The battle of the Somme was one of the most significant events in British warfare. Many people believed that the battle symbolised all of the horrors of warfare in World War One. There has been an ongoing debate whether Douglas Haig, Britain's commander-in-chief during the war, was right in leading many British men and even boys to their deaths. Most of these soldiers were brave and courageous volunteers and many people say that Haig ruined their lives and futures by getting them killed.
Haig believed in wearing down the enemy, no matter how long it took or how many soldiers’ lives were lost in the battles. Just before the Battle of the Somme Haig wrote ‘three years of war and the loss of one tenth of Britain’s men is not too great a price to pay’ but it was a lot more than one tenth. By using this tactic the British army lost around 20,000 soldiers and around 40,000 were injured in the first day! This is a world record. But this did not change Haig’s strategies. He ordered more and more men and more attacks but the same they had the same fate as all of the first soldiers. Haig ordered 50 tanks to join in the battles, but this was against the advice of the experts as they said he didn’t have enough. They were right. Twenty nine of the tanks broke down before they even got to the battle so were useless and the rest soon got stuck in the mud in the middle of no man’s land so they were just target practise for the Germans. Haig had fired over 1,730,000 shells at the enemy line within a week. Haig assured the soldiers that the shell fire would destroy their trenches and barbed wire before they got to their trenches so they wouldn’t be there for long and wouldn’t have a hard job. But how wrong was he. The German trenches were deeper and built with reinforced concrete so they could with stand a certain amount more explosions. Overall in the Battle of the Somme’ there were 620,000 French casualties, 450,000 German casualties and only 125,000 British casualties. Furthermore, there were a lot more German casualties than British so; surely this means that Haig’s plan was successful? Haig generally felt that this plan would work seeing as this was the way he was taught in the Military Academy but this was on horseback and this was a traditional and successful way of attacking so nobody was used to this new modern warfare. A quote from one of the most senior officers in the German army, General Ludendorff says ‘We had heavy losses in men and material. As a result if the Somme we were completely exhausted on the western front’ which proves that the plan was somewhat successful.
But did his plan really work? During the battle of the Somme the British forces only gained an area of land 25km long and 6 km wide and this isn’t very big compared to the area of the whole of Germany which is 357,000km₂ even for 5 months non-stop fighting. Many people found it hard to believe and lost trust and faith in Haig because of the fact that 88,000 allied soldiers died for every one mile we gained on the enemy.
But was this tactic really Haig’s tactic? General Haig was in charge of the western frontline army which means he controlled how and what the army did. But he didn’t have complete control as the British Government still told Haig what he could and couldn’t do. Furthermore Haig had little time to prepare for the battle as was put into the job at last minute. So he didn’t have time to think of any new tactics. This meant that he had to stick with the one he was taught and the one he knew well.
Haig in general could easily be named a butcher. Any person in any war could be called a butcher. In history, many men are rightly or wrongly given the same nickname. Though very few men actually deserve it.
So in conclusion, I would say that Haig doesn’t deserve the nickname, ‘’the butcher of the Somme’’ because the British army won the war, eventually and that was partly due to the Battle of the Somme and we killed more Germans than they did to us. He had a very good tactic and without it the war would have gone nowhere.
