General Douglas Haig
GENERAL DOUGLAS HAIG Douglas Haig, a wealthy Scot and a good friend of George V was also a famous General who led Britain to Victory in the First World War. In the past 85 years historians have portrayed him in many different ways as being both good and bad. Sources C to L vary widely in support of the historian John Keegan's interpretation, which is 'General Haig was an efficient and highly skilled soldier who did much to lead Britain to victory in the First World War.' I will now examine and evaluate all the sources in order to draw a conclusion as to whether or not the above statement is correct. Having examined the first of these sources, source C; I noticed that it is one of the most balanced sources. The source begins by praising General Haig, referring to him as 'One of the Great Men of the Twentieth Century'. We also learn that the soldiers seemed satisfied with him as a leader - 'when the old soldiers were alive I never heard a word of criticism from them'. The writer of this source does accept that only now, through the passing of time, people are criticising him. 'In more recent time more pour scorn on my father'. This is due to the initial relief of the war now being over and people are looking into exactly what happened in more depth in the hope of finding an answer as to why such a large number of men died. Despite this quote I do believe this source
General Douglas Haig
General Douglas Haig was born on June 19, 1861. Haig was born in Edinburgh, the son of John Haig, who was head of the family's successful Haig & Haig whisky brewer. He went to University that was unusual for an officer. He didn't graduate which was quite common for men. The next year he did graduate and then was granted a special nomination to the British Military Staff College, despite being colour-blind. The next year he was selected for the 7th Queens Hussars and promoted to lieutenant shortly afterwards. In 1905 Haig married Hon. Dorothy Vivian, a daughter of Hugh Vivian. They had four children - Alexandra (born 1907), Victoria (born 1908), George (born 1918), and Irene (born 1919).Before the World War I he was the commanding officer of the 17th Lancers and within five years in 1904 he had become the youngest major-general in the British Army at that time. During the war Haig helped organise the British Expeditionary Force. He was the general of the British army in France. One of his plans was when the Germans were almost occupying Verdun that was thought to be the French's most fortified and protected town in France. He decided to take the mainly British army up to Somme where there were less Germans and they could overrun through the lines. He thought by doing this the Germans would withdraw troops from Verdun to stop the British from going through their lines. In the
Douglas Haig - Butcher Or Hero?
Douglas Haig Butcher Or Hero? Douglas Haig has been blamed for the slaughter of thousands of men who were under his control in World War One. The Battle of the Somme was one of his worst fights were 55 000 British soldiers died in the first day alone. After the Battle of the Somme, Haig got the nickname "Butcher of the Somme" This site is going to look at Haig and his life and help answer the Question "Was Douglas Haig a Butcher or a Hero?" It will also look at Haigs worst battle, the battle of the Somme. Douglas Haig was born on June 19th 1861. He was the son of John Haig, a wealthy owner of a whisky-distilling factory in Edinburgh. Douglas Haig was educated at Clifton College, Oxford and the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. After his education, Haig joined the 7th Hussars in 1885 and served in India. Haig also served at Egypt, South Africa and the Sudan and slowly worked up through the Ranks. In 1906 he got to the rank of Major General and was the youngest Major General in the British army at that time. When Haig returned to the United Kingdom he served as the director of Military Training and Director of Staff Duties. He was promoted to General, then returned to India for several years where he became Sir O'Moore Creagh's Chief of Staff of the Indian Army. From 1912-1914 he served as General Officer Commanding (G.O.C.) at Aldershot. In 1914 when World War
Painting showing Douglas Haig in uniform
Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig (1861 - 1928) Douglas Haig 'Kill more Germans' summarised Haig's strategy as Commander in chief of the British forces in France during most of World War One. His war of attrition resulted in enormous numbers of British casualties and his leadership remains controversial. As a young officer, Haig fought in the Sudan, in the Boer War and held administrative posts in India. From 1906-1909 he was assigned to the War Office, where he helped form the Territorial Army and organize an expeditionary force for any future war in Europe. When war broke out in August 1914, Haig led the 1st Corps to northern France. In early 1915 he became commander of the 1st Army before succeeding Sir John French as commander in chief of the British Expeditionary Force in December. In 1916 Haig was responsible for the Battle of the Somme, which cost 420,000 British casualties over four months for minimal gain. The next year saw further stalemate: the US entered the war in April but the French command wanted to stay on the defensive until the first of the Americans arrived. This frustrated Haig, who was subordinate to the French general Robert Nivelle. From May he was given more authority and determined to defeat the Germans with a purely British offensive. The resulting Third Battle of Ypres from July to November 1917 (also called Passchendaele) saw further enormous
General Douglas Haig Butcher or Hero?
General Douglas Haig Butcher or Hero? General Douglas Haig has been blamed for the slaughter of thousands of men who were under his control in World War One. The Battle of the Somme was one of the worst fights in the entire war and 55,000 British soldiers died in the first day alone. After the Battle of the Somme, Haig got the nickname "Butcher of the Somme." However after examining the battle in more detail, some people decided that he was a brilliant general who miscalculated, “a hero of the war”. So was Haig a butcher or a hero? Even at the time there were split views as to the moral standing of Haig. On one side you had the highly respected men who fought alongside him, but on the other you had the foot men (Tommies) and their families. Many of these men despised Haig, and arguably rightly so, but what is more important is why the hated him so much. General Haig didn’t get off to a very good start after sending a letter to a newspaper saying ‘this nation must be taught to bear losses. No amount of skill on the part of the higher commanders, no training, however good, on the part of officers and men, no superiority, however great, of arms and ammunition, will enable victories to be won without the sacrifice of men's lives’. This was basically declaring publicly that he did not care how many men were killed he just wanted to win. This probably did not affect
Was Sir Douglas Haig the Butcher of the Somme?
