Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baron Rawlinson

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Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baron Rawlinson : biography

20 February 1864 – 28 March 1925

General Henry Seymour Rawlinson, 1st Baron Rawlinson, GCB, GCSI, GCVO, KCMG (20 February 1864 – 28 March 1925), known as Sir Henry Rawlinson, Bt between 1895 and 1919, was a British First World War general best known for his roles in the Battle of the Somme of 1916 and the Battle of Amiens in 1918.

Battles of 1918

Rawlinson returned to the Fourth Army in July 1918 for the Allied counter-offensive. By this time the German Army’s great spring offensive, Operation Michael, had been checked, and the Allies were preparing a counter-offensive. Following the success of the Australian attack at Le Hamel on 4 July, Haig entrusted Rawlinson with planning a larger attack, designed to force the Germans back from the city of Amiens, and also further to damage the German Army’s weakening morale. Rawlinson had learned from his experiences on the Somme. "The immeasurable superiority of the planning for 8 August 1918 over that for 1 July 1916 testified to the distance the BEF had travelled in the interim."David Stevenson, With Our Backs to the Wall: Victory and Defeat in 1918, Allen Lane 2011, 119 The attack was to be on a relatively narrow front, with no prior bombardment and limited objectives. To ensure a breakthrough, Haig gave Rawlinson command of virtually the whole British armoured forces. By this stage of the war British manpower was severely depleted, and Rawlinson relied heavily on Australian, Canadian and American troops to achieve the breakthrough.Stevenson, 120

The Allies achieved complete surprise, and the Battle of Amiens proved a striking success. On 8 August, described by General Erich Ludendorff as "the black day of the German Army", the Allies took 12,000 prisoners and captured 450 guns. Both the German and Allied commands were struck by the collapse in German morale and the high number of Germans surrendering without a fight.Stevenson, 123 Nevertheless, the Allies were still cautious about pressing their advantage too far: on 11 August Rawlinson advised Haig to halt the offensive.Stevenson, 125

In September, again commanding a mixed force of British, Australian and American divisions, Rawlinson led his Army in the Hundred Days Offensive, the successful Allied effort to break through the Hindenburg Line of German defences. Rawlinson daringly ordered the Australian commander, General John Monash, to cross the Canal du Nord, a key part of the German defences. The resulting Battle of Canal du Nord saw the Germans decisively defeated. By 30 September, a 50 kilometre stretch of the Hindenburg Line had been taken, and the Germans were in full retreat.Stevenson, 140

Military career

Rawlinson was born in Westminster, London. His father, Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet, was an Army officer, and a renowned Middle East scholar who is generally recognised as the father of Assyriology). Rawlinson attended Eton College and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and entered the Army in 1884 as an officer in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps in India. His first military experience was serving in Burma during an 1886 uprising.

In 1889, Rawlinson’s mother died and he returned to England. He transferred to the Coldstream Guards and was promoted to captain. He served on General Herbert Kitchener’s staff during the advance on Omdurman in Sudan in 1898, and served with distinction in a field command in the Boer War from 1899 to 1902. Rawlinson was promoted to Colonel in 1903 and named as commandant of the Army Staff College. He was made Commander of 2nd Infantry Brigade at Aldershot in 1907 and General Officer Commanding 3rd Division in 1910.

Shortly after the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Rawlinson was appointed General Officer Commanding 4th Division in France. He then took command of the IV Corps. Rawlinson wrote to the Conservative politician Lord Derby (24 December 1914) forecasting that the Allies would win a war of attrition, but it was unclear whether this would take one, two or three years.Jeffery 2006, p139

At the end of 1915, Rawlinson was considered for command of British First Army, in succession to Douglas Haig, but the command was instead given to Sir Charles Monro. Rawlinson assumed command of the new Fourth Army on 24 January 1916.Prior & Wilson 2003, p. 137. as the planned Allied offensive on the Somme. He wrote in his diary: "It is not the lot of many men to command an army of over half a million men."Martin Middlebrook, The First Day on the Somme, Allen Lane, 1971, p78 The Somme was originally conceived as a joint Anglo-French offensive, but owing to the demands of the Battle of Verdun, French participation was greatly reduced, leaving the British, and especially Rawlinson’s inexperienced army, to bear the brunt of the offensive.Middlebrook, 70 Nevertheless, on the eve of the offensive, he "showed an attitude of absolute confidence."Middlebrook, 90