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Lions led by donkeys
"Lions led by donkeys" is a phrase popularly used to describe the British infantry of World War I and to blame the generals who led them. The contention is that the brave soldiers (lions) were sent to their deaths by incompetent and indifferent leaders (donkeys).〔 The phrase was the source of the title of one of the most scathing examinations of British First World War generals, ''The Donkeys'' - a study of the 1915 Western Front offensives - by politician and writer of military histories Alan Clark.〔 The book was representative of much First World War history produced in the 1960s and was not outside the mainstream—Basil Liddell Hart vetted Clark's drafts〔Ion Trewin, ''Alan Clark: The Biography'' Weidenfield & Nicholson 2009, p 160.〕—and helped to form a popular view of the First World War (in the English-speaking world) in the decades that followed. However, the work's viewpoint of incompetent military leaders was never accepted by mainstream historians, and both the book and its viewpoint have been subject to attempts at revisionism.〔
== Origin of the phrase ==
The origin of the phrase pre-dates the First World War. Plutarch attributed the saying to Chabrias. 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 a letter was reportedly sent home by a British soldier quoting a Russian officer who had said that British soldiers were "lions commanded by asses". This was immediately after the failure to storm the fortress of Sevastopol which, if true, would take the saying back to 1854–5. These and other Crimean War references were included in the British Channel 4 TV’s ''The Crimean War'' series (1997) and accompanying book (Michael Hargreave Mawson, expert reader). ''The Times'' reportedly recycled the phrase as "lions led by donkeys" with reference to French soldiers during the Franco-Prussian War,
There were numerous examples of its use during the First World War, referring to both the British and the Germans.〔Rees, Nigel. ''Brewer's Famous Quotations''. Weidenfeld & Nicolson (2006) (personal communication from author including text from book 2007-11-15)〕 In ''Rising Sun and Tumbling Bear: Russia's War with Japan'' (2003), Richard Connaughton attributed a later quotation to Colonel J. M. Grierson (later Sir James Grierson) in 1901, when reporting on the Russian contingent to the Boxer Rebellion, describing them as 'lions led by asses'.〔Connaughton 2003, p. 32〕
In the Second World War Erwin Rommel said it to the British after he captured Tobruk. 〔 The Guinness History of the British Army (1993) by John Pimlott, p. 138 〕
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