“The nation must be prepared to see heavy casualty lists.”
The nation must, he said, this suggests that Haig was quite insensitive and that he did not care about the lives of his men. It implies that there was no question about it, men were going to die and there was nothing anybody could do about it.
In Source B however, the extracts of Haig portray a great deal more concern, it appears that he did care about the lives of his men, as he seemed very keen to relate that their spirits were high and that they were doing well. He appears to be more involved with his troops and complimented them, very different to in Source A where he had no optimism or positive comments about his troops whatsoever.
Source B suggests that there was more to Haig than was first thought; it then gives the impression that Source A most probably was not the complete document and so that should be taken into consideration.
In source A, Haig may have just been being practical, he may have been trying to relate to people that men were going to die and people would have to take into account the seriousness of the situation. He may have been writing pessimistically to protect himself, so that if many troops did perish, it would not come as a shock and people would not blame him as he had already pre-warned them.
In a way the population were quite naïve, because they believed the army to be a “true” army. This was because it was, a high morale, volunteer army (not conscripted) that meant they did not think any harm could come to the troops. Haig had to raise awareness of the true facts of war, he knew about the horrors of Verdun and therefore had to try and relate this to the population by appearing uncaring, when he was really only trying to get straight to the point and prepare them for what may happen.
