Also anyone studying the battle must take into consideration that trench warfare was a new type of warfare which had never been used proceeding to this, so Haig and other generals had no experience in this type of fighting so could anyone have done any better than this?
Early historians looked at the first day and the huge casualties and came to conclusion that the Somme was a total failure. I however agree more with recent historians, such as Dr. Gary Sheffield, who have looked at the full account of what happened over the full 4 months of the battle and how Haig changed his techniques and battle plans in order to change the battle which has lead to modern historians labelling the Somme ultimately as a success.
Many things did leave Haig directly to blame for the massacre that occurred at the Battle of the Somme, which may lead many people to believe that the battle was overall a huge failure.
We have the benefit of Hindsight and are able to look as what happened, and the tactics Haig used, and see the flaws in his plan, and what they lead to. Haig however did not have hindsight in order to plan his tactics, and see what they would lead to. He was not able to see how horrific his tactics would turn out to be, and for this reason we can not take Haig’s tactics to be the soul reason for the huge death count.
Haig expected the battle to be fought much further into German lines, as their frontline had supposedly been destroyed by the week long bombardment. Haig used no measure to check whether all Germans had in fact been killed and the trenches were destroyed. Haig’s tactics of bombarding the soldiers with heavy artillery fire one week prior had given the Germans warning to begin preparing for what was soon to be an attack from the British. Haig’s tactic of burdening the soldiers with heavy equipment, so they could only walk across no-mans land also proved costly. Haig’s men were not only wearing boots which weighed 10lb and a helmet which was 2lb, but they had to carry 48lb of trench of other equipment such as repair kits, some of which was completely unnecessary. Having to walk meant that the soldiers were much easier targets for the German Snipers and machine guns to hit which resulted in the high death toll on the first day.
Also Haig was often sceptical of new military ideas, as he was as former cavalry soldier, who had been trained and had fought successful using horses. Since this was the case he held a rigidly traditional view of warfare. He was even reported to remark, “machine guns are over-rated” The enemy used a lot of machine guns and this tactic proved very successful to them on the first day.
Also since Britain failed to change their tactics, Haig still insisted on breaking through German lines using heavy bombardments. This made Britain very predictable causing it to be easy for German forces to prepare. Haig left Rawlinson to reclassify the overall objective of the battle to be “attrition of German soldiers”. G Hetherton, along with many other historians has said “When he realised the full-frontal attacks were not breaking through, he could have stopped them. The Germans’ advance had already been halted”
Another point which can be directly blamed to Haig was that he received false information from his troops, he was told that the battle plan, of attacking was very much a success, although this was not his fault when he did receive the right information and found out that the battle was not as successful as first thought he did not change the tactics used instead he carried on attacking and sending more men over the top.
The final point which I believe left Haig primarily to blame for the horrific scenes at the Somme was that Haig used the tank too soon, and ruined the surprise element which it could have had, if it were used later on when it were used too its full effectiveness, when it was completely ready. Since the tank wasn’t ready only 4 of the 49 assigned tanks reached Flers, the final destination. P. Simpkins, who author of “The First world war – The Western Front” wrote “Yet again the British offensive became bogged down and the oft-promised breakthrough appeared as far away as ever”.
In Conclusion it can be seen that Haig can be directly blamed for many reasons, he refused to use new military tactics and he was reckless with planning, he advanced into German lines without checking first whether German troops have been killed. This was the cause of thousands of men to be butchered; hence Haig was responsible because he didn’t take proper measures in checking if enemy lines had been destroyed. Also he refused to change or adapt his tactics to meet the needs of his troops which as G Hetherton stated he didn’t halt the attacks after word got to him that the attacks were failing, he just let hundreds more men go over the top to a certain death. However although Haig can be responsible of bad decision making, there were many unfortunate events which went beyond his control. The weaponry and training of Haig was not satisfactory to win a war. The tanks which should have been at Haig’s disposal got bogged down before even reaching the battlefield. Also it must be remembered that the Somme lasted 4 months, rather than just the day which has been recorded in history as a blood bath.
