69-466: Alan Clark (1928–1999) was a British politician. Alan , Allan , or Allen Clark may also refer to: Alan , Allan , or Allen Clarke may also refer to: Alan Clark Alan Kenneth Mackenzie Clark (13 April 1928 – 5 September 1999) was a British Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), author and diarist. He served as a junior minister in Margaret Thatcher 's governments at
138-472: A third-class honours degree . As an undergraduate he was a member of the Bullingdon Club , a private all-male dining club known for its wealthy members, grand banquets, and bad behaviour, including vandalism of restaurants and students' rooms. The club selects its members not only on the grounds of wealth and willingness to participate but also by means of education. After Oxford he wrote articles for
207-488: A wine-tasting dinner with his friend of many years standing, Christopher Selmes. Irritated by what he regarded as a bureaucratically written civil-service speech, he galloped through the script, skipping over pages of text. The then-opposition MP Clare Short stood up on a point of order and, after acknowledging that MPs cannot formally accuse each other of being drunk in the House of Commons, accused him of being "incapable",
276-488: A 600 yd (550 m) front, from Port Arthur to Pont Logy. On the right the attack quickly collapsed, both companies losing direction and veering to the right. The attack confronted a part of the German defences that had not been bombarded by the artillery and before the mistake was realised the two support companies followed suit. The Indian troops forced their way through the German wire and took 200 yd (180 m) of
345-480: A British version of National Socialism . Before his death in 1999, Clark had started work on the prequel to the 1983–1992 Diaries to cover his entry in politics, from seeking a Conservative Association to adopt him as their Parliamentary Candidate in 1972 until the 1983 general election . Published a year after his death, this volume was titled Diaries: Into Politics and covered 1972 to 1983. The final volume, covering Clark's decision not to seek re-election at
414-579: A brain tumour. His body was buried in the grounds of the castle. Upon his death, his family said Clark wanted it to be stated that he had "gone to join Tom and the other dogs." In 1993 Clark gave a half-hour Opinions lecture, televised by Channel 4 , of which he said in his diary: "It was good. Clear, assured, moving. I looked compos and in my 'prime'. Many people saw it. All were enthusiastic. Today acres of coverage in The Times ." In 1997 Clark presented
483-497: A candid account of political life under Thatcher and a description of the weeks preceding his death, which he continued to write until he could no longer focus on the page. Alan Clark was born at 55 Lancaster Gate , London, the elder son of art historian Kenneth Clark (later Lord Clark), who was of Scottish parentage, and his wife Elizabeth Winifred Clark ( née Martin), who was Irish. His sister and brother, fraternal twins Colette (known as Celly) and Colin , were born in 1932. At
552-528: A costly failure. Sir Douglas Haig , the First Army commander, cancelled further attacks and ordered the captured ground to be consolidated, preparatory to a new attack further north. An acute shortage of artillery ammunition made another attack impossible, apart from a local effort by the 7th Division , which was another costly failure. The Germans strengthened the defences opposite the British and increased
621-445: A delay for preparation which gave the defenders just as much time to reorganise. The attack front was found to have been wide enough to overcome the small number of German reserves but the attackers had not been ordered to assist units which had been held up. British reinforcements were sent to renew failed attacks rather than reinforce success. Small numbers of German troops in strong-points and isolated trenches, had been able to maintain
690-575: A divorce case in South Africa, in which it was revealed he had had affairs with Valerie Harkess, the wife of a South African barrister, and her daughters, Josephine and Alison. After sensationalist tabloid headlines, Clark's wife Jane remarked upon what Clark had called "the coven" with the line: "Well, what do you expect when you sleep with below-stairs types?" She referred to her husband as an "S, H, one, T". Clark died at Saltwood Castle on 5 September 1999, aged 71, after suffering from
759-499: A euphemism for drunk. Although the government benches were furious at the accusation, Clark later admitted in his diaries that the wine-tasting had affected him. To date, he is the only Member of Parliament to have been accused in the House of Commons of being drunk at the despatch box . In 1986, Clark was promoted to Minister for Trade at the Department of Trade and Industry . It was during this time that he became involved with
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#1732775982940828-528: A four-part series for the BBC entitled Alan Clark's History of the Tory Party . In 2004, John Hurt portrayed Clark (and Jenny Agutter his wife Jane) in the BBC's The Alan Clark Diaries , reigniting some of the controversies surrounding their original publication and once again brought his name into the British press and media. An authorised biography of Alan Clark by Ion Trewin, the editor of his diaries,
