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Honourable Soldiers

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Were honourable soldiers (lions) led by incompetent leaders (donkeys)? One of the most greatly asked questions after the great war is whether or not were the commanding officers incompetent in leading honourable men to battle. A commonly held belief is that the officers were notoriously inept and well hated by their subordinates. However, the opposite can also be correct. The main objective of this essay is to prove the point that the officers were not inept and did their best considering their extraordinary circumstances they were placed in. The circumstances required a large amount of human discipline and a loss of human life was expected. The generals can be seen as competent as some displayed valour and courage even in the worst situations. The generals were given the Victoria Cross, the highest military decoration to be awarded for valour, for “most conspicuous bravery displayed” (“Victoria Crosses”). This shows that the officers were not all inept as they were gallant and brave enough to receive the prestigious award. One award was earned after they’re landing on Gallipoli and after surviving through enemy fire they managed, despite overcoming odds to gain the cliffs of the …show more content…

Other generals and commanders were in essence, highly careless and lacked the proper understanding of the situations that they were likely to have been placed or made the wrong decisions. So, after seeing through the evidence, an answer can be provided to the question, “Were honourable soldiers, led by incompetent leaders? The answer is that there were both types of commanders, competent and incompetent. It would be unjust to label one or the other as the one and only answer as it would do injustice to the opposing group. Truly the blame of incompetence should not be put on all the generals but only those who are incompetent enough to deserve

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