How far does Haig deserve to be called the Butcher of the Somme?
This essay will argue that Haig was not the butcher of the Somme and will not agree with the title of my essay will also give reasons why Haig was the butcher of the Somme. The reasons why Haig was not are that the French were hard to cope with and the state of the British army and the reasons why Haig was the are of his personality, his tactics and the poor choice of the battle field
Haig was not the butcher of the Somme for lots of reason the France had a lot to blame for the Somme, before the Somme the French had committed the same amount of soldiers as the British but as the battle at Verdun went on they were pumping more soldiers into Verdun so this made the amount of soldiers they could put into the battle of the Somme they went form putting 25 legions to 2 legions which made a considerable difference to the battle at Verdun. This made the British spread out twice the length of the battlefield as planned this reduced the effectiveness of the army and also made the artillery bombardment less concentrated which made it less effective. Also Haig was scared that the French would quit the battle at Verdun he was forced to begin the attack before he was ready, this was not his and he doesn’t deserve the blame for this. At the beginning it was going to be a French and British ½ of the troops each so that is why the place of the battle was the Somme it was the only place where both side could meet, but this was bad. Another reason that Haig was not the butcher of the Somme, because of the state of the British army, first of all the troops was inexperienced so Haig had to give them very precise orders. There were also inexperienced officers because they had moved up the rankings too fast because they needed officers because they died so they needed more officers. They were not prepared at the time the battle started because the plans for the attack was originally was in August 1916 and it was moved forward to the 1st of July 1916 this was also because of the French. As usual there were trench lives horrors which made the troops less prepare for the battle of the Somme. The artillery crew were inexperienced this meant that they made a mistakes, they could not use creeping barrage because their aim was not good enough. Also they lifted the barrage 10 minutes early which allowed the Germans to get to the machine guns and artillery which lead to a lot of deaths, this was not just the artillery crew fault it was also to do with the difficulties in the communications department. Also to no ones fault 1 in 3 artillery shells failed to explode. There were problems with new weapons in WW1 the gas was not working very well in the attack of the Somme and had only just come out in the war at this time but at the beginning the gas came from canisters and gas can kill both sides because they did not have any gas masks. Also what else was there that Haig could have done, and he did achieve all of his plan for the battle of the Somme, his aims were to relieve the French at Verdun which he did do, his next aim was to “break out” and capture the high ground where the German trenches were which he did do and his last aim was to kill as many Germans as possible which he did also.