897-532: A howitzer bombardment. The 1st Canadian Division at Fleurbaix , several kilometres north-east of Neuve Chapelle, provided artillery support and machine-gun fire as a diversion to prevent the Germans from reinforcing the sector. The artillery bombardment was followed by an infantry assault at 8:05 a.m. The Garhwal Brigade of the Meerut Division , Indian Corps attacked with all four battalions on
966-641: A suspension of the offensive. On 15 March French abandoned the offensive as the supply of field-gun ammunition was inadequate. News of the ammunition shortage led to the Shell Crisis of 1915 which, along with the resignation of Admiral Fisher over the naval attack on the Dardanelles , brought down the Liberal government. The Prime Minister H. H. Asquith formed a new coalition government and appointed David Lloyd George as Minister of Munitions . It
1035-694: A volume of small-arms fire sufficient to stop the advance of far greater numbers of attackers. The battle had no strategic effect but showed that the British were capable of mounting an organised attack, after several winter months of static warfare. They recaptured about 2 km (1.2 mi) of ground. In 1961 Alan Clark wrote that relations with the French improved, because British commanders had shown themselves willing to order attacks regardless of loss and quoted Brigadier-General John Charteris that ... England will have to accustom herself to far greater losses than those of Neuve Chapelle before we finally crush
1104-420: Is a fine piece of writing, and often brilliantly penetrating." Even before publication, Clark's work came under attack from supporters of Haig, including the field marshal's son and historians John Terraine , Robert Blake and Hugh Trevor-Roper , former tutor to Clark, who was married to Haig's daughter. On publication, The Donkeys received very supportive comments from Lord Beaverbrook , who recommended
1173-526: Is still in print 50 years after its first print run, being regarded as an important work on the British experience of the World War. The book's title was drawn from the expression " Lions led by donkeys " which has been widely used to compare British soldiers with their commanders. In 1921 Princess Evelyn Blücher published her memoirs, which attributed the phrase to OHL (the German GHQ) in 1918. Clark
1242-458: The 1992 general election , his regret at leaving the House of Commons and then his return to Parliament, was published in 2002 and included Clark's final days dying from a brain tumour. Throughout his diaries Clark refers admiringly to Henry "Chips" Channon and his diaries. He also quotes Adolf Hitler , to whom he refers as "Wolf". The diaries include much reference to Clark's love of his chalet at Zermatt , his Scottish estate at Eriboll and
1311-412: The 6th Army ( Crown Prince Rupprecht ) counter-attacked; the attempt failed but forced the British to use most of their artillery ammunition; the British offensive was postponed on 13 March and abandoned two days later. The battle at Neuve Chapelle showed that trench defences could be breached if the attack was carefully prepared and disguised to achieve at least local surprise. After the initial shock,
1380-532: The 8th Division 4,814, the Meerut Division 2,353 and the Lahore Division 1,694. In 2010 Humphries and Maker recorded German casualties from 9 to 20 March as c. 10,000 men; in 2018, Jonathan Boff wrote that the British suffered 12,592 casualties and that the German official history estimate of "almost 10,000 men", was closer to 8,500, according to the records of the 6th Army and
1449-605: The Aubers Ridge and possibly Lille . A French assault at Vimy Ridge on the Artois plateau was also planned to threaten the road, rail and canal junctions at La Bassée from the south as the British attacked from the north. The British attackers broke through German defences in a salient at the village of Neuve-Chapelle but the success could not be exploited. If the French Tenth Army captured Vimy Ridge and
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#17327759829401518-634: The Duke of Wellington's Regiment and a descendant on her mother's side of the Scottish ornithologist William Robert Ogilvie-Grant , grandson of the 6th Earl of Seafield . They were married for 41 years and had two sons: His elder son James (who lived in Eriboll, a Scottish estate) died of a brain tumour on 15 August 2019, aged 59. While involved in the Matrix Churchill trial he was cited in
1587-665: The February 1974 general election with a majority of 8,104, when Harold Wilson took over from Edward Heath as prime minister of a minority Labour government. At the General Election in October 1974, when Labour gained a small overall majority, Clark's vote fell by 1,192 votes, but he still had a comfortable majority with 5,188. His first five years in parliament were spent on the Conservative opposition benches. He
1656-463: The House of Commons in support of Animal Liberation Front hunger-striker Barry Horne . Clark kept a regular diary from 1955 until August 1999 (during his second spell as a Member of Parliament ) when he was incapacitated due to the onset of the brain tumour which was to be the cause of his death a month later. The last month of his life would be chronicled by his wife, Jane. The diaries covering
