John Keegan, a modern military historian suggests that Haig was an efficient and highly skilled soldier who did much to lead Britain to victory in the First World War. Is their sufficient evidence in sources A to H to support this interpretation? Us

Authors Avatar

Question 3

John Keegan, a modern military historian suggests that Haig was an ‘efficient and highly skilled soldier who did much to lead Britain to victory in the First World War’. Is their sufficient evidence in sources A to H to support this interpretation? Use the sources and your own knowledge to explain your answer

Source A is written by General Haig as a report of the battle of the Somme. Haig is writing to the prime minister of the time David Lloyd George and the rest of the political cabinet. Haig is being criticised about his tactics and thinks that if he shows confidence he won’t loose his job. This source is very biased and just shows Haigs opinions and views of the outcome of the battle of the Somme it shows this by him not stating all the facts and not mentioning the bad points and even when he does mention a bad point he barely touches the subject and goes straight on to a good point. However Haig does mention one fact that the German losses were greater than the British even though not by much German casualties 500,000 British casualties 420,000. Also, Haig mentions about the Germans being practically beaten men and were ready to surrender also expecting defeat and once again this comment is biased because there are no facts supporting this statement also Germany battled strongly until the end of the First World War

Join now!

1918

Source B is a poster of Haig pointing to himself saying ‘your country needs me’ this is very sarcastic then underneath it says ‘like a hole in the head which is what most of you are going to get’ this is very critical of Haig’s leadership as it is saying we are all going to die with ‘a hole in the head’ if we join Haig’s army also it criticises Haig by saying that he is useless and is doing nothing to help Britain win the war and that he is losing Britain the war and it is ...

This is a preview of the whole essay