The Frocks and the Brass Hats | Gordon Corrigan
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 ต.ค. 2024
- Friction between politicians and military commanders is probably as old as warfare itself. There has always been and always will be a conflict between defence and foreign policy, between them designed to keep the nation safe and great, and social spending, designed to keep the population contented and prosperous. While no one would deny that in a democracy it is for the politicians to decide with whom the nation should go to war, the generals would then very much like to be allowed to get on with what they are trained and paid to do without interference.
This talk by Gordon Corrigan examines how political and military relations have developed over the years, with particular emphasis on the First World War, when on occasions they reached a deplorable point which threatened the very survival of the BEF.
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What an absolutely stunning speaker. A tour de force which could not be bettered.
Controversial but very entertaining presentation. Thank you WFA.
Mr Corrigan reminds me of, and shares many of the views of, Fawlty's Major
Good spot 😊
Cromwell brought law and order to Ireland? Well that's one way of looking at it....
If reducing the population by 40% in a couple of years is considered to be in some way ethical ........
Very Anglo way of putting it 😂
Accurate as well.
Just standard imperialist nonsense
@@alecblunden8615thankfully he caught the disease that killed him in Ireland
This was quite brilliant. Disagreed often but was engaged and stimulated. He goes right back to Cromwell. Bloody interesting. Classic old bloke too.
Splendid talk, Gordon is an awesome speaker. A lot of others could learn from his enthusiasm, knowledge and excellent presentation skills
What a colourful character! Very knowledgeable presenter as well.
Brilliant talk.
Articulate and well-presented, Major, as we have come to expect from you.
I wish Mr.Corrigan would just tell us what he really thinks-LOL!
Seriously, a very interesting lecture presenting an unvarnished view of politics & the military. How refreshing to hear a presentation not couched in politically correct speak. Great work sir!
I'm adding this to my list of YTV's about Churchill's screwups. :p
Gordon Corrigan never disappoints - fantastic as ever!
The forts at Gallipolli were mostly annihilated by the ships and the guns in them were generally older pieces. Battleships have significant advantages on forts in the sense that they're not stationary and the Brits had tremendous overmatch here. Mobile artillery delayed them far more effectively than forts (that on top of civilian minesweepers, loss aversion, old ships etc)
Excellent talk. Gordon is one of our best.
1:09:43 in Churchill's defense in 1921 the aircraft carrier was no match for the Battleship. Naval aviation had just not matured enough. It wouldn't be till at least the late 30s that the Aircraft Carrier would come out on top.
Thank you this was very interesting. One thing positive I had heard about Winston Churchill is that he did a great job as Minister of Munitions in WWI is this true or did he simply take on that role at a time when Britains munitions factories were reaching their peak and take all the credit for it?
Superb presentation.
Ages since I've seen Major Corrigan speak, he used to appear on Discovery Channel and similar. I will watch with interest.
Thoroughly intriguing however I got a bit lost around the 30-minute mark on Ireland. Where he was arguing that the threatened resignation of an Irish regiment to fight their own citizens was disgraceful. Well Ireland is the only place within the UK that soldiers have been called on to act against their own citizens. This later produced problems of impartiality between the army particularly intelligence and the different communities. America has the good sense of preventing its military from acting at home. I do have a slight interest in this I was born in England but all my relatives other than brothers and sisters, their and my children are Southern Irish.
The then proposed advantage of a professional army is the ability to fight an unpopular war with Vietnam being given as the example. No expert on Vietnam but that was an odd war almost prosecuted in an attempt to fail. Robert McNamara was undoubtedly bright, as many say not only could he believe that 2 + 2 = 5, but he could prove it. His and Kennedy's policy of flexible response was brilliant but it was an argument taken to the ridiculous in "Rolling Thunder." When you commit men to a theatre that isn't a time send messages to the enemy by the effectiveness of the actions you are taking. Shock and Awe was the polar opposite. Also, the political expedience of using poor mainly black recruits with limited mental capacity the so-called McNamara's Morons en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_100,000. Britain has fought in Gulf War II and Afghanistan but in actuality has only provided small numbers of troops, the US doing the heavy lifting. The US army is notionally professional but in both instances used massive numbers of reserves and National Guard. I have only ever directly known 2 people who were in the TA in the UK but in the US just through looking at TH-cam sites I watch I know without thinking at least 6 current or former National Guard or Reserve members. Not quite the same full time professional forces as suggested.
