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Jim, I still think you exaggerate how completely new "stormtroop" tactics were in 1918. I'm going on P.Griffith "Battle Tactics of the Western Front: The British Army's Art of Attack" (Yale 1994) mostly here. Which BTW is an excellent read. But J.Bailey "The 1st World War and the Birth of the Modern Style of Warfare" (Strategic & Combat Studies Inst, 1996) seems to agree too. They see evolution through Verdun, Somme, Ypres, 1918, rather than revolution.
As for Haig not doing the attrition business as efficiently as he might have, I would agree. But I think his desire for breakthroughs (as well) was understandable, as does John Terrain (military historian and one of Haig's biographers):
"When wars are long over, people tend to forget how compelling was the desire to finish them. The generals of WWI are often spoken and written about as if they engaged in murdrous battles for their own sake. The truth is that General Joffre's costly battles of 1915 were inspired by the desire to end the war in that year, and thus staunch the flow of his country's life-blood. The Allied offensive of 1916 had the same aim. General Nivelle, in early 1917, was trying to end it with a single mighty stroke in 48 hours; Field-Marshal Haig was also trying to end the war, in his Flanders ("Passchendaele") offensive. Field-Marshal Montgomery's object, with his single-thrust strategy in 1944, was similar. It is by no means a wicked motivation - the contrary, in fact. But it is not often easy to accomplish." (*)
I think this desire to breakthrough and end it all - and at the same time, the knowledge that attrition was on the Allies' side - explains why he was prepared for heavy casualties in the opening phase of a battle, and also why he was then prepared to continue it, after hope of a sudden breakthrough had disappeared.
Of course he made mistakes along the way, but I don't think they justify the huge amount of criticism dumped on his memory - particularly the criticism that he just didn't care about mens' lives.
(*) p.792, "The Right of the Line" J.Terrain (Hodder & Stoughton, 1985)
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