User talk:Paardeberg

There has been a good effort to give some sort of life of Rawlinson, but even given that it focuses on WWI and omits completely his achievements as c-in-c India (for which see Mark Jacobsen's 'Rawlinson in India'), it is inadequate. The battle of the Somme lasted 141 days, and Rawlinson's deployment of artillery and liaison with the RFC for spotting made life hellish for the German army. He achieved major successes on 14th July and 25th September. Even the first day was not a total failure: Horne's XV Corps and Congreve XIII Corps achieved success, as did the French. Both these commanders heeded Rawlinson's and Budworth's advice on the use of guns, i.e. an embryonic creeping barrage. Middlebrook's book is very moving, but has been superseded by muchmodern research, especially of course Prior and Wilson's work.

I hope very much that someone can update and revise this -- you might even mention his wife, with the euphonious name of 'Merrie' -- or I shall have a stab at it myself. Paardeberg (talk) 14:52, 30 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Over a number of days I have edited the article on Rawlinson using more up-to-date books and recent research. The Somme section focused on the first day to the exclusion of later phases. The article overall largely neglected his achievement as Indian Army commander-in-chief, and I have amplified this considerably. There are good books covering it, especially Mark Jacobsen's 'Rawlinson in India'.