As for McNamara if you look him up you will find that his middle name is Strange. That isn't a slight it is a factual comment please look him up.
Though much might be conjecture considering later officers political attempts no mention is made of David Sterling's activities in the 1970s?
Top rate. This man should be listened to by UK health system.
"brought law and order to Scotland, and to Ireland".... Well that's one way to look at what he did.
Well, it ended the Eleven Years' War, which led to a period of enforced peace and Scotland, in turn, the long standing civil wars were brought to an end. The enduring question ever since is - at what cost?
He never said that they liked it.
To Quote Tacitus, Create a Desert and Call it Peace.
there is a lot in Maj Corrigan's presentation I could disagree with,
but on his reasoning, I cannot.
He is spot-on with if there is a choice between a solid armed forces
and taxbreaks for the already rich, and their wealthy corporations,
(who, incidentally, depend on those same armed forces when their greed has gotten them into a pickle)
governments in the interest of keeping the party donations rolling in,
will always opt for those taxbreaks.
It really is curious how uncomfortable English people become when one speaks ill of Churchill.
I am not a fan of Churchill. But he was a great war leader and that was what was needed in 1940.
As much as I love listening to Gordon Corrigan, I have to disagree about Salonika. When in late September '18 the Germans were being pushed back on the Western Front and Ludendorff heard the news that the Entente had broken through the Bulgarian lines and knocked Bulgaria out of the war, he had a nervous breakdown.
Unlike 1915 by 1918 he could not be the fireman of his allies and bail them out when they were in trouble; and Bulgaria leaving meant that the Entente could enter into the heartland of the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires.
I agree wholeheartedly ,that the forces should have there own hospitals .who could take civilians if needed .they also need there own recuperation centers(for limb ,muscle or amputation victims . There own technical ( making and researching of false limbs etc )must be set up as soon as possible .the government expects them to fight for the country , but , doesn’t want to take the consequences of fallout and looking after there wounded warriors . A disgusting state of affairs !
Absolutely brillaint, I hope Gordon doesn't stop saying what he thinks! Couple of points that could have been made with regard to senior soldiers not being more forcefull enough in their opposition to bad political decisions, the worst example being Vietnam (see Dereliction of Duty, McMaster) and also Iraq (Fiasco, Ricks), also apples to UK regarding Iraq/Afghanistan.
He forgot to mention sir garnet wolsey
Find it facinating that the NZ Wellington battalion captures Canuk Bar the highest and furtherest any allied unit got at Gallipoli was not mentioned, they held for 24 hours only to be shelled by the Royal navy by the time they were relieved there was 48 left and the relieving Britsch unit got overun as soon as they took over, this talk down graded anything the Anzacs did...
As an Australian, best overview of Gallipoli I've heard....
Gallipoli, another example of the importance of logistics to British warfare. Gordon Corrigan is an awesome speaker.
Clemenceau" "“War is too important to be left to the generals."
"Politics is too important to be left to politicians" +,Me
On Gallipoli I wish he had made mention of Jackie Fisher and his scheming.
Love the man, he needs to stop coughing and hacking into his microphone.
At 1:08:18 when he talks about a competition for the "Greatest Englishman Ever", my vote is for WIlliam Shakespeare.
I remember the poll well, personally I thought Isaac Newton should’ve come higher.
Yes a very good choice, another would be Wilberforce for ending Slavery in the British Empire and beginning the campaign to end slavery throughout the rest of the world. The fight against slavery was probably the greatest gift of the British Empire to humanity.
@@jonathanpersson1205Except that slavery didn't end and that was the start of us trying to be the moral righteous do gooders of the world.
Wellington British greatess General?
Well that took me by surprise in the middle of the night to suddenly hear the chap talking about living in Severus Avenue
I wonder which number house??
But what’s even more peculiar is major Pugh lives in Severus Avenue and hes like your twin
And he writes on infill barracks notepaper
49:15 The Gallipoli campaign was NOT a "major campaign" and the Brits could indeed have sustained a larger campaign than Gallipoli against the Turks had the Donkeys not insisted on bleeding their armies of Lions dry with hopeless offensives on the Western Front.
