How useful are sources A,B and C to an historian studying the attitudes of British soldiers to their commanders during the First World War. Use sources A-C and knowledge from your studies in your answer.

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Question 1: How useful are sources A,B and C to an historian studying the attitudes of British soldiers to their commanders during the First World War. Use sources A-C and knowledge from your studies in your answer.

Source A: The British magazine “Punch” is intended for an audience of a younger generation rather than an older generation. The source tells me that the general wasn’t a very good general and that the real thing was completely different from a rehearsal. Because usually magazines exaggerate the truth a bit this doesn’t make the source completely reliable. So I don’t know how much of the truth is in the cartoon. This magazine didn’t really like General Haig. It was written at the time of the war in 1914. We don’t know an exact date because it does not say. I think this may be biased because it doesn’t sound like they like the General. I think this source has some knowledge but not that much because there is little information apart from they are about to attack and going through the procedures and some slight comedy at the very end. I don’t think the soldiers liked the Generals that much because of the quote in the cartoon that says, “The absence of the General, Sir.” I think soldiers did revolt a bit. The source is fairly useful because we find out the attitudes of the soldiers towards the generals. They don’t like the generals that much and I don’t think they had much respect for them. The last quote where the soldier said the absence of the general, sir is a sarcastic remark. In conclusion to this source I found this source fairly useful because I now know the attitude from the soldiers towards the commanders. The soldiers feel that the General is never there.

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Source B: This source is useful in studying the attitudes of soldiers towards their commanders. This source tells me that the soldiers do not have any respect towards their commanders. This source was written after the war in a series called “Blackadder goes forth” on BBC TV.  This source is not biased but I think this script tends to be on the soldier’s view. The intended audience for this is for everyone because there is comedy for younger people and for people who served in the world wars. The source is telling me that the Generals were pretty useless and ...

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