These two sources are not about Haig and The Battle of the Somme. How far do you agree that they have no use for a historian studying Haig and The Battle of the Somme?

Rose Worrall

History Coursework

Question 2c

Study sources D and E.

These two sources are not about Haig and The Battle of the Somme. How far do you agree that they have no use for a historian studying Haig and The Battle of the Somme?

Sources D and E are both picture sources, D is a still from Blackadder goes forth a TV series from the 1980’s. It shows two officers, Blackadder and George Percy, discussing an imminent attack on the Germans. Source E is a cartoon from after the battle of the Somme and before Paschendaele, Punch, February 1917.

Both Sources are relevant to Haig and The Battle of the Somme. At first they might appear to have no relevance, but after analysing each source carefully. Source E does speak directly about Haig, and source D does, but they certainly do imply that Haig was incompetent and uncaring in the battle of the Somme.

Firstly source D does mention Haig, the impression we get of Haig in this is that he cares not for his soldiers who are ‘all going to get killed’ but about being in a luxury château with his comfortable surrounding, just hearing about the battle not being there to witness and support the hard times that his men where going through at the time. This is backed up by Blackadder when he said, ‘Clearly Field Marshal Haig is about to make another giant effort to move his drinks cabinet six inches closer to Berlin.’ This would be useful to a ...

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Firstly source D does mention Haig, the impression we get of Haig in this is that he cares not for his soldiers who are ‘all going to get killed’ but about being in a luxury château with his comfortable surrounding, just hearing about the battle not being there to witness and support the hard times that his men where going through at the time. This is backed up by Blackadder when he said, ‘Clearly Field Marshal Haig is about to make another giant effort to move his drinks cabinet six inches closer to Berlin.’ This would be useful to a historian because it shows that Haig was not around for his men. Source E also supports this, ‘Major-General: (addressing the men before practising an attack behind the lines). “I want you to understand the difference between the rehearsal and the real thing. There are three essential differences: first the absence of the enemy. Now (turning to the regimental Sergeant-Major) what is the second difference?”. Sergeant-Major: “the absence of the General, Sir.”’ This is intended to be quite comical. This source never actually says that the person they are talking about is Haig but if you look at the picture they are addressing a man who looks like the spitting image of Haig. He is dressed in his cavalry uniform and had a moustache. So they are unmistakeably implying that it’s Haig they are talking about.

We know that source D is potentially a very reliable source. As the show was filmed in the 1980’s then I believe they will have quite accurate sources. Although they where not present at the time of the battle. But with all good television programmes in order to be successful they must have researchers to research what happened and unlike at the time of the battle, the researchers will get the whole picture of what exactly happened, with know biased opinions so I do believe that this is a very reliable source for a historian. On 8th August 1914, the passed the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) without debate. During the war publishing information that was calculated to be indirectly or directly of use to the enemy became an offence and accordingly punishable in a court of law. This included any description of war and any news that was likely to cause any conflict between the public and military authorities. Source E was an exception to this as there was no mention of Haig and could have been just a cartoon that was not related to the war.

In conclusion I believe both sources are reliable and better yet they support each other. A historian would be able to use this sources knowing they would be reliable.