Haig’s nickname was the butcher , he’d think nothing of sending thousands of men to certain death .
The battle of the Somme was planned as a joint French and British operation . The idea came from the French Commander - in – chief Joseph Joffe and was accepted by General Haig .
At first Joffe intended to use mainly French soldiers but the German attack on Verdum in February 1916 turned the Somme offensive into a large scale British diversionary attack . General Haig now took over responsibility for the operation .
Haigs strategy was for a eight day preliminary bombardment using 1500 guns backed by the same number of French artillery , this he believed would destroy the German forward defences .
Haig used 750,000 men , 27 divisions , against the German front line who had 16 divisions .
The bombardment failed to destroy either the barbed wire or the concrete bunkers protecting the German soldiers on the 16-mile front . The British lacked high explosive shells in their arsenal , the Germans remained safe in good defensive positions on high ground for the duration of the bombing . Major General Sir Beauvoir De Lisle, Commander of the 29th British division, can back this up . In his account he said “ The Germans had long forewarned of an infantry assault , to make matters worse the allied artillery had missed most of its targets .
Confident that the barrage has wiped out the German defenders and there would find empty trenches , Haig ordered the British attack . Haig wrote on 30th June 1916 . The men are in splendid spirits . several have said that they have never before been so instructed and informed of the situation before them . The barbed wire has never been so well cut, or the artillery preparation so thorough. The Commanders are full of confidence .
This shows Haigs interpretation of how the troops felt. Again he comments more on how well things looked and how thorough the preparation was.
At 07:00hrs on 1st July 1916 ( zero hours ) the British “went over the top “ and entered “ no mans land “ the aim was to seize , according to Haigs calculations some 4000 yards of enemy territory in the first day . But in reality the German machine guns sprung to meet them .
To the north general Edmund allenby and the British third army were ordered to make a breakthrough with cavalry standing by to exploit the gap that was expected to appear in the German front line . Further south , General Fayolle was to advance with the French Sixth Army towards Combles . In the first five minutes of the battle thousands were cut down by relentless enemy fire . The British idea of a quick victory soon faded .
Haig’s explanation of this in his book Dispatches which was published after the war explains .
“ The enemy position to be attacked was a very formidable character , situated on a high undulating track of ground . The first and second systems each consisted of several lines of deep trenches , well provided with bombproof shelters and with numerous communication trenches connecting them . The front of the trenches in each system was protected by wire entanglements , many of them in two belts forty yards broad , built of iron stakes , interlaced with barbed wire , often as thick as a mans finger . Defences of this nature could only be attacked with the prospect of success after careful artillery preparation .”
Many British regiments were killed still at the starting point . The 1st Lancastshire
Fusiliers and several other regiments from 29th division were pinned down in a sunken road halfway into the German lines . At the end of the first day the British suffered 57,470 casualties of which 19,240 were fatal . This was the worse day in the history of the British Army .
This source proves very useful because it comes from a book that Haig wrote himself admitting his mistakes.
George Coppard a machine gunner at the battle of the Somme , wrote in his book ,
“With a machine gun to Cambrai.”
The next morning we gunners surveyed the dreadful scene in front of our trench. There was a pair of binoculars in the kit, and under the brazen light of a hot midsummers day, everything revealed itself stark and clear. The terrain was rather like the sussex down land, with gentle swelling hills, fields and valleys, making it difficult at first to pinpoint all the enemy trenches as they curled and twisted on the slopes.
It eventually became clear that the German line followed points of evidence, always giving a commanding view of no man’s land. Immediately in front, spreading left and right until hidden from view, was clear evidence that the attack had been brutally repulsed. Hundreds of dead, many of the 37th brigade were strung out like wreckage washed up to a high water mark. Quite as many died on the enemy wire as on the ground, like fish in a net. They hung there in grotesque postures. Some looked as though they were praying; They had died on their knees and the wire had prevented their fall. From the way the dead were equally spread out, whether on the wire or lying in front of it, it was clear that there were no gaps in the wire at the time of the attack.
Concentrated machine gun fire from sufficient guns to command every inch of the wire had done it’s terrible work.
The British success had been limited to a few miles , and 2000 German prisoners . The French fared better in the Southern section , overrunning German positions taking 4000 prisoners and reported light casualties , facts taken from the Chronicle of the 20th century .
