Скачать или смотреть General Haig Lit A Cigarette At 5:00 AM. September 25, 1915. This Is What He Decided...

In this haunting testimony from World War I history, General Douglas Haig makes a command decision on September 25, 1915, that dooms thousands of his own soldiers. What he bases that decision on shocks military historians. This short captures one of the most controversial command moments from the Great War, reminding us of the absolute stakes when generals gamble with lives using inadequate information.
The situation was impossible. Field Marshal Sir John French had overruled objections to the Battle of Loos despite unfavorable terrain. French Commander-in-Chief Joseph Joffre demanded British action to support French offensives in Champagne. Lord Kitchener had traveled to France personally to ensure the attack proceeded. By the night of September 24-25, 75,000 British soldiers waited in trenches across a six-mile front, ready to assault German positions at dawn.
The entire plan depended on a gas attack. Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Howard Foulkes had positioned 5,100 cylinders containing 140 tons of chlorine along the front. If the gas worked, it would compensate for British artillery shortages and neutralize German machine gunners. But the gas required favorable wind—a westerly breeze strong enough to carry the cloud across no-man's land but not so strong it dispersed before reaching enemy trenches.
Throughout the night, weather reports grew increasingly troubling. At 3:00 AM, meteorologists reported the wind was slowing and shifting toward the south. These were not the conditions required for a successful gas attack. At 5:00 AM, with dawn approaching, Haig stepped outside the Château de Hinges to assess conditions himself.
The air was nearly dead calm. Mist hung over the fields. The leaves on nearby poplar trees were motionless. Haig called for his aide-de-camp, Major Alan Fletcher of the 17th Lancers. He instructed Fletcher to light a cigarette. The two men watched the smoke curl from the cigarette tip. It drifted slowly, almost imperceptibly, toward the northeast—roughly the direction of German lines, but with agonizing slowness.
The cigarette test told Haig what meteorological reports had already confirmed: conditions were marginal at best. A gas attack was extremely risky. The cloud might move too slowly, might linger in no-man's land, or worst of all, might blow back into British trenches if the wind shifted even slightly.
At 5:15 AM, Haig made his decision. He ordered the gas attack to proceed. In his diary, Foulkes recorded his assessment: "Wind was almost calm—SSW—very unfavourable for a gas attack but the battle could not be postponed." Engineers at gas emplacements along the front had been warning for hours that conditions were unsuitable. They were overruled.
At 5:50 AM, the cylinders opened. Within minutes, sections of the gas cloud stopped moving forward, hung motionless, then began drifting backward. By 6:30 AM when the infantry assault began, 2,632 British soldiers had already become casualties from their own chemical weapon. The 9th Highland Light Infantry never even left their trenches—the gas had incapacitated them before zero hour.
The cigarette test became one of the most controversial decisions of the war. Haig had gambled on inadequate information and lost. He would later blame Field Marshal French for positioning reserves too far from the front. French would blame Haig for requesting reserves too late. But it was Haig who made the final decision to proceed with the gas attack despite clear warnings. And it was Haig who, three months later, replaced French as Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force.
Perfect for viewers who love history shorts, military command decisions, and the catastrophic mistakes behind major battles. This short video is for educational and historical purposes only.

⚠️ WARNING: Contains historical descriptions of command failures resulting in mass casualties

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