1725-555: The Matrix Churchill trial that he had been "economical with the actualité " in answer to parliamentary questions about what he knew with regard to arms export licences to Iraq, caused the collapse of the trial and the establishment of the Scott Inquiry , which helped undermine John Major 's government. Clark became bored with life outside politics and returned to Parliament as member for Kensington and Chelsea in
1794-567: The election of 1997 , becoming critical of NATO's campaign in the Balkans . Clark held strong views on British unionism , racial difference, social class, and was in support of animal rights, nationalist protectionism and Euroscepticism . He referred to Enoch Powell as "The Prophet". Clark once declared: "It is natural to be proud of your race and your country", and in a departmental meeting, allegedly referred to Africa as " Bongo Bongo Land ". When called to account, however, Clark denied
1863-569: The 1960s, including Barbarossa in 1965 examining the Operation Barbarossa offensive of the Second World War ; he also tried his hand at novel writing, but none of the subsequent books were as commercially successful or drew the same attention as The Donkeys had achieved, and he abandoned the path of military history in the mid-1970s to pursue a professional career in national politics. Clark's first foray into politics
1932-542: The BEF and plan a combined attack from Arras to Armentières . The expenditure of artillery ammunition on the first day had consumed about 30 per cent of the field-gun ammunition in the First Army, which was equivalent to 17 days' shell production per gun. After the battle, French reported to Field Marshal Lord Kitchener , the British Secretary of State for War, that fatigue and the shortage of ammunition had forced
2001-408: The British analysis of the battle "bluster" and wrote that Joseph Joffre , the French commander, praised the results of the first day, then dismissed the significance of the attack " Mais ce fut un succès sans lendemain " (But it was a success which led to nothing.). The German and French armies began to revise their low opinion of the BEF, the Germans having assumed that the British would remain on
2070-570: The British began a thirty-five-minute artillery bombardment by ninety 18-pounder field guns of the Indian Corps and IV Corps , on the German wire which was destroyed within ten minutes. The remaining fifteen 18-pounder field gun batteries, six 6-inch howitzer siege batteries and six QF 4.5-inch howitzer batteries, with sixty howitzers, fired on the German front-line trenches. The trenches were 3 ft (0.91 m) deep, with breastworks 4 ft (1.2 m) high but were unable to withstand
2139-702: The Clarks moved their son to a safer location at Cheltenham College Junior School. From there he went to Eton in January 1942. In February 1946 while at Eton he joined the Territorial training regiment of the Household Cavalry based at Windsor , but was discharged in August when he had left Eton. He then went to Christ Church, Oxford , where he read Modern History under Hugh Trevor-Roper , obtaining
Alan Clark (disambiguation) - Misplaced Pages Continue
2208-757: The Departments of Employment , Trade and Defence . He became a member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in 1991. He was the author of several books of military history, including his controversial work The Donkeys (1961), which inspired the musical satire Oh, What a Lovely War! Clark became known for his flamboyance, wit, irreverence and keen support of animal rights . Norman Lamont called him "the most politically incorrect , outspoken, iconoclastic and reckless politician of our times". His three-volume Alan Clark Diaries contains
2277-407: The German army. In 2004, George Cassar called the battle a British tactical success but that the strategic intentions had not been met. Jack Sheldon was less complimentary and wrote that although the attack had shocked the 6th Army, it quickly amended its defensive tactics and that the British had also been shocked that such a carefully planned attack had collapsed after the first day. Sheldon called
2346-477: The German defenders recovered, just as the attackers were beset by delays, loss of communication and disorganisation. In his report at the end of March, Major-General John Du Cane wrote that the First Army command system disintegrated after the capture of Neuve Chapelle. Although Haig claimed he had made his intent plain to his subordinates, he felt they had not grasped the "spirit" of the plan and had failed to press on when initial objectives had been captured. One of
2415-484: The German front trench, despite many casualties. The three Lahore battalions to the left advanced in lines of platoon fifty paces apart, swiftly crossing the 200 yd (180 m) of no man's land, overran the German infantry and pressed on to the German support trench, the attack taking only fifteen minutes. The leading companies then advanced beyond the Port Arthur–Neuve Chapelle road without waiting for
