“First the absence of the enemy….the absence of the general.”
This suggests to us that General Haig is scared of what is going to take place in the battle and so we immediately doubt his leadership skills. Although this cartoon is comical and entertaining, it also has a serious undertone as it has truth to it. From research I have found out that Haig wasn’t present at the front line and that he was, in fact a few miles away, this shows that the source does have relevance and holds some truth. However this source would not be very useful to the historian studying the attitudes of the British as it doesn’t actually tell you what they thought, only what the public or magazine workers thought. In order for this source to be more useful it could contain soldier’s thoughts or opinions and what the Generals orders were.
Another sarcastic view of Haig’s tactics comes from source B. This source is made up of quotes from a Blackadder episode, again we know that this programme is set out to entertain and takes a sarcastic approach rather than a serious one. The source refers to the commanders as
“Captain ‘insanity’ Melchitt”
and refers to the battle as
“A mass slaughter”
Because of this we again doubt the commander’s skills and capabilities and the source is telling us that this is also the public perception. Similarly to Source A the source does not give a soldiers opinion and only shows the opinion of the public. And although the actors are meant to be soldiers at the battle of the Somme, we still have no factual evidence of what the actual soldiers thought. Therefore it is un useful to the historian. Additional information which would make the source more useful could be soldier’s diaries extracts and facts about the commander’s tactics.
In contrast to Sources A and B, source C agrees with the commanders tactics and praises them. This is because the source is extremely biased as it has been written by Earl Haig, the son of Field Marshall Haig. Because of this the source loses virtually all reliability as Earl Haig will not publicly badmouth his father. This source is also the first source to suggest soldier’s feelings towards Haig. Unfortunately these are also questionable. The source states:
“When the old soldiers who fought in the war were alive, I never heard a word of criticism from them.”
This is questionable as I am sure the soldiers would not have criticised his father to his face. I also know from personal knowledge and from studying other sources that the soldiers disagreed with the commander’s leadership tactics.
From a source written by Lieutenant J.A Raws he states:
“I honestly believe that Goldie and many others were murdered through the stupidity of those on authority.”
This shows the actual viewpoints of the soldiers, some thing which none of the sources do. In order for this source to be more useful it could include the number of deaths i.e. 60 000 on the first day of battle, and some quotes from the soldiers that Earl Haig talked to, this would make the source also become more reliable.
For the aforementioned reasons I have come to the conclusion that, although the sources show certain opinions about the commanders, they are not useful to an historian studying the attitudes of British soldiers. In order for them to be useful they must contain actual quotes from soldiers i.e. like that of Lieutenant J.A Raws.