During the battle of the Somme, the only battle that casualties were extremely high. During the first day of the war, after the seven-day bombardment of British artillery over German lines. The British infantry were told to cross over no mans land, at walking pace. Since the soldiers followed there orders and walked over no mans land knowing that some Germans may still be alive, was very brave in them, but at the end this led to huge amounts of casualties, this is another example of the soldiers bravery during world war 1, how ever there bravery led to there death at the hands of the German machine guns. The soldiers didn’t give up to; through out the whole battle of the Somme, soldiers were sent over the top, however as casualties increased, and as the soldiers realised that they would get killed if they went over the top, some chose to stay and not go over the top, but were forced to by the generals, and officers. At the middle of the war many soldiers were getting tired and frustrated of the never ending war, but as the tank was invented there morale rose, and determination to win this war increased, because they thought that the tank would help win the war easily.
As a conclusion, through out the war the soldiers have showed great bravery, and coward ness. Times of bravery when they chose to enter the war without conscription, and times at war when they were forced to enter the war, by conscription.
However the generals weren’t really involved in the war, but were there actions a bit like the actions of a donkey. During the first day of the Somme there was over 50,000 British casualties, but through out the war there was less then a 100 offices dead. Through out the war there has been times were the generals plans proved to be a success in some ways, and a failure in other ways. During the battle of the Somme, there were times of success and others of failure. There were two main reasons or the battle of the Somme, the first reason was to relieve pressure at Verdun were the French armies were loosing badly, the second was to destroy as much of the German morale as possible and lower there morale. The first part of the Somme was well planed, and the Germans started moving her troops from Verdun to the Somme, this is where the first part of the Somme offensive went according to plan, and the generals should not be characterised as donkeys. However it was the very badly planned second part of the offensive that made the generals in control look like donkeys. The seven-day bombardment of the German front lines was a failure, because the Germans hid in deep bunkers underground. When it came to the planes destroying the German artilleries they couldn’t see due to the clouds, this meant that when the British infantry were order to walk over the top, they took violent fire from the German soldiers. This was a badly planned attack by the generals; because they didn’t know what the German trenches looked like, and none of the generals had visited the front line so wouldn’t know how to plan a good attack. This badly planned attack which led to more than 50,000 British casualties, showed the generals as donkeys.
But was General Haig, the chief general of the British armies a donkey. There are many reasons why he could have been a donkey, and other reasons to why he wasn’t a donkey. The reasons that showed he was a donkey, is that he kept using the same plans over and over again, which was unsuccessful, because the plan was to let British infantry march over the top, which proved to be very un successful and gave high casualties, to the British Soldiers. Many historians so Haig as a stubborn donkey, who refused to listen to what other people said, and only wanted to do what he liked. During his years at the army training he was told that the best weapon was the capillary, but world war one was not seen before and lots of new weapons were introduced like the machine gun. He wouldn’t give machine guns to the brutish armies. So while the Germans were using machine guns, the British armies were still using rifles and horses. He never visited the front line during the whole of World War 1, and always kept a long distance between him and his troops. This meant that he didn’t know what life in the trenches was like therefore he couldn’t improve it. Many people blame the mass slaughter during the war on him, including more than 50,000 British soldiers killed or injured in the first daylight hours in the battle of the Somme. He never took a serious view of death and saw that there must be high casualties for a war to be won, which was very ignorant of him and told us that he didn’t really care how many soldiers died as long as the war was won. The prime minister at that time (Lloyd George) took the control out of Haig’s hand and made the French leader in charge of the British armies, due to bad relations between Lloyd George and General Haig, and because Lloyd George saw that Haig was doing a bad job, and he didn’t want to loose he election due to the high casualties, and deaths. Many historians saw the battle of Ypres as a failure, which shows that Haig can’t make up a proper plan. When the war ended there was a great crowd standing by to cheer General Haig, but historians think that the crowds were cheering because they were happy the war is over.
However, there were lots of reasons why he wasn’t thought of as a donkey. When he died after the war had ended, he was given a national funeral to pay respect to him. By 1917 Haig had developed the British army to become a flexible fighting army. He always took his studies seriously, which tells us that he knew what he was doing during the war. Other historians thought that him standing away from his troops and the front line was a good thing; because by staying away it gave him, time to collect data and react. Haig never had the full picture of what was going on, because the officer in charge of intelligence told Haig the good new not the bad news. This means that Haig wasn’t a donkey because he was given the wrong information, therefore thought that his plans was working. All the plans that he was making were what he was taught in military school, and know one else came up with any better ideas. The soldiers didn’t see Haig as a donkey. No matter what plan would be made, there will always have to be deaths in a war, this means that Haig’s plans were not bad because of the high casualties, because any war has high casualties in it. The reason the third war of Ypres didn’t go well was because the weather was against his plans. The British armies gained a lot of experience during the war and became a strong army. Towards the end of the war Haig has improved the use of artillery in the British army to mare it more accurate. Also the British armies of different areas (marines, infantry, artillery, air force) were able to work together in any circumstances to beat the enemy. This show’s that sometimes Haig wasn’t seen as a donkey, but as a leader who ended the war, and brought a victory to Britain and the allies. However there were other times when historians and the people, due to the high casualties, regarded him as a Donkey, but could a war be won without having high casualties on the front lines.
This shows us that through out the war there were many incidents where the soldiers acted as lions, and the generals acted as donkeys, and vice versa. I think that the British armies were lions, but weren’t led by donkeys, but by generals who did what they were thought to do in military school, and no one else had any better ideas at the time. So this war of attrition (wearing the enemy down) was successful in the end, also every other country was using more or les the same plan. This tells us that although people were blaming Haig for his bad plans, no one actually came up with any better ideas to win the war. So Haig