Haig was not disheartened by these heavy losses , he wrote . Very successful attack this morning . All went like clockwork , the battle is going very well for us and already the Germans are surrendering freely . The enemy is so short of men that he is collecting them from all parts of the line . Our troops are in wonderful spirits and are full of confidence .
Haig ordered Sir Henry Rawlinson to continue making attacks on the German front line .A night attack on 13th July did achieve a temporary breakthrough but German reinforcements arrived in time to close the gap . Haig believed the Germans were close to exhaustion and continued to order further attacks expecting each one to achieve the necessary breakthrough . Although some victories were achieved , for example , the capture of Pozieres on 23rd July these gains could not be successfully followed up .
On 15th September General Alfred Micheler and the Tenth Army joined the battle in the south at Flers-Courcelette . Despite using tanks for the first time , Michelers 12 divisions gained only a few Kilometers . Whenever the weather was appropriate General Haig ordered further attacks on German positions at the Somme and on 13th November the B.E.F. captured the fortress town of Beaumont Hanes , however heavy snow forced Haig to abandon his gains .
With the winter weather deteriating Haig brought an end to the Somme offensive after giving in to pressure from his subordinates he finally acknowledged the offensive failure .
From the 1st July to 28th November the British had suffered 420,000 casualties , the French 195,000 , and 650,000 Germans stopping them .
The battle of Passchendaele .
The third battle of Ypres , also known as the battle of Passchendaele took place between July 31st and November 8th 1917 .
General Haig was encouraged by the gains made at the offensive at Messines in July 1917 . He was now convinced the German army was close to collapse .
On July 18th the British and French started a massive barrage on the German lines . Ten days of preliminary bombardment , with 3000 guns firing 4.25 million shells . This was also the first time in the war that aeroplanes were employed in substantial numbers over the battlefield .
Information taken from The Chronicle of the 20th century , “ Todays comminque speaks of fierce fighting in the air , with twelve German machines brought down and five others driven down out of control , twelve British planes were lost .
The British offensive started at Ypres at 03:00hrs on 31st July .
The German forth army held off the main British advance and restricted the British to small gains on the left of the line .
The British High Command had learned nothing from the Somme and Ypres , once again artillery would play a large role in the failure of the offensive .
The bombardment , coupled with double the average rainfall , wrecked the network of streams and dykes upon which the Flanders drainage systems depended .
William Beach Thomas reported in the Daily Mail 2nd August 1917 .
Floods of rain and a blanket of mist leave doused and cloaked the whole of the Flanders plain . The newest shell holes , already half filled with soakage , are now flooded to the brim . The rain has so fouled this low , stoneless ground , spoilt of all natural drainage by shell fire , that we experienced the double value of the earlier work , for today moving heavy material was extremely difficult and the men could scarcely walk in full equipment . Every man was soaked through and was standing or sleeping in a march . It was a work of energy to keep a rifle in a state fit for use .
Eventually Sir Douglas Haig called off the attacks and did not resume the offensive until late September .
Attacks on 26th September and 4th October enabled the British forces to take possession of the ridge east of Ypres . Despite the return of heavy rain , Haig ordered further attacks towards the Passchendaele ridge . Attacks on the 9th and 12th October wre unsuccessful . As well as the heavy mud , the advancing British soldiers had to endure Mustard gas attacks .
Three more attacks took place in October and on 6th Novermber the village of Passchendaele was finally taken by British and Canadian infantry .
The offensive cost the B.E.F 310,000 casualties .
Conclusion .
It was a balanced account , the tactics Haig used were the best that anyone could bring up at the time , that particular tactic had been successful in previous battles under different Commanders .
The historian John Terraine has consistently argued for forty years that Britain fought the war as well as could be expected under the circumstances . According to Terraine , there was no alternative to launching the offensives at the Somme and Passchendaele
And therefore it is no use looking for the causes of the high British losses beyond the strength of the enemy and the technical character of the war itself .
However it is partically due to his own incompitance that his tactics were never changed . He ignored the fact that the French were doing considerabley better than the British forces and that his own men were not even covering half the distance of their French allies .
Lions led by Donkeys , was the interpretation of the British soldiers and Generals on the Western Front 1914 to 1918 .
The source proves that the Soldiers and lower ranks of Officers were the only one’s who really knew what was going on .
However if we are prepared to criticise Hiag and his army commanders for their mistakes in 1916 and 1917 , then it is perhaps only fair that , at the same time , they should receive due credit for their decisive , but forgotton victories in 1918 .