Wish I could upvote more than once :)
What is so obvious? Having 6 Spaniards or 2 Sheiks and Gurkha behind you?
No doubt Smith-Dorrien was far more clever than French- probably cleverer than most British Generals in the whole war
Corrigan delivers his views with his usual brio and his usual subjectivity.
Spaniard: "I will send a death threat. Maybe. After siesta. Oh whatever."
That was an unfair coment. During the XV, XVI and XVII centuries spanish infantry was the best of europe.
From what I have read it wasn't because of the ANZACS inexperience at Gallipoli but because the British navy let them off at the wrong beach surrounded by cliffs. Even then it almost achieved its target on the first day. After the first day even supermen could not have succeeded once the Turks held the heights. On Haig, how can you defend a General who persists with the battle of the Somme when it was clear to anyone that it would fail. The politicians did not impede him. They simply called him out for his incompetence and mistakes.
The Somme battle was fought to take the pressure off the French at Verdun, If you bothered to watch the presentation. Haig was not Incompetent, far from it.
The ANZACS did land on the wrong beach however if they had landed on the right beach the Turkish artillery would have blown them back into the sea in the first hour. The cliffs at ANZAC cove protected the beach from the artillery behind the ridge line.
Agree about the Somme. The need to relieve pressure on Verdun is a good reason to attack in June. It doesn’t excuse still trying to reach day 1 objectives in November. That just shows lack of flexibility. The same happened at 3rd Yipre where the attack was continued long after it was clear that no matter how much effort was expended the German line would not be broken. Haig only ended that offensive when Lloyd George stripped him of troops to reenforce Italy after a German offensive broke the Italian Army.
As for the tactics of the Somme if the Russian army of 1916 with its lack of equipment, shortage of officers, and lack of experienced NCO’s could adopt the radical tactics of Brusilov then the new army units could certainly cope with advancing at the run and adopting duck and cover tactics.
@@davidwright7193 Read 36 Days by Hugh Dolan. He also did a video called Gallipoli From Above. Both debunk the myth of the wrong landing spot.
They landed exactly where they intended, at night and with very few casualties (they came later). It was no Omaha Beach.
It was a text book amphibious landing, planned entirely by the Australians (and NZs?) with detailed aerial reconnaissance prior and detailed maps.
The only role the British had in the planning was telling the Australians when the British were to land at Cape Helles so the Australians would not land too early.
I must have met every British catholic hater extant, coincidentally.
Oh lord, save us from the domino theory advocates.......
"his tone, occasionally sneering, often patronising and always cocksure, is particularly tiresome in someone so prone to error. He makes the elementary mistake of asserting, for example, that a Russian declaration of war against Japan "never came". - Piers Brendon
Scottish regiments didn't recruit well because they were all going to work in oil? Rubbish. The period he is talking about saw the almost total destruction of Scottish heavy industries. Ship building, steel etc and record unemployment among working class school leavers!
This guy's a bloody comedian. About 100 years out of date.
Great bloke, I don't think he would go down well with the readers of the Guardian.
That’s just you, bringing your politics into a historical comments section.
@@ceciljohnrhodes4987 "bringing your politics into a historical comments section."
Did you and I watch completely different videos or is this just an excuse to have a whinge?
Not every day you hear someone say out loud it's a bad thing for soldiers to refuse objectively evil orders. This old fart would feel right at home in Germany in the early forties.
Gordon sounds normal, compared to people today.
Could have done with out the sleazy hit job on Charles Gordon. Thomas Huxley thought the two most brilliant men of his age were Charles Darwin and Charles Gordon.
Masybe, but he was quite right to say that Gordon was barking mad!
My worry is that in being so overarching, across many centuries then no one example can be challenged as your onto the next generation or war or circumstance. Good speaker engaging speaker but too thinly spread to be entirely convincing.
"Bluster and bullshit can get you to the top." Yes, we can see that with Boris Johnson and Donald Trump.
Showing Bias ?
I’d hardly call those on those opposite any better
I guess you think Biden is brilliant and a perfect gent...
For context, Lloyd George was Welsh. It makes sense that he pushed for a Welsh division and ministers from Welsh protestant denominations. Also, this lecturer is full of it for the sake of being a contrarian. Another useless toff
Cromwell was Welsh
BTW, my family fought on the right side of the Civil War. May God bless the Regicides.