2484-401: The Germans had time to send in reinforcements and dig a new line. The British attempted to renew the advance, by attacking where the original assault had failed, instead of reinforcing success, and a fresh attack with the same detailed preparation as that on the first day became necessary. A big German counter-attack by twenty infantry battalions ( c. 16,000 men ) early on 12 March was
2553-464: The Shadow Cabinet), Clark was never promoted to the cabinet, remaining in mid-ranking ministerial positions during the 1980s. Clark received his first ministerial posting as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Employment in 1983, where he was responsible for moving the approval of regulations relating to equal pay in the House of Commons. His speech in 1983 followed
2622-421: The advance for more than six hours until forced to retreat, which left no time to resume the advance. Although aerial photography had been useful, it was not sufficient to identify efficiently German strong points. Primitive communications also meant that the British commanders had been unable to keep in touch with each other, the battle became uncoordinated and this disrupted the delivery of supplies. On 12 March,
2691-578: The age of six he began as a day boy at Egerton House, a preparatory school in Marylebone , and from there at the age of nine went on as a boarder to St Cyprian's School , Eastbourne . Clark was one of the seventy boys rescued when the school building was destroyed by fire in May 1939. He was relocated with the school to Midhurst . In September 1940, with the Luftwaffe threatening south-east England,
2760-543: The architecture of and country around Saltwood Castle , his home in Kent. Clark's fascination with classic cars is also evident, as is his enthusiasm for backgammon . The Diaries were serialised into six episodes of The Alan Clark Diaries by the BBC and shown in 2004 with John Hurt and Jenny Agutter . In 1958, Clark, aged 30, married 16-year-old (Caroline) Jane, daughter of Colonel Leslie Brindley Bream Beuttler OBE of
2829-500: The attack and the Tenth Army contribution was reduced to support from its heavy artillery. The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) carried out aerial photography , despite poor weather, which enabled the attack front to be mapped to a depth of 1,500 yd (1,400 m) for the first time and for 1,500 copies of 1:5,000 scale maps to be distributed to each corps. The battle was the first deliberately planned British offensive and showed
Alan Clark (disambiguation) - Misplaced Pages Continue
2898-402: The authors would do little to rehabilitate the reputations of, for instance, the senior commanders on The Somme . The historian Peter Simkins complained that it was frustratingly difficult to counter Clark's prevailing view. Professor Richard Holmes made a similar complaint, writing that "Alan Clark's The Donkeys , for all its verve and amusing narrative, added a streak of pure deception to
2967-484: The centre were quickly overrun on a 1,600 yd (1,500 m) front and Neuve Chapelle was captured by 10:00 a.m. At Haig's request, the British Commander-in-Chief, Field Marshal Sir John French , released the 5th Cavalry Brigade to exploit the expected breakthrough . On the left of the attack, two companies of Jäger Battalion 11 (with c. 200 men and a machine-gun) delayed
3036-702: The comment had any racist overtones, claiming it had simply been a reference to the president of Gabon , Omar Bongo . Clark argued that the media and the government failed to pick out the racism towards white people and ignored any racist attacks on white people. He also, however, described the National Front chairman, John Tyndall , as "a bit of a blockhead" and disavowed his ideas. On his death in 1999, figures from all sides of politics paid tribute to Clark, though his critics remained. Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke of Clark as "extraordinary, amusing, irreverent, but with real conviction and belief, and behind
3105-458: The defensive to release French troops and had risked keeping as few troops as possible opposite the British. The German defences were hurriedly strengthened and more troops brought in to garrison them. The French had also expected that the British troops would only release French soldiers from quiet areas and that British participation in French attacks would be a secondary activity. After the battle French commanders made more effort to co-operate with
3174-569: The diary kept by Crown Prince Rupprecht. The 6th Bavarian Reserve Division suffered 6,017 casualties from 11 to 13 March, Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 21 1,665 casualties, Infantry Regiment 14 of VII Corps suffered 666 casualties from 7 to 12 March and Infantry Regiment 13 1,322 casualties from 6 to 27 March. During its diversionary assault in support of the main offensive, the 1st Canadian Division suffered 300 casualties, nearly 100 fatal. The Neuve-Chapelle Indian Memorial commemorates 4,700 Indian soldiers and labourers who died on
3243-492: The form which position warfare took for the rest of the war on the Western Front . Tactical surprise and a break-in were achieved, after the First Army prepared the attack with great attention to detail. After the first set-piece attack, unexpected delays slowed the tempo of operations and command was undermined by communication failures. Infantry-artillery co-operation broke down when the telephone system ceased to work and
