Mars & Clio January 2021 81 or questioning a Corps Commander on the position of a particular battery. Into this mix one then inserts the institutional facility of General Staff officers to contact colleagues and question the decisions of their chiefs behind their backs, sometimes with a seasoning of regional animosity — the tension between kingdoms such as Bavaria who regarded themselves as members of a federation in which the most powerful member, Prussia, tended to take decisions without consultation. Against all these difficulties Rupprecht remained broadly confident of a successful outcome to the war. Notably, he was more optimistic in October 1917 than he was 12 months earlier. Once Operation Michael started however, he was disconcerted by Ludendorff’s meddling at the tactical level and at what he saw as floundering at the operational. Advancing where he could as opposed to aiming at specific objectives. And what was his role if Ludendorff issued orders direct to his subordinates? Rupprecht’s comments about the Kaiser's short attention span and the impact of his petulant outbursts have an immediate and word for word contemporary resonance... Many thanks to Jonathan Boff for keeping the grey cells stimulated against the excesses of seasonal food and wine. I heartily recommend Haig’s Enemy as a highly readable study of the German Army in action between 1914 and 1918. MAJOR-GENERAL OLIVER NUGENT: THE IRISHMAN WHO LED THE ULSTER DIVISION IN THE GREAT WAR Nicholas Perry Hardback, £19.99, 308 pp., Newtownards: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2020 ISBN: 9781909556829 Brian Curragh Oliver Nugent was an efficient divisional commander but his political views led to an almost total collapse in his relationship with James Craig, the Ulster Unionist leader, while his relationship with Haig was strained at the very least. Commander of the 36th (Ulster) Division, he was a supporter of an all-Ireland political solution during the Home Rule debate, supported conscription on the island and is the subject of this biography by BCMH member Nicholas Perry. Perry retired in 2018 after 37 years as a civil servant, concluding as a Permanent Secretary at the Department of Justice for Northern Ireland. Having read History at TCD, he is currently researching the Irish landed class and the British Army 1775-1903 at the University of Kent. This postgraduate research will build on his articles ‘ Nationality In The Irish Infantry Regiments in The First World War’ and ‘The Irish Landed Class and the British Army, 1850- 1950’. 1 Here, he returns to a subject he is very familiar with — Major General Sir Oliver Nugent, KCB DSO. In 2007, Perry edited a collection of Nugent’s correspondence covering 1915 to 1918 based on his papers held by PRONI. 2 This new biography uses this collection but extends the analysis through extensive use of family papers alongside the correspondence of key subordinates to provide a more nuanced depiction of Nugent. 1 War & Society, vol.12 no.1 (May 1994); War In History, 2011-07-01, Vol.18 (3), p. 304-332. 2 Nugent, Oliver, and Perry, Nicholas. Major General Oliver Nugent and the Ulster Division 1915-1918 . (Stroud: Sutton Pub., 2007).