Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig - War hero or butcher of the Somme?

General Haig also used tanks very badly during the war.  He decided to use tanks at the Somme when they were very slow and prone to breaking down so he gave the secret away.  He rarely used them on dry ground, where they were much more effective. General Haig tried to use new ideas such as the “creeping barrage” which failed killing many of the British troops because the guns were not accurate enough. The “creeping barrage” was when guns were fired just in front of the troops causing a big cloud of mist and flying shrapnel which the troops would run through, then more guns would be fired just ahead of the troops again. This would continue right up to the enemy lines; it would confuse the enemies so that they couldn’t see who they were trying to hold off. If the guns had been more accurate, this form of attack could have been very effective.

Haig was also considered a bad general due to him having had an advantage for years in numbers over the Germans.  For the few months that the Germans had a numerical advantage over the British troops they almost won the war. This also leads many to believe that we would have lost the war if it were not for America joining in.

General Haig was responsible for sending an entire generation to its death and for all these reasons was blamed by millions for the disastrous failure of the Somme.

On the other hand, some historians for several reasons may have considered Haig a good general. Firstly he had often tried to introduce new ideas into the war. He was the first to really support the idea of the tank that, to some extent, gave the British troops an advantage in that the Germans never had tanks. The tanks were not very effective, especially when Haig first introduced them during the Somme, if he had have waited rather than revealing the secret, the tanks may have played a much more significant part in the war and the Somme. He also helped the idea of the “creeping barrage”, even though this too was a failure. This information shows that some of General Haig’s mistakes of the war were due to the technology that was available at the time. The technology of that time meant that attack was always going to be more difficult than defence, though it was advancing.

Haig’s problems with destroying the German trenches were not entirely his fault either. Artillery experts had in actual fact, guaranteed Haig that the enemy trenches would be destroyed at the Battle of the Somme. This left a lot of the blame to the experts that told him this, not many would have disagreed with experts in the field.  

With General Haig’s plans of attack getting better all the time, he must have been doing something right. After all, the Battle of the Somme caused more casualties on the Germans than the British so his main aims of the battle, to kill and injure some of Germany’s best troops, had been achieved. The reason for planning this attack at all was also achieved; Verdun was saved.

In my opinion, General Haig was neither a butcher nor a hero; he tried to do his best by thorough planning. I personally think that others reasons were to blame for his plan failing. Artillery experts and the lack of technology meant that his well thought out plan did not go as expected. Though a whole generation was lost, this section was not planned and therefore not entirely his fault. Haig was not a hero, definitely not a butcher; he was just a good general.