3312-539: The free vote on the Common Market and Clark, praising Enoch Powell 's speech, voted against. The next day he told the socialist MP Dennis Skinner that "I'd rather live in a socialist Britain than one ruled by a lot of foreigners." Although he was personally liked by Margaret Thatcher , for whom he had great admiration, and the columnist George Hutchinson (who, writing in The Times , tipped him for inclusion in
3381-543: The headlines, kind and thoughtful." And the Liberal Democrat, Simon Hughes , described him as "courageous, idiosyncratic, talented and principled. However, journalist Dominic Lawson criticised Clark as "sleazy, vindictive, greedy, callous and cruel", while Ion Trewin (subsequently his biographer) referred to Clark as "wonderful". Clark was a passionate supporter of animal rights , joining activists in demonstrations at Dover against live export , and outside
3450-536: The issue of export licences to Iraq , the Matrix-Churchill affair. In 1989, he became Minister for Defence Procurement at the Ministry of Defence . When Clark was Minister for Trade, responsible for overseeing arms sales to foreign governments, he was interviewed by journalist John Pilger who asked him: Clark left Parliament in 1992 following Margaret Thatcher's fall from power. His admission during
3519-675: The most arrogant and least respectable writer on the War, but the impartiality of this view may have been overshadowed by the fact that Anglesey's own history of the British Cavalry had been reviewed by Clark with the comments "cavalry are nearly always a disaster, a waste of space and resources." Graham Stewart, Clark's researcher for a later political history that he would write entitled The Tories , noted: "Alan wasn't beyond quoting people selectively to make them look bad". Clark went on to publish several more works of military history through
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#17327759829403588-604: The motoring press before he went on to read for the bar . He was called to the bar in 1955 but did not practise law. Instead, he began privately studying military history with a view to professional writing on the topic. Clark's first book, The Donkeys (1961), was a revisionist history of the British Expeditionary Force 's (BEF) campaigns at the beginning of the First World War . The book covers Western Front operations during 1915, including
3657-659: The north end of the Artois plateau, from Lens to La Bassée, as the First Army took Aubers Ridge from La Bassée to Lille, a further advance of 10–15 mi (16–24 km) would cut the roads and railways used by the Germans, to supply the troops in the Noyon Salient from Arras south to Rheims . The French part of the offensive was cancelled when the British were unable to relieve the French IX Corps north of Ypres , which had been intended to move south for
3726-668: The north, in which the Garhwal Brigade were to join in with a frontal assault. German troops infiltrated northwards before being forced back by bombers (the Grenadier Guards had objected to specialist grenade throwers usurping their name) and bayonet charges but the Indian attack was stopped by the Germans, 200 yd (180 m) south of the Port Arthur–Neuve Chapelle road. Haig ordered more attacks that day, with similarly disappointing results. The German defences in
3795-401: The number of troops in the area. One consequence of the battle was that the French became cautiously optimistic that British forces could be reliable in offensive operations. Despite poor weather, the early stages of the battle went extremely well for the British. The RFC quickly secured aerial dominance and set about bombarding railways and German reserves en route. At 7:30 a.m. on 10 March,
3864-658: The offensives at Neuve Chapelle , Aubers Ridge and Loos , and ending with the enforced resignation of Sir John French as commander-in-chief of the BEF, and his replacement by Douglas Haig . Clark describes the battle scenes, and criticises the actions of several of the generals involved in the heavy loss of life that occurred. Much of the book is based on the political manoeuvres behind the scenes as commanders jostled for influence, and John French's difficulties dealing with his French allies and with Lord Kitchener . Haig's own diaries are used to demonstrate how Haig positioned himself to take over command. The publication sold well, and
3933-572: The period 1983 to 1992 were published after he left the House of Commons , deciding not to seek re-election to his Plymouth Sutton seat. Published in 1993 and known simply as Diaries (although later subtitled In Power ), they have been recognised as a definitive account of the downfall of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher . They caused a minor embarrassment at the time with their descriptions of senior Conservative politicians such as Michael Heseltine , Douglas Hurd , and Kenneth Clarke . He quoted Michael Jopling – referring to Heseltine, deputy PM at
4002-413: The planned thirty-minute artillery preparation and took the village by 9:00 a.m. along with 200 prisoners and five machine-guns. A gap of 250 yd (230 m) had been created by the loss of direction on the right, where the German garrison had been severely bombarded but the survivors, about two platoons of the 10th Company, Infantry Regiment 16, fought on. A fresh British attack was arranged from
