FIELD MARSHAL HAIG

GCSE COURSEWORK

FIELD MARSHAL HAIG: HERO OR BUTCHER?

1) The message the writer is trying to give is “The day goes well for our patriotic heroes.” Which means the British newspaper on July 2 1916 were trying to tell the people of England, the British army are doing well in the war. “Our” means as in our men and use that word when they are doing well in the war. “Patriotic” means proud of their country.

The cartoonist are showing a “British Army” hand punching a German over a map of the Somme. They are indicating that our Army are doing well in the war and that they are just about to win. They are also showing how strong the British Army is. Also back then they did not have any news reports they could of lied to keep up the hopes of British people back home.

2) The British launched an attack in the Somme area in 1916 because they had two objectives. The first one was to relive pressure on the French Army at Verdun and was to be obtained by the combined British and French offensive. The second objective was to inflict as heavy losses as possible upon the German armies as part of the “war of attrition”

General Haig had put General Rawlinson in charge of drawing up the battle plan, who was in charge of the British forces on the Somme. General Rawlinson did not tell General Haig what he thought, he told Haig what he wanted to hear because Rawlinson was too scared to tell him. General Rawlinson thought that the existing situation is so urgent as to demand that we should incur very heavy losses in order to draw a large number of German reserves against this portion of the front. Our objective seems rather to kill as many Germans as possible with the least loss to ourselves . The tactics were simple, they were as follows:-

There would be a huge artillery bombardment, and mines would devastate German positions.
The enemy’s barbed wire would be cut and the German trenches and dug-outs smashed.
The attacking British troops would be able to walk across no man’s land rather than run.
They would carry heavy packs and trench repair equipment so that they could rebuild and defend the German trenches and so stop the German retaking their lost territory.
British cavalry forces were also kept in readiness to charge into gaps in the German line.

I think General Haig was too confident of his men and ...

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There would be a huge artillery bombardment, and mines would devastate German positions.
The enemy’s barbed wire would be cut and the German trenches and dug-outs smashed.
The attacking British troops would be able to walk across no man’s land rather than run.
They would carry heavy packs and trench repair equipment so that they could rebuild and defend the German trenches and so stop the German retaking their lost territory.
British cavalry forces were also kept in readiness to charge into gaps in the German line.

I think General Haig was too confident of his men and his plan was not well worked out.

3) General Haig expected losses and got them, in June 1916 before the battle began he wrote “The nation must be taught to bear losses. No amount of skill on the part of the higher commanders, no training, however good, on the part of the officers and men, no superiority of arms and ammunition, however great, will enable victories to be won without the sacrifice of men’s lives. The nation must be prepared to see heavy casualty lists.” Which means no amount of good weapons or good training can win the war without the men fighting in the war and giving their lives to make their country proud, also the British Army were in a hurry to get their act together they were under experienced commanders but at least when haig said “ The nation must be prepared to see heavy losses” the doctors and nurses were prepared and ready.

On 30 June 1916, the day before the attack started he wrote “The men are in splendid spirits. Several have said that they have never before been so instructed and informed of the nature of the operation before them. Which means that they are in splendid spirits because they have the chance to make their country proud and that they have never before been so well instructed.

4)Source g supports source f alot because the way the cartoonist drew the picture of how the Tommies are getting ready for war. My theory is that one of the tommy is telling Haig that they cant get through the barbed wire because it is clear that there are no gaps in the wire as the Germans must have been reinforcing the wire for months and it is so dense that daylight could barely been seen through it.

5) Source h and I are good but I think the source which is more reliable is source h because source I are stills from the film “The Battle of the Somme” and could not been real, they could have been some actors fighting in trenches, but source h is a written account of a British soldier who experienced and quoted “ I saw men beginning to twirl round and fall in all kinds of curious ways as they were hit-quite hard unlike the way actors do it in films”. That’s why I think source h is more accurate, reliable and gives more evidence.

6) Sources and k prove that the battle of the Somme was a failure to the British and the French from the following books:-

“The war in outline” by Basil Liddell Hart, which was published in 1920s. British and French losses: approximately 614,000 men and German losses: approximately 440,000 men.
“The nineteenth century and after” by Sir Charles Osman, written in 1927. The British and French losses: approximately 560,000 men and German losses: approximately 560,000 men.

“The official history of the great war”, published by the British Government. (1938 edition). British and French losses: approximately 623,907 men and German losses: up to 680,000men. Which could be incorrect because the book was published by the British government, and they would want you to think that the German suffered more casualties than the British and the French.

7) I think Sir Field Marshall Haig had his good and bad times. Sometimes he was a good commander and sometimes he was a butcher.

Haig was a good commander for the following reasons:-

He lead the only Army to beat Germany
He lead the British Army, who made the German Army in the end plead for peace.
1918 British Army were better than the German Army because haig had learnt from his mistakes eventually.

Haig was a butcher for the following reasons:-