The Germans were ready for the attack commencing 1st July 1916; they had seen the preparations and were expecting a large-scale attack. Consequently they moved their divisions accordingly. At 7:30am on the first day of the attack, the Officers gave the signal for the British soldiers to climb up out of the trenches and to capture the German trenches. For the week leading up to the first day, the German soldiers were lying in the dugouts fully prepared for the attack; they were waiting for the British advance.
When the British advance out of the trenches and are approaching the German front line, the German soldiers attacked with grenades, gas and machine gun fire. Many British soldiers threw away their rifles to ease their burdens but many found they could not find cover and died instantly. Many were shot as they tried to cut the enemy barbed wire or as they stopped to take in what was happening. By 10am the British had 52,000 men, either killed or wounded, most in the first hour. At some parts of the front line the British had gained their objectives but they were isolated without ammunition or supplies so they could only hold on for a short while before being killed or retiring. There was a total breakdown in communication; their own men were killing British soldiers when they reached the German front line, because they had failed to lift their barrage on to the German support line.
Men who were stuck on No Man’s Land would wait until night fall and crawl back to the front line stumbling on trenches from the mornings bombardment, this was not the case for the wounded, many of them died from shock or loss of blood, in agony on No Man’s Land the only sign of a painful death were the screams of agony heard by their fellow soldiers.
*************The Battle of the Somme was not a complete disaster on the first day, pressure was relieved from the bombardment on the French city of Verdun, the stalemate that had developed was broken, very little but some land was gained, the Germans morale was destroyed and they were worn down, the pressure on the Russians was reduced, Germany had been inflicted with large casualties. The main aim was to relieve pressure on Verdun; on the first day of the war 6 divisions were moved from Verdun to the Somme, which did relieve the pressure, just at a large cost to human life. Not everybody believed this; David Lloyd George said the following:
‘It (the Battle of the Somme) was not responsible for the failure of the German effort to capture Verdun. It was only an element in slackening up a German offensive which had already slowed down and was now a practical and almost an acknowledged failure.’
David Lloyd George believed that the Somme was only one element that led to pressure being reduced in Verdun and he believed that the Somme was a failure.
James Lovegrove, a lieutenant in the British Army, is very critical of Haig. Lovegrove believes that Haig, although he was just doing his job, cared nothing for the casualties. He also believes that the Government cared nothing for the casualties either because Haig was given a lump sum and massive pension after the war, Lovegrove believes that Haig should have never been in charge of men and blames his public schooling.
Henry Hamilton Fyfe, a Daily Mail reporter, met Haig on several occasions during the First World War. Fyfe was very disappointed when he first met Haig. Haig, although he looked the part of a soldier, he was shy and afraid of the media. Fyfe believes that Haig should be held responsible for the mass slaughter in the Somme battles and in Flanders, because he sent men to fight against ‘positions far too strong to be carried out by assault’.
Lieutenant Bernard Montgomery, a soldier in the First World War is very critical of his senior officers. Montgomery believes that because the Officers lived in comfort away from the front line, this was not the problem. Montgomery believes that the problem is lack of ‘touch and sympathy between the staff and the troops’, and that the Generals had ‘complete disregard for human life’. Haig did not know about the conditions in which the men were fighting in, Montgomery recalls an incident after Passchendale. Haig, before leaving said that he would like to see the Passchendale Ridge and the country. ‘When he saw the mud and ghastly conditions under which the soldiers had fought and died, he was horrified and said, “Do you mean to tell me that soldiers had to fight under such conditions?” And when he was told that it was so, he said: “Why was I never told about this before?”’ The Officers who were planning the tactics and giving the soldiers instructions to fight did not know what was happening on the front line. Yet, they still expected to win the war.
Charles Edward Bean, author of Official History of Australia in the War, is very critical of Haig’s tactics. Beans said the following: ‘A general who wears down 180,000 of his enemy by expending 400,000 men of this quality has something to answer for.’ Bean believes that the new volunteer army was ‘probably the finest army that ever went to war.’
John Buchan, author of Memory Hold the Door, believes that Haig was not a popular General because he had none of the lesser graces that make a General popular and it took ‘four years for his armies to feel his personality’. Haig ‘had difficulties with his allies, with his colleagues, with the home Government’. Haig did not try new tactics until the old ones had been fully tested. With Haig as leader we ‘incurred heavy losses, but these losses would have been greater if he had been the brilliant empiric like Nivelle or Henry Wilson.’ Haig took it upon himself to break through the Hindenburg Line in spite of the doubts of a member of the British Cabinet, because he believed that only this could ended the war in time to save civilisation. ‘He made the decision alone – one of the finest proofs of moral courage in the history of war.’ Haig believe that if he preserved with his tactics that he could win the war, he ignored everyone else’s advice and stuck with his gut feelings.
Sir Liewellyn Woodward wrote about Sir Douglas Haig in his book Great Britain and the War of 1914-1918 published in 1967. Woodward explains that Haig made up his mind that the war could be won on the Western Front in 1915, and only on the Western Front. Haig was right, but could victory have been won sooner elsewhere? Haig’s method of winning was ‘clumsy, tragically expensive of life, and based for too long on a misreading of the facts.’ Haig failed to know that the policy of attrition until the German army was worn down and exhausted, was not only wasteful and, a confession of impotence, it was also dangerous. The Germans may use it against him allowing him to wear down his own army in unsuccessful attacks. Fortunately the enemy generals were likeminded as Haig.
As you can see from the various opinions about Haig that many people were critical of his tactics, that is during the war and after the war. Even David Lloyd George did not agree with Haig’s tactics but was powerless to do anything, Haig has friends in high places and Haig hadn’t really done anything wrong, to put someone else in his place, would to start all over again with different tactics, probably with greater casualties until they found a tactic that worked.
In my opinion and the opinion of many others, the Battle of the Somme was a military tragedy, tactics and battle plans were not thought out properly, the lack of communication is shown through the number of casualties, they was a lack of back-up plans, too much stubbornness shown by the Officers and the fact that the Officers who had no idea what was happening on the Western Front were devising the battle plans it could be no more than a disaster. But that is not to say that it wasn’t a success in it’s own right, Verdun was relieved as were the Russian troops, the stalemate was broken, the Germans morale has been worn down and large casualties had been inflicted on the Germans. The main reason that people past and present see it as a disaster is because of the number of casualties, if the casualties has been smaller, would Haig still be seen as an incompetent leader?
I do not think that the Somme was worth the number of lost lives, but it did contribute to the winning of the war on the Western Front. If the Somme were not fought, would the Germans have won the war? The Somme can be used as an example to show people the consequences of war, to try to ensure that if there is another war that there will be no casualties amounting to that of the Somme. The nature of war is changing all of the time; Haig used his resources to the best of his ability to win the war, that’s what he was paid to do. He would not have purposely killed nearly half a million men because he felt like it and the men knew that there was the possibility of dying on the Western Front or on any front when they signed up for the army. To evaluate the war we have to see the big picture, if different decisions had been made would the number of casualties been greater or smaller, we cannot be sure, the only thing that we are sure of is that Haig believed that his plans would win the war and they did, just at a large cost to human life.