4071-405: The subordinates later claimed that pressing on was pointless, due to the lack of ammunition. The British telephone system proved vulnerable to German artillery-fire and the movement of troops along communication trenches was delayed by far more than the most pessimistic expectations. Equilibrium between attack and defence quickly resumed, which could only be upset by another set-piece attack, after
4140-464: The time – as saying "The trouble with Michael is that he had to buy all his furniture" and judged it "Snobby, but cutting". Two subsequent volumes of his diaries cover the earlier and later parts of Clark's parliamentary career. The diaries reveal recurring worries about Japanese militarism but his real views are often not clear because he enjoyed making "tongue in cheek" remarks to the discomfiture of those he believed to be fools, as in his sympathy for
4209-430: The work to Winston Churchill , and The Times printed a positive review. However, John Terraine and A. J. P. Taylor wrote damning reviews and historian Michael Howard wrote "As history, it is worthless", criticising its "slovenly scholarship". Howard nonetheless commended its readability and noted that descriptions of battles and battlefields are "sometimes masterly". Field Marshal Montgomery later told Clark it
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#17327759829404278-448: The work. Clark's choice of subject was strongly influenced by Lord Lee of Fareham , a family friend who had never forgotten what he saw as the shambles of the BEF. In developing his work, Clark became close friends with historian Basil Liddell Hart , who acted as his mentor. Liddell Hart read the drafts and was concerned by Clark's "intermittent carelessness". He produced several lists of corrections, which were incorporated, and wrote "It
4347-468: The writings of the First World War . Its title is based on 'Lions led by Donkeys'. Sadly for historical accuracy, there is no evidence whatever for this; none. Not a jot or scintilla. The real problem is that such histories have sold well and continue to do so. They reinforce historical myth by delivering to the reader exactly what they expect to read". Clark's work was described as "contemptible" by Henry Paget, 7th Marquess of Anglesey who regarded Clark as
4416-493: Was "A Dreadful Tale: You have done a good job in exposing the total failure of the generalship". In more recent years, the work has been criticised by some historians for being one-sided in its treatment of World War One generals. Brian Bond , in editing a 1991 collection of essays on First World War history, expressed the collective desire of the authors to move beyond "popular stereotypes of The Donkeys " while also acknowledging that serious leadership mistakes were made and that
4485-627: Was a recognition that the whole economy would have to be adapted for war, if the Allies were to prevail on the Western Front. The battle also affected British tactical thinking with the idea that infantry offensives accompanied by artillery barrages could break the trench warfare stalemate. The British suffered 7,000 casualties and the Indian Corps 4,200 of the 40,000 troops in the offensive. The 7th Division suffered 2,791 casualties,
4554-658: Was on the issue of the Common Market , which he opposed. With those beliefs, he joined the Conservative Monday Club in 1968, and was soon chairman of its Wiltshire branch. In 1971 he was blacklisted by Conservative Party Central Office for being too right-wing, but after representations by him, and others, he was removed from the blacklist. He unsuccessfully sought the Conservative selection for Weston super-Mare in 1970, missing out to Jerry Wiggin . He subsequently became MP for Plymouth Sutton at
4623-508: Was published in September 2009. Battle of Neuve Chapelle [REDACTED] British Empire 1915 1916 1917 1918 Associated articles The Battle of Neuve Chapelle (10–13 March 1915) took place in the First World War in the Artois region of France. The attack was intended to cause a rupture in the German lines, which would then be exploited with a rush to
4692-465: Was still a member of the Monday Club in May 1975. It is unclear when he let his membership of the club lapse, but possibly it was upon becoming a government minister. He continued to address Club events until 1992. During the subsequent Party leadership contest he was urged by Airey Neave to vote for Margaret Thatcher, but he is thought to have favoured Willie Whitelaw . The following year came
4761-532: Was unable to find the origin of the expression. He prefaced the book with a supposed dialogue between two generals and attributed the dialogue to the memoirs of German general Erich von Falkenhayn . Clark was equivocal about the source for the dialogue for many years, but in 2007, his friend Euan Graham recalled a conversation in the mid-1960s when Clark, on being challenged as to the dialogue's provenance, looked sheepish and said, "Well I invented it." This supposed invention emboldened critics of The Donkeys to condemn
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