Lions led by donkeys facts for kids
"Lions led by donkeys" is a famous phrase. It describes the British soldiers (the "lions") during World War I. It also blames their leaders (the "donkeys"). The idea is that brave soldiers were sent to their deaths by generals who weren't very good at their jobs.
A book called The Donkeys by Alan Clark helped make this phrase popular. It looked closely at how British generals led battles on the Western Front. This book shaped how many people in English-speaking countries thought about World War I for a long time. However, some historians didn't agree with the book's view that the generals were always bad.
The phrase has also been used for leaders on both sides of the war. It suggests that the war was a waste of lives. But some people argue that, for Britain, the war was "necessary and successful."
Where the Phrase Came From
The idea behind "lions led by donkeys" is very old. Long before World War I, the Greek general Chabrias said something similar. He believed an army of deer led by a lion was stronger than an army of lions led by a deer. An old Arabian saying also talks about an army of sheep led by a lion beating an army of lions led by a sheep.
During the Crimean War (1853–1856), a British soldier supposedly wrote home about a Russian officer. This officer said British soldiers were "lions commanded by donkeys." This was after a failed attack on the fortress of Sevastopol. If true, this would mean the phrase was used as early as 1854–55.
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels used a similar phrase in 1855. They wrote about the British army's mistakes during the fall of Sevastopol. They quoted a joke from the Russian army: "The English army is an army of lions, led by asses."
The newspaper The Times also used a similar phrase. It referred to French soldiers during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871). The paper said the French forces were "lions led by jackasses."
The phrase was used many times during World War I. It referred to both British and German soldiers.
More Recent Uses
In World War II, German general Erwin Rommel used the phrase. He said it about the British after capturing Tobruk in 1942.
More recently, in 2019, an anti-Brexit group in Britain used the hashtag #LedByDonkeys. They used it to point out what they saw as hypocritical statements from British politicians.
In Popular Culture
Many plays, movies, and TV shows have shown the "lions led by donkeys" idea. The musical Oh, What a Lovely War! (1963) is one example. The comedy TV series Blackadder Goes Forth (1989) also shows this view. These works often show incompetent leaders sending brave soldiers to their deaths.
These popular stories are like the writings of war poets such as Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. They are also similar to Erich Maria Remarque's novel All Quiet on the Western Front. Some historians, like Brian Bond, have criticized these works. They say these stories created a "myth" that the war was pointless. Bond felt that in the 1960s, these stories turned into a "nasty caricature" of the war. This made the true, more complex history of the war less known.
TV documentaries about World War I have also dealt with this idea. The 1964 BBC Television series The Great War tried to be balanced. One of its writers, John Terraine, argued against oversimplification. However, another historian, Basil Liddell Hart, resigned from the series. He felt it minimized the mistakes of the High Command during battles like the Somme.
While newer documentaries try to show a more balanced view of leaders, they are watched by fewer people. Popular comedies like Blackadder are still more widely seen.
The British anti-Brexit group "Led By Donkeys" chose their name because of this saying. They felt it described the relationship between the British people and their Brexit leaders.
