The British Expeditionary Force’s Strategies in "The Killing Ground" by Tim Travers

The Killing Ground

The Killing Ground, authored by Tim Travers, focuses on the British Expeditionary Force’s strategies during the period right before World War I as well as during the war itself. The first part of Travers’s book goes over the social aspects of serving and leading in the BEF, hitting on the older ways that higher socially ranked men would be able to go straight into a higher leadership position rather than earning the position. The Killing Ground reflects the old ways of war—before the main aspects of modernization hit during World War I. The second part of the book focused on General Sir Douglas Haig—one of the commanders of the BEF. Haig is shown throughout The Killing Ground to be holding onto an old version of warfare and not evolving with the new ways of war. The third portion of the book explores the Battle of the Somme and the way the BEF handled it.

Tim Travers uses an array of sources, most of them being primary. Many of the sources used were from the War Office Files—mainly personal diaries, notebooks, and papers from British officers during war time and from before the war. He examines the way that the British Officers worked their strategies in their leadership before and during the war. The examination of the BEF’s leadership is one of the better attributes of The Killing Ground and examines the techniques that the BEF had within the start of World War I. One of the flaws in his source work is that he uses the first-hand accounts from officers, which sort of contradicted against each other, and morphs them into facts for the book. It happens a few times concerning Haig and the leadership above him. Aside from the minor slip ups with these sources, the other source work used within The Killing Ground was satisfactory.

An interesting take on WWI within the book, as well as some of the main subjects of the book, was the make up of the BEF—rather than focusing on the war itself. The Killing Ground tried to focus on the war but it felt as if it was going back and forth with the war and the social sides of things. The back and forth made it very confusing because it felt like it made the organization of the book scattered. The other issue within the organization of The Killing Ground was at the end of the book where Travers explored the other armies to the BEF. The French and Germany armies being compared to the BEF seemed super rushed and shortened. It could have a whole chapter or even part of the book devoted to the topic and it seems like it was all smashed together at the end in an effort to conclude the book quickly.

Travers’s best part of The Killing Ground fell in the first few parts of the book. It examines the social standings of the BEF as well as surveying the new technology that evolves in BEF used leading up to and during World War I. The examination of the social standings within the BEF was a very interesting in the fact that he examined the social connections that high class British men had affected who got the promotions. The analyzation of the social standings that were used in order to make up the officers of the BEF became more and more interesting throughout the first part— General Sir Douglas Haig is shown to be one general who was not the best candidate to be leading the British forces. His personality and thoughts about the old ways or war kept the British army from moving forward and ended up hurting the BEF for parts of the war—especially the Battle of the Somme. The older ideas and tactics that he held onto was the downfall of Haig’s command of the BEF.

Overall, The Killing Ground, by Tim Travers is a book that is worth reading at least one if one is interested in WWI. The sources within Travers’s book are a wonderful resource and insight into the minds of the BEF during the First World War. The flaws in the book lie mainly in the organization of the different points that Travers is trying to make. If the points were organized a bit differently, the book would have a better flow and not be going back and forth as much. Travers did a good job in brining all of the different factors of the BEF’s successes and failures throughout the war to light and gave sufficient background and insight into the reasoning of the successes and failures.