ABSTRACT
At the beginning of 1918 a struggle took place for control over the conduct of the war on the Western Front between Haig and his supporters on the one hand, and the British prime minister, Lloyd George and his supporters, on the other hand. One way for Lloyd George and the War Cabinet to exert control over the Western Front was to regulate the flow of manpower, and this was attempted. Another method was to change key personnel at GHQ in France, as well as the CIGS, and this was done. Finally, there was an attempt on the part of certain individuals, particularly Winston Churchill as Minister of Munitions, to change the way the war was actually fought on the Western Front. This took the form of a concerted effort to replace the traditional infantry-artillery form of warfare with a manpower-saving mechanical form of warfare, employing such weapons as tanks, aeroplanes, machine guns, mobile mortars and gas. This potential shift in the conduct of the war generated a stiff debate through the first half of 1918 and beyond, between the mechanical and traditional warfare supporters, particularly over the role of the tank.
