Edmund Allenby was born in 1861. After an education at Haileybury and Sandhurst he joined the Inniskilling Dragoons. He served in South Africa (1884-88) and fought in the Boer War (1889-1901).

At the beginning of the First World War Allenby was put in charge of the Cavalry Division of the British Expeditionary Force. After taking part in the first Battle of Ypres, Allenby was promoted to commander of the Third Army. Allenby disagreed with Sir Douglas Haig about the tactics used at the Battle of Arras and as a result he was transferred to the Palestine Front.

In Palestine Edmund Allenby made efficient use of his mechanized forces and it has been claimed that his methods were similar to the blitzkrieg tactics used by Nazi Germany during the Second World War.

By December, 1917 Allenby had captured Beersheba, Gaza and Jerusalem. The following year he defeated General Otto Liman von Sanders and the Turkish-German Army in Palestine. He followed this with victory over the Egyptians at Megiddo, which enabled him to take Damascus in October, 1918.

Promoted to Field Marshal, Allenby was High Commissioner in Egypt between 1919 and 1925. Sir Edmund Allenby died in 1936.

Haig's Generals is available from Amazon

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