Battle Of The Somme Coursework 2

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Battle of the Somme coursework- Question 3

   This questions asks of me to study Sources D and E. These two sources are not about Haig and the Battle of the Somme. I must show how far I agree that they have no use for the historian studying Haig and the Battle of the Somme. Source D is taken from Blackadder, set in 1917, and is showing two officers discussing an imminent attack on the Germans. When discussing the attack about to commence, Blackadder makes the comment, “You mean ‘Are we all going to get killed?’ Yes.”. This shows the view that many soldiers did not have belief in this tactic and believed it to be a complete loss of soldiers, not an attack. Next he goes on to say that “Clearly Haig is about to make yet another giant effort to make his drinks cabinet six inches closer to Berlin.” This statement has a double meaning- that Haig is living in a luxury place (chateau), whilst the soldiers are in trenches (which he doesn’t visit), but also that a lot of effort is being made, and a lot of lives wasted, for not much success. This Source reflects modern views of Haig and the war, it does not agree with him.

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   The next source, Source E, is a cartoon which is criticising Generals in the war. Some background information is that most Generals were middle ranking ones, and chosen as an easy option, not because of their capabilities usually. Another fact was that the Generals would be with their men during practise, but not during the real thing. This is a criticism. A quote from the source was “there are three essential differences… (Between a rehearsal and the real thing)… first the absence of the enemy… what is the second difference?... The absence of the General, Sir.” This does not ...

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