Was it his fault? These are the questions I am going to examine in this essay. My main points will be that "Haig ignored reconnaissance" and to defend him "is the Somme really a failure and was it his fault

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Daniel Gardner

History Essay

Some historians believe that General Douglas Haig was a butcher because of the amount of people killed in action at the Somme. Others believe he was not to blame as many of the failures were mostly not of his creation. In truth, Haig is in the middle of this scale as the evidence and reasoning I am going to present.

General Haig studied at Sandhurst and graduated. He was then sent to India with his brigades, which were titled the seventh hussars. He came back from India in 1904 and was made Major General. He was the youngest ever. He was steadily promoted up the army ranks after this and made the full General in 1914. After the war, Haig dedicated himself to the Royal British Legion. He was made Earl Haig in 1919 and the Baton Haig of Bermersyde. This shows to me that General Haig was held in high regard by the British army and was obviously identified as a success and was well respected.

While researching Haig, I discovered that he was not a fully qualified general and he did not have the key experience. He came from  wealthy background and I think his families wealth had a bit to do with his appointment.

When people discuss the failure of the Somme, they consider the first day. This was when the British lost the most men on any one day in the war. The figure came to 57,000. That is about 40 men a minute. Was all this loss of life to do with Haig? Was it his fault? These are the questions I am going to examine in this essay. My main points will be that “Haig ignored reconnaissance” and to defend him “is the Somme really a failure and was it his fault”. In my opinion, Haig is more not to blame but some of his decisions are the wrong ones.

General Haig has lots of evidence saying he was to blame for the 57,000 deaths in the Somme.  

I believe the main reason for this was that General Haig ignored reconnaissance and proceeded stubbornly with his plan to pound the Germans with artillery. Haig wanted to carry on with his plans even though he was warned. This reveals that Haig again does not trust his men. This links into the fact he did not have a backup plan and the fact that he was very panicky when eventually he sent people over the top. A General must know what is happening to his troops on the battlefield, and a communication brake down between a General and his troops is always fatal. Nevertheless, you could say that if Haig's decisions were based on false information, maybe he was not entirely to blame for the implications of those decisions.  

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The attack was set for 29th June and, for about three weeks before this; every available British gun was brought to the Front so that finally there was one gun for every seventeen yards of enemy front line. Artillery fire began 7 days before the Somme offensive. It was thought by most of the officers that there would be little or no resistance on the day of the attack. This at first seemed to be a good plan but it gave a false sense of security and Haig was so sure that the plan would work he did not ...

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