Was Sir Douglas Haig the Butcher of the Somme? Was Sir Douglas Haig the "butcher of the Somme"? This is my argument: Sir Douglas Haig started his military career off as the head boy of his class at a military college in Sandhurst. As he grew older he became more respected and worked his way up the promotion ladder. The idea of the battle 0of the Somme was to relieve pressure on Verdun. Verdun is town in France, which was under siege from the Germans. It was also planned to lift the spirits in the French camp and damage the German armies morale. At first the battle did not go as planned, no ground was made and this was meant to be an easy battle. The battle went on for a long time and hundreds of thousands of men from both the Allies and the Germans were killed. Haig and his men had very different views of how the war was going. This is summed up in two quotes. Haig said, "The work of our artillery is wholly admirable", this evidently shows that Haig is happy with the performance of his soldiers and that they are doing well in the battle of the Somme. But lieutenant J A Raws said, "It's horrible but why should people at home not know?" This statement clearly shows that men are unhappy, and the situation is not what Haig has made it out to be. Haig's diaries where used as propaganda to support the war effort back home. Propaganda is where usually the Government or people in
Douglas Haig was the butcher of the Somme
English Oral Assessment: Douglas Haig was the butcher of the Somme In this oral assessment I am going to talk about Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig, Haig was a war leader in the First World War who led the army on few occasions. One of his most memorable battles was the battle of the Somme; in this battle the allies suffered over 2 million causalities and over 500,000 deaths. We may have won the battle and the war, but at a huge cost. In this assessment I am going to try arguing the case that Haig was a fool who cost the lives of too many British soldiers. Johnny, the youngest of the Yorkshire pals. Just signed up on his sixteenth birthday, he is too young, but he doesn't care. He wants to do his bit for the country, make them proud. He's been shipped off to France, somewhere called the Somme. His first battle, his chance to shine. He lines up in the trench , surrounded by others that will ultimately suffer the same fate as him. Waiting, the stillness, the silence. The guns have stopped which have continually bombed the enemy for weeks. The emotions start to build, he will do his country proud. The Whistle - the long sharp blow. He climbs the ladder, others next to him, he climbs for victory, he he is shot, it went through his left rib cage into his lung, lactic acid forms and penetrates his skin, he cannot breath yet he cannot die, his heart still pumps growing weaker
Does Douglas Haig deserve the nickame of The Butcher Of The Somme?
Does Douglas Haig deserve the nickname of The Butcher of the Somme? World War One (1914-1918) was a war that truly did change mankind showing them what the harsh part about life is. World War One was also known as the Great War…but with the loss of whole generations of men what was so “Great” about it? The war consisted of many individual battles. Even though they were all significant in their own areas, a battle that really made a huge difference was the Battle of the Somme, where the British suffered 420,000 casualties. The Battle of the Somme was amongst the largest battles of World War One, fought near the River Somme in northern France. The purpose of this battle was to draw German forces away from the battle of Verdun. The commander for the British army was Douglas Haig, and he was later nicknamed as “The Butcher of the Somme?” But what happened that got Haig the nickname, and did he deserve it or not? Let’s look at some of the views and opinions about this nickname. What the British troops had decided, was to have an immense bombardment on the German troops, but this technique had been used so widely in the past 2 years of war and when the British troops started their bombardment on the 1st of July 1916, all the Germans had to do was go in their underground bunkers until they got a clear signal. Moreover, because the Germans knew what the British
Does General Douglas Haig deserve his reputation of being the Butcher of the Somme?
Does General Douglas Haig deserve his reputation of being the “Butcher of the Somme”? General Douglas Haig does not deserve the reputation of the “Butcher of the Somme”. He was unaware of situations in the battle field until last minute; his head was Lord Kitchener was a believer in attrition. He developed new tactics and it was in this battle when the Allies realised how to defeat the Germans using Tanks and the Creeping Barrage. On the other hand he got 60,000 men killed on the 1st day but as general Haig said “It was more important to kill the enemy than lose allies”. General Haig was situated in Paris, France during the battle of Somme and this meant he was very far away and the only means of communication was pigeons. The distance between Paris and Somme is 150km and because of had meant the commands were slow and delayed; because of this General Douglas could not command the battalions to stop going over the top. The commanders in the battalions, sometimes gave false information because they did not want to get demoted therefore General Douglas Haig made false decisions. An evidence of this would be when a false flare was reported by General Beauvoir De Lisle of the 29th Division led to General Douglas Haig to call on his reserves which ended up dying. This shows that General Haig was not the “Butcher of the Somme” because the communication problems
Considered assessment of the Great War career of Field Marshal Douglas Haig.
Omar Sharif Considered assessment of the Great War career of Field Marshal Douglas Haig. Douglas Haig was appointed as commander of the BEF's 1st Army Corps at the outbreak of World War One in 1914 with Sir John French as Commander in Chief of the British Army. By the end of 1915 it became apparent that Sir John French was ill-suited to the role and Douglas Haig replaced him as Commander-in-Chief. Haig became one of the most controversial figures in military history with tag-lines such as the "butcher of the Somme" and an "incompetent leader" being the most associated with him. His tough and decisive leadership style with apparent little compassion to the huge amounts of British deaths during World War One made him one of the most debated person in history with varying views of his leadership style. It is widely believed that Haig was unwilling to accept new ideas but stick to his traditional, military experience with reluctance to hear new ideas and recommendations. Major Desmond Morton who served as one of Haig's adjutants said "He (Haig) hated being told any new information, however irrefutable, which militated against his preconceived ideas or beliefs." This reliable source that gives an insight to the leadership of Haig goes on to say that John Charteris was being a sycophant to Haig and although he was an"incredibly bad" head of intelligence, Haig favoured him
