Haig was an optimist, but this often came across as him being someone who didn’t know when to give up, which is certainly true after the heavy losses at the Somme.
In the years running up to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Haig occupied senior positions in the army. Between 1906 and 1909 he served as Director of Military Training and assisted Viscount Haldane (Secretary for War 1905-12) with the reform of the army. After a three-year interlude in India (1909-11) he returned in March 1912 to take up command at Aldershot, HQ of the British Army, and this was the post he occupied when war broke out.
Haig started the war commanding the commander 1 corps through large battles such as Mons, the Aisne and First Ypres, and then in 1915 he led the important first army before assuming his role as commander in chief of the British army in 1915.
He had gained this role due to his leadership qualities- he would never give up. He was a responsible leader, and had proved this with previous battles in Sudan, South Africa and India, where he had made quite a name for himself, following his potential after flying through Sandhurst. His knowledge and expertise regarding the cavalry were still valuable at the time, and he believed that the cavalry were so important, as in his first battle there was a large-scale Cavalry attack. He had worked hard for his position at the head of the BEF (army), but many of his experiences shaped him in less memorable ways. He grew up believing modern weapons were not as good as the cavalry, and his determination to carry on brinked on stupidity at the Somme, where thousands were killed over months of deadlocked attack. He so earned the nickname the ‘Butcher of the Somme’. It is quite clear that Haigs life up to Dec. 19th 1915 had made him get to where he was, but later on many of the things he had learnt about the military were proved obsolete, and would lead to Haig taking the role of a villain.
Q2- why did the Somme not achieve its objectives
Haig will forever remembered for the murderous battle of the Somme- a battle that is known as one of the most deadly battles of the war. Haig’s objectives were to bombard the Germans with artillery for a week before. Haig believed this would cut the barbed wire by the German trenches, and kill thousands of Germans. He then wanted to send wave after wave of solders towards the German trenches, which he believed they would walk into- literally. He would not allow the soldiers to run or even jog- it would have been a struggle anyway with the huge weight of full battle dress and equipment. However, the attack failed for many reasons. Firstly, I will talk about the artillery attack.
Haig planed the largest artillery bombardment of the war, involving millions of shells dropped over a week. The problem was that these shells were meant to cut up the barbed wire to allow the allied troops easy access to the German front lie when they attacked. However, the barbed wire was made into a tangled mess, no better than it was before. It was hard to see the effectiveness of the artillery, as spy planes could not be used, so Haig could be excused. On the other had commanders had told Haig that the wire wasn’t being cut, but being the stubborn man that he was, Haig ignored the advice, and carried on doing things his own way. In the few gaps that were cut, the British were sitting ducks, as the Germans aimed their machineguns through the holes in the wire and slaughtered the soldiers, and unbelievably 66 dead bodies were found in one small gap in the barbed wire. Therefore, Haig’s first objective was to cut the wire, and that failed. His second was to wear down the Germans, hopefully killing many. He even used high explosive shells. He thought that if the shells didn’t kill the Germans they would go mad at the constant explosions.
However, the Germans knew what they were doing, and had built intricate underground tunnels- so deep no shell could touch them, and none of the soldiers died. Most were so far underground (50-75ft) that the sound of the exploding shells would not have been too loud. In the end a massive mine was exploded, and the noise could be heard in London. It blew a massive crater, and was the signal to start the attack. The Germans knew this, and within minutes had set up their machine guns ready to slaughter the oncoming allies. Haig could have seen this. The largest explosion ever was obviously going to be followed by a mass attack, and the timing of the attack was not at all well thought out.
It may not have been Haigs fault that the Germans did not die. He had little or no intelligence telling him that the soldiers were alive underground, as weather didn’t allow spy plains to be used. However, he put such massive faith in a bombardment that could, and would so easily not work. I believe that this again shows that Haig really didn’t think about what could happen if the attack didn’t go right, and thought it would be a complete success.
The fact that the Germans didn’t die meant that when the allied troops attacked, the Germans mowed them down- as I said before they could predict an attack. This was also because of Haig’s rigid tactics- he told all of the soldiers to walk in a straight line towards the German trenches. This would possibly have worked had most the Germans been killed, but as they hadn’t the British were slaughtered. Haig would quickly have known that the artillery bombardment had not worked, and could easily have changed his tactics, after all, if his troops had of ran, they may have got to the trenches before the Germans made their way out of the deep tunnels, then the whole battle could have been totally different. However Haig would not budge, and I think that this again shows how poor a leader Haig was, that he would allow such slaughter to happen, and that he had such great faith in his own ideas, that he would not change them even though they were failing. His stubborn streak helped no one. In addition, Haig did not understand trench warfare, and how to capture an enemy front line. He had fought in many wars where the British had fought inadequate opposition with cavalry and won. Times had changes, and so had warfare, but Haig hadn’t. His background training told him little about how to tackle a trench, so the question has to be asked about how Haig was allowed so much power in the most important attack of the war, a make or break moment.
It seems amazing that the soldiers did as they were told. They stood no chance against the powerful machine guns, and were mowed down line by line. Haig envisioned the soldiers gradually gaining ground line by line, but the first line went over the top, and made maybe only 10 yards. For me the most shocking thing is that Haig allowed this slaughter to continue for four months. At the Ulster tower I learnt what happened when troops did run- they captured the German line with ease, but then bravely died as they were surrounded, as no one else had broken through, plus they were shot by their own artillery. Again, this whole scenario went on for four months, and Haig had no flexibility to his plan. His ideas were outdated; after all, he said that you could beat a machine gun with grit and determination- a baffling comment. How could a soldier beat rapid firing gun with grit and determination? If you get shot you die, it’s not as if you can just charge straight through the bullets, and put up with the pain.
