After the shelling was over the British Infantry started walking towards the German trenches (Haig had encouraged them to walk because it was more Gentlemen like than running). It was then that the Germans started machine gun slaughter. This was obviously a surprise to the British troops because they expected to find no one alive. An eyewitness account taken from the book “Eyewitness Accounts of WW1- written by D. Jones 2008” says: Infantry were seen moving forward from the British trenches. They came at a steady pace as if expecting to find nothing alive in front of our trenches. A few moments later, when the British line was in 100 yards, the rattle of the machine gun fire broke out. Whole sections seemed to fall……”
This account clearly projects that the British preparations were very weak. By the end of the first day the British had suffered 60,000 casualties, of which 20,000 were dead.
Today, years later, General Haig is still regarded as the arrogant commander who had disregard for the lives of his soldiers. Most of Haig’s critics are some of his own young soldiers, who complain that Haig himself never visited the front lines himself, and this way he could never empathise with the soldiers, rather he was safely, situated 50KM behind line in the trenches.
Furthermore, many say that Haig had failed to realise and accept the difference between trench warfare and the battles where he had trained and made his name as such a fantastic general, in paces such as the Boer War. Additionally, Paul Fussell (in his book “The Great War and Modern Memory”) gives his opinion on Haig saying that he was stubborn, arrogant and inflexible, and even though the Allies won the war Haig will always be remembered as a villain. He further states, that Britain was only successful due to braveness and courage of young soldiers.
As they say, every good story has two sides. And this story is no different. Putting aside all those negative comments, there are positive ones as well. Some historians such as Gordon Corrigan are actually sympathetic towards Haig. They defend him stating that if Haig was really stubborn and arrogant and not caring he would’ve never delivered victory. It is further stated that we should all bear in mind that Haig had to face an enormous amount of problems; there was poor battlefield communication since radios were too lard an telephone wires were next to impossible to lay under artillery barrage and this left generals little choice but to command from miles behind the front line, political interference, new inexperienced soldiers (who were just volunteers). One of the points that many critics use against Haig is that he told his soldiers to walk across no mans land and not run, but what should be borne in mind is that even the tanks in the war were not fully developed yet so they were restricted to a normal walking pace and it would get really hot inside the tanks so the soldiers weren’t able to sit in those tanks for along time, hence all the tanks were out of action within 48 hours.
In addition to this, modern historians also state that the mass warfare between the armies in WW1 led to huge casualties without it being anybody’s fault and even if a fairly easier way to fight did exist no one on any side discovered it.
Douglas Haig is also a hero to many around the world because after the war ended Haig opened up a trust fund for all the people that were either killed injured or left homeless in the war. As time passed this trust fund grew and it is now known globally as the Poppy trust.
“Everyone learns from their mistakes” This term applies to Douglas Haig as well. In my opinion Douglas Haig tried his best to adapt to change. Even though he was trained in a completely different war style, Haig tried to adapt as much as he could, hence the reason his troops were successful. Even though he made mistakes and they had horrific consequences, Haig made up for his mistakes later on by opening the Poppy trust. In my opinion Douglas Haig is a true hero, because of the things he did to fix the errors he made in his past.
Furthermore, I think that no one should really be blamed for all the lives that were lost in the war, because that is an obvious factor of war. While Douglas Haig was nicknamed “The Butcher of the Somme”, he was also nicknamed “Master of the Field”. This proves the point that Haig did have a lot of good in him and the ability to win. Personally, I think that General Haig did not deserve a nickname such as “The Butcher of Somme” because death really is unpredictable and no one should be blamed for it, and after all, The British troops did win.