4th December 2009
Does Haig deserve his reputation as ‘Butcher of the Somme’?
Sir Douglas Haig, was the leader of the British army throughout world war one. The most famous battle being: ‘The Battle of the Somme’. Sir Douglas Haig soon got a reputation for being the butcher of the Somme, however did he actually deserve this name, or was it all a misunderstanding?
The battle of the Somme began at 7.30 a.m on July 1st. Its main objective was to relieve the pressure from Verdan to help assist the French army, and consequently wear down the strength of the German forces. The Battle of the Somme saw the most death, out of the whole war. In the first day, 19,000 soldiers were killed and a further 60,000 were injured. This devastated the British army and many people place the blame soundly upon Haig’s shoulders.
Even due to the total devastation on lives, caused on the first day, of the battle of the Somme, Haig carried on fighting it for a further 5 months! Throughout this time, Haig never once visited the frontline and could not empathise with the soldiers. Instead he spent the whole time in a county château whilst his men were being ‘butchered’ on the frontline. He had extremely poor tactics and even used horses in battle. He started to use cavalry as a form of attack for over the top. However it clearly didn’t work and it was a huge forfeit to the British army. It was impossible for the horses to make the distance over the top due to the amount of obstacles. Apart from being constantly shelled, as they were always in full view, the terrain made it impossible for the horses. Pot holes, dead bodies and very heavy mud prevented any kind of attack. Another point is Haig never succeeded in cutting through the Germans barbed wire. This wire protected the German trenches from anyone trying to attack them. In order to successfully bombard the Huns it was crucial that the wire was cut. However, due to poor resources and planning, this was impossible. The shells sent over, trying to cut the wire simply flung it up in the air and it landed unharmed. In fact most the shells sent over to the German trenches failed to explode and with no back up plans it was a total disaster. This was all because of Haig’s’ haste and poor planning. One of the poorest attacks that the British performed took place over a seven day period. Haig came up with an unimaginative plan. He decided that he would continently shell the Germans for 7 days and 7 nights, this was supposed to completely wipe out the Germans trench of all life and then all the English had to do was go over to claim there land. However as soon as the shelling started, the German troops went underground into their trenches and simply waited for Haig to stop. As Haig decided to shell the Germans solidly for 7 days and 7 nights, as soon as there was a break in the shelling (on the 8