the dialogue, looked sheepish and said "well I invented it". At one time Clark said Hart had given him the quote (unlikely as Hart had asked him where it came from) and Clark's biographer believes he invented the Ludendorff and Hoffmann attribution. This invention provided critics of ''The Donkeys'' with an opportunity to condemn the work. Richard Holmes, wrote According to an article published in ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'' in 2008, TV historian

Dan Snow Daniel Robert Snow (born 3 December 1978) is a British Popular history, popular historian and television presenter. He is an ambassador of the Electoral Reform Society (ERS). Early life and education Born in Westminster, London Dan Snow is the ...

was "stunned" to discover that his great-grandfather, Thomas Snow, "was a first world war general who sent thousands to die". Snow subsequently wrote an article for the BBC in 2014 discussing "10 big myths about World War One debunked", in which he posits the idea that "Much of what we think we know about the 1914–18 conflict is wrong" and that "This saying was supposed to have come from senior German commanders describing brave British soldiers led by incompetent old toffs from their chateaux. In fact the incident was made up by historian Alan Clark." While Clark is said to have admitted to his imagining "the incident" this has no impact on the appropriate (or otherwise) use of the phrase, since a book with this title had been published by Captain Peter Thompson in 1927 (through an independent publisher, T. W. Laurie). Thompson was a well-travelled writer who had served in the Royal Army Service Corps – a forerunner of the Royal Logistics Corps. He was part of a small but growing group of soldiers-turned-writers who used their prodigious talents to raise profound questions about the nature and management of World War One.

Popular culture

The musical ''

Oh, What a Lovely War! ''Oh, What a Lovely War!'' is an epic musical developed by Joan Littlewood and her ensemble at the Theatre Workshop in 1963. It is a satire on World War I, and by extension on war in general. The title is derived from the "somewhat satirical" ...

'' (1963) and the comedy television series ''

Blackadder Goes Forth ''Blackadder Goes Forth'' is the fourth series of the BBC sitcom ''Blackadder'', written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, which aired from 28 September to 2 November 1989 on BBC One, BBC1. The series placed the recurring characters of Captain B ...

'' (1989) are two well-known works of popular culture, depicting the war as a matter of incompetent donkeys sending noble (or sometimes ignoble, in the case of ''Blackadder'') lions to their doom. Such works are in the literary tradition of the war poets like

Wilfred Owen Wilfred Edward Salter Owen Military Cross, MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of Trench warfare, trenches and Chemi ...

Siegfried Sassoon Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World ...

and Erich Maria Remarque's novel (and subsequent film) '' All Quiet on the Western Front'', which have been criticised by some historians, such as Brian Bond, for having given rise to what Bond considered the myth and conventional wisdom of the "necessary and successful" Great War as futile. Bond objected to the way that, in the 1960s, the works of Remarque and the "Trench Poets" slipped into a "nasty caricature" and perpetuated the "myth" of lions led by donkeys, while "the more complicated true history of the war receded ... into the background". Producers of television documentaries about the war have had to grapple with the "lions led by donkeys" interpretive frame since the 1960s. The 1964 seminal and award-winning

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...

'' The Great War'' has been described as taking a moderate approach, with co-scriptwriter John Terraine fighting against what he viewed as an oversimplification, while Hart resigned as an advising historian to the series, in an open letter to ''The Times'', in part over a dispute with Terraine, claiming that he minimised the faults of the High Command on The Somme and other concerns regarding the treatment of Third Ypres. ''The Great War'' was viewed by about a fifth of the adult population in Britain and the production of documentaries on the war has continued ever since. While recent documentaries such as Channel 4's 2003 ''The First World War'' have confronted the popular image of lions led by donkeys, by reflecting current scholarship presenting more nuanced portrayals of British leaders and more balanced appraisals of the difficulties faced by the High Commands of all the combatants, they have been viewed by far fewer members of the public than either 1964's ''The Great War'' or comedies such as ''Blackadder''.

