Talk:Colin Mackenzie (British Army officer)

Battle of Fromelles

The following (to be found at [1]) makes me think that Mackenzie's responsibility for the above debacle has been overplayed: "The loss of 20,000 British soldiers killed during the Somme attack on 1 July 1916, highlighted the need to apply pressure elsewhere, hence the direction from Sir Charles Monro GOC 1st Army to Lieutenant-General Haking GOC XI Corps, to undertake the limited attack using two division supported by artillery, with a view to prevent the Germans withdrawing units from the existing lines and despatching them to the Somme. The task given by Haking to McCay and the British GOC Major-General CJ Mackenzie, was poorly defined, and inadequately planned as it did not have any significant objective, and as events soon showed, the artillery support that was so vital to the success of any operation conducted across open ground against well-defended enemy trenches and concrete pill-boxes, was lacking both in the preparatory phase and during the battle itself." 45ossington (talk) 07:40, 12 April 2010 (UTC)