In source B Haig says that the wire has never been so well cut. However this is contradicted in source C when Private George Coppard says that It was so thick that daylight could barely be seen through it

        Source C was probably written around the time of the sixties. At this time public opinion of the generals was not very high. It was easy for the public to blame the generals for all that went wrong during the First World War. Private George Coppard tells us how the barbed wire was not cut properly to the pointy in which light could not shine through it. He describes how as many soldiers were dieing on the barbed wire as they were on the ground. The tone is almost mocking the preparations of the attack and does not have a good word to say about it. Although this seems to be a more truthful account of the offensive it is only truthful to the part of the line that he was fighting on. This does not give an accurate account of the whole line but it can tell us how bad it was in some places along the line. George Coppard could have been influenced by public opinion at the time, which would have swayed his opinions. George Coppard was fighting in the war so we know this source is reliable although its bias its shows how the men in the battle where more aware of what was going on in the war than their general. This source tells us that in some parts of the line there were heavy losses and many soldiers were being killed however it is only true to one part of the line.

        In source B Haig says that the wire has never been so well cut. However this is contradicted in source C when Private George Coppard says that ‘It was so thick that daylight could barely be seen through it. How did the planners imagine that Tommie’s would get through the wire? Who told them that artillery fire would pound such wire to pieces? Any Tommy could have told them that shell fire lifts wire up and drops it down, often in a worse tangle than before.’ Tommie’s being the soldiers who fort in the war. Therefore I find source C more trust worthy as its first-hand witnessed knowledge, as George Coppard was present at the battle, and Haig was not. I think that what Private Coppard is saying is much more reliable that Source B.