Criticism

Brian Bond, in editing a 1991 collection of essays on First World War history, expressed the collective desire of the authors to move beyond "popular stereotypes of ''The Donkeys''", while acknowledging that serious leadership mistakes were made and that the authors would do little to rehabilitate the reputations of the senior commanders on the Somme. Hew Strachan quoted Maurice Genevoix for the proposition " it is neither desirable nor good that the professional historian prevail over the veteran; it is also not good that the veteran prevail over the historian" and then proceeded to take Hart to task for "suppressing the culminating battles of the war", thus "allow nghis portrayal of British generals to assume an easy continuum, from incompetence on the Western Front to conservatism in the 1920s...." While British leadership at the beginning of the war made costly mistakes, by 1915–16 the General Staff were making great efforts to lessen British casualties through better tactics ( night attacks, creeping barrages and

air power Airpower or air power consists of the application of military aviation, military strategy and strategic theory to the realm of aerial warfare and close air support. Airpower began in the advent of powered flight early in the 20th century. A ...

) and weapons technology (

poison gas Many gases have toxic properties, which are often assessed using the LC50 (median lethal concentration) measure. In the United States, many of these gases have been assigned an NFPA 704 health rating of 4 (may be fatal) or 3 (may cause serious ...

and later the arrival of the

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine; ...

). British generals were not the only ones to make mistakes about the nature of modern conflict: the Russian armies too suffered badly during the first years of the war, most notably at the

Battle of Tannenberg The Battle of Tannenberg, also known as the Second Battle of Tannenberg, was fought between Russia and Germany between 23 and 30 August 1914, the first month of World War I. The battle resulted in the almost complete destruction of the Russ ...

. German tactics are routinely criticised for involving the immediate counterattacking of lost ground, leading to lopsided losses in essentially defensive actions. To many generals who had fought colonial wars during the second half of the 19th century, where the Napoleonic concepts of discipline and pitched battles were still successful, fighting another highly industrialised power with equal and sometimes superior technology required an extreme change in thinking. Later, Strachan, in reviewing ''Aspects of the British experience of the First World War'' edited by Michael Howard, observed that "In the study of the First World War in particular, the divide between professionals and amateurs has never been firmly fixed". Strachan points out that revisionists take strong exception to the amateurs, particularly in the media, with whom they disagree, while at the same time Gary Sheffield welcomes to the revisionist cause the work of many "hobby"-ists who only later migrated to academic study.Hew Strachan ''Back to the trenches – Why can't British historians be less insular about the First World War?'', ''The Sunday Times'', November 5, 2008
/ref> Gordon Corrigan, for example, did not even consider Clark to be a historian. The phrase "lions led by donkeys" has been said to have produced a false, or at least very incomplete, picture of generalship in the First World War, giving an impression of generals as "

château A château (, ; plural: châteaux) is a manor house, or palace, or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking re ...

generals", living in splendour, indifferent to the sufferings of the men under their command, only interested in cavalry charges and shooting cowards. One historian wrote that "the idea that they were indifferent to the sufferings of their men is constantly refuted by the facts, and only endures because some commentators wish to perpetuate the myth that these generals, representing the upper classes, did not give a damn what happened to the lower orders". Some current academic opinion has described this school of thought as "discredited".Sheffield, Gary. ''The Somme'', pp. xiv–xv. Strachan quotes

Gavin Stamp Gavin Mark Stamp (15 March 194830 December 2017) was a British writer, television presenter and architectural historian. Education Stamp was educated at Dulwich College in South London from 1959 to 1967 as part of the "Dulwich Experiment", then ...

, who bemoans "a new generation of military historians", who seem as "callous and jingoistic" as Haig, while himself referring to the "ill-informed diatribes of Wolff and Clark".

References

External links

''The Donkeys'' (1962) archive.org

* ttp://www.warstudies.bham.ac.uk/firstworldwar/ma/index.shtml University of Birmingham Centre for First World War Studies: Lions Led By Donkeys
National archives: Learning Curve WW1

BBC History's World War's in Depth: World War One
{{World War I 1850s neologisms 1850s quotations Adages Crimean War United Kingdom in World War I Military leadership Lions in popular culture Donkeys British military leaders of World War I