The War Policy Committee was a small group of British ministers, most of them members of the
War Cabinet
A war cabinet is a committee formed by a government in a time of war to efficiently and effectively conduct that war. It is usually a subset of the full executive cabinet of ministers, although it is quite common for a war cabinet to have senior ...
, set up during World War I to decide war strategy. The committee was created at the request of
Lord Milner
Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner, (23 March 1854 – 13 May 1925) was a British statesman and colonial administrator who played a role in the formulation of British foreign and domestic policy between the mid-1890s and early 1920s. From ...
on June 7, 1917, through a memorandum he circulated with his peers on the British War Cabinet. Its members included the Prime Minister,
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for leading the United Kingdom during t ...
, Lord Milner,
Edward Carson
Edward Henry Carson, 1st Baron Carson, PC, PC (Ire) (9 February 1854 – 22 October 1935), from 1900 to 1921 known as Sir Edward Carson, was an Irish unionist politician, barrister and judge, who served as the Attorney General and Solicito ...
,
Lord Curzon
George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, (11 January 1859 – 20 March 1925), styled Lord Curzon of Kedleston between 1898 and 1911 and then Earl Curzon of Kedleston between 1911 and 1921, was a British Conservative statesman ...
and
Jan Smuts
Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, (24 May 1870 11 September 1950) was a South African statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various military and cabinet posts, he served as prime minister of the Union of South Af ...
. The committee was formed to discuss the strategic matter of the
Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...
(the possibility of ally Russia, now a democracy after the deposition of
Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Pola ...
, being knocked out of the war), and the new entry of The United States. Coincidentally or not, the timing of Lord Milner's memo coincided with the detonation of
19 underground mines filled with explosives on the
Western Front, which created the largest human explosion of all time. The night before this explosion,
General Harington said to reporters "Gentleman, I don't know whether we are going to make history tomorrow, but at any rate we shall change the geography". In Milner's memo, he stressed that the allies must act together for the common good, and not devolve to piecemeal arrangements that satisfied specific countries. The War Policy Committee was formed, and it discussed every major initiative taken by the allies until the end of the war. It was chaired by Lord's Milner and Curzon, with Jan Smuts as its Vice Chairman.
The first item on the War Policy Committee's agenda was Field Marshal
Douglas Haig
Field marshal (United Kingdom), Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, (; 19 June 1861 – 29 January 1928) was a senior Officer (armed forces), officer of the British Army. During the First World War, he commanded the British Expeditionar ...
's idea for a summer offensive to relieve allied shipping of the U-Boat menace in the English Channel by attacking Belgium and along the Channel coast to get rid of U-Boat pens. The idea was initially rejected by Lloyd George and Milner because of the huge losses incurred the previous year at the
Battle of the Somme
The Battle of the Somme ( French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place bet ...
. However, it had the support of Smuts, Carson and tentatively Curzon. Another factor was
Bonar Law
Andrew Bonar Law ( ; 16 September 1858 – 30 October 1923) was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1922 to May 1923.
Law was born in the British colony of New Brunswick (now a ...
, who, although not part of the committee, was close to Lloyd George and supported the measure. With an understanding that the battle would be stopped at a moment's notice if things went wrong, the
Flanders Offensive was approved. It proved to be a morass.
On August 10, the War Policy Committee presented its report on war strategy. It concluded that:
# Not much help can be expect from Russia.
# The French armies were in a state of exhaustion.
# Reports of lowered German morale in the latest battle were not true.
# Naval offensive operations must be studied, and the convoy system must improve.
# Heavy casualties in the present battle can't be replaced indefinitely, and the war can't be sustained at its present level of strength through 1918.
# It advocated an offence against Austria, through Italy, as a way of engaging the Italians and of attacking the enemy where he was weakest, not strongest.
The Flanders Offensive, which started July 31, 1917, ended on November 10, 1917, and proved impossible to stop due to over optimistic predictions of the generals. One of these was Haig himself, and another was
Brigadier-General John Charteris, Haig's intelligence chief, who was replaced in January 1918. By the time of the
German Spring Offensive on March 21, 1918, five of Haig's closest generals were replaced.
The Italian loss at the
Battle of Caporetto
The Battle of Caporetto (also known as the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo, the Battle of Kobarid or the Battle of Karfreit) was a battle on the Italian front of World War I.
The battle was fought between the Kingdom of Italy and the Central ...
in November 1917 forced the idea of a
Supreme War Council
The Supreme War Council was a central command based in Versailles that coordinated the military strategy of the principal Allies of World War I: Britain, France, Italy, the US and Japan. It was founded in 1917 after the Russian revolution and w ...
to coordinate all allied activities against the
Central Powers
The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,german: Mittelmächte; hu, Központi hatalmak; tr, İttifak Devletleri / ; bg, Централни сили, translit=Tsentralni sili was one of the two main coalitions that fought in ...
, and resulted in the war plan for 1918.
Other matters considered by the committee were Lord Curzon's plan for a "Monroe Doctrine for Africa" and Winston Churchill's recommendations for the production of tanks in 1918.
[UK National Archives, ''War Cabinet Minutes, CAB 24-4'']
''pgs. 416-419 of 419''
/ref>
References
''UK National Archives''
* Roskill, Stephen
''Hankey: Man of Secrets, Vol. I''
London: Collins, 1970
* Marlowe, John
''Milner: Apostle of Empire''
London: Hamish Hamilton, 1976
* Hankey, Maurice
''The Supreme Command, 1914-1918, Volume II''
London, George Allen, 1961
* Amery, Leopold
''The Leo Amery Diaries, Volume I: 1860-1929''
London: Hutchinson, 1980
* Keegan, John
''The First World War''
London: Hutchinson, 1998
* Blake, Robert, ''The Unknown Prime Minister'', London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1955
* Thompson, J. Lee, ''Forgotten Patriot'', Cranbury, NJ: Rosemont, 2007
* Spartacus-Educational.co
''Link''
* Powell, Geoffrey, ''Plumer, The Soldier's General'', London: Cooper, 1990
* Edmonds, Sir James E
''History of the Great War, Vol VIII, Military Operations, the March Offensive, 1918''
London: MacMillan, 1935
* Wright, Peter
''At The Supreme War Council''
New York & London: Putnam, 1921
Footnotes
{{Reflist
External links
* Amery, Leopold
''The Leo Amery Diaries, Volume I: 1860-1929''
London: Hutchinson, 1980 (pgs. 157-161: creation of the committee)
* Neillands, Robin
''The Great War Generals on the Western Front, 1914-1918''
London: Magpie, 1999 (pgs. 384–407)
* Winter, Denis
''Haig's Command: A Reassessment''
London: Penguin, 1991 (Curzon Biography)
1917 establishments in the United Kingdom
1918 disestablishments in the United Kingdom
Organizations established in 1917
United Kingdom in World War I
Committees
David Lloyd George
Jan Smuts
Bonar Law