The troops didn’t run because they were under orders to walk, and also because of the heavy backpacks. Due to poor planing they had to go across the Somme as heavily burdened as possible- a full battle dress and lots of equipment. This made work even harder, and the weight on the soldier’s shoulders would have been large. The gradient of the slope could also be taken into account. The British had to attack slightly up a hill, which could have proved vital, when putting it with the fact that they had heavy packs to carry. They ended up as no more than sitting ducks and Haig must be given the blame for this, as he was I charge of the army. He should have quickly got orders forward to remove some of the weight, but as with the walking in a straight line, Haig would not change a thing, and truly believed that persistence would pay off.
In the end the main thing that you can take is that the Somme didn’t achieve it’s objectives partly due to bad luck (weather) lack of intelligence, but mainly Haigs incompetence and stubbornness, particularly after the first day- 30000 were killed in just half an hour, but Haigs self belief knew no bounds, as did his ignorance and outdated tactics. When everything came together, it created the infamous battle of the Somme: One of the worst wars of attrition in the history of war where men died needlessly for months because one man would not change his tactics.
Q3- “Haig deserved his nickname the butcher of the Somme”. How far do you agree with this judgement of his record?
General Haig will always be looked at with disdain, and many people who know little about him think of him being an evil person, butchering people. He did not directly kill anyone, but his tactics of war lead to the death of a large portion of a generation of young men. The problem is Haig was a very secretive person, and it is hard to find an exact point of view to start form, as many historians have debated over Haig in the past. People have given him this nickname because he was in charge, so as a general Haig would responsibility for the deaths of all the young soldiers.
First of all the battle: the casualty toll was horrific. In Delville wood only 143b South Africans came out alive after 3150 had entered. In the first half hour 30’00 Brits and Canadians alone were killed, and in the whole war hundreds of thousands lost their lives for just about 400 yards. I think that Haig could be excused for the early casualty rate- it was hard to tell if the Germans had been destroyed by the artillery, but some intelligence had told Haig, but he would not listen. He went on with his grand attack, and when it stared to fail in many peoples eyes, Haig had his eyes shut, and would not stop his tactics of walking in a straight line, to get aimlessly mowed down by the emerged German machine guns. At first this may have been acceptable, but what was unacceptable to many was the fact that Haig was so stubborn and blind, that he carried on regardless. Thousands of young men could have returned home to their families, if Haig had not continued to be so rash.
However the historians who personally blast Haig will never have the facts to make an opinion of Douglas Haig as a person. Many people said that Haig was a great general and a reason for the eventual allied victory, and many knew him as a kind hearted caring person. He just was to proud to admit he was wrong, and would rather ignore others opinions. Defenders of Haig argue that he had few options and had himself been ordered to launch the offensive to let the French recover at Verdun, where there was heavy fighting. Another argument for Haig is that he was not used to modern warfare, and Haig tried his best in situations that he had never come across before. Another point to consider is that Germany had the most casualties in the battle of the Somme which shows that the tactics used by Haig did work, although they didn't work very effectively. It is not then entirely Haigs fault that he was where he was. He had earned his spot through passing military school and passing through the ranks, but he had always seemed stuck in an old division, still using cavalry. The French forts at Verdun on the Western Front, were getting slowly weaker and the French needed to think up a plan to get the Germans away from Verdun so that the forts could get back up to strength. So the French Commander in Chief Joseph Joffre asked Douglas Haig to make a counter attack at a different place. Haig agreed and chose the area around the River Somme for the Battle. The Battle at the Somme was originally meant to be a joint attack against the Germans made by the French and British. But because of the attack on Verdun on February 1916 it meant the Somme offensive had to be mainly fought by the British. This meant that Haig was undermanned, and without help from France.
Haig truly believed that the Germans were becoming exhausted, and so continued attacking. There were a few small victories, and perhaps Haig took them too serious and got carried away. Over 400000 Members of the commonwealth died, a huge toll. How many more would have died had the war not been stopped because of the atrocious weather conditions, partly caused by our shelling ? I tend to wonder why Haig was given such an important post, when he knew little about modern warfare, and there is no way that someone who thinks Cavalry will become more useful, and that machine guns can be overcome by determination should have been in charge of a modern army. It can be argued that few knew more than Haig, but his military background suggests otherwise, as he was raised in divisions that told him how good the cavalry was.
It is easy to understand why people hated Haig and called him a butcher: after all he was in charge of the entire army, and as the main general, he was the focus of all the blame- everyone knew who and what he was, and so it was natural to put the blame onto him, and quite honestly a lot of it may have been justified. His stubborn, naïve approach to the Somme cost him dearly, but calling him a butcher is very harsh. It is almost impossible fort Haig to want all his men to die. He is not an evil dictator, just an army general who got a massive battle wrong. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time, in a job he was inadequate for. He had no knowledge of modern trench warfare, and would never give in. But his is not entirely Haigs fault, as he had no idea what being the leader of the army was about. Many historians take swipes at Haig, but this seems justified. They did not know Haig, and those who did spoke of his anguish at the death toll. His heart may have been in the right place, but he did not have the credentials to take such a high job, despite his credentials.
I conclude that I think that calling Haig the butcher of the Somme was overly harsh, as those that knew him are likely to give more accurate accounts of what Haig was like as a person. Yes Haig was the wrong person for the Somme, but so would most people be. However he was not a butcher. It is easy to find an easy scapegoat for the British death rate, but perhaps some historians should look further and realise that Haig did not hire himself, and that deep down he probably cared deeply for the troops he commanded in the horrific battle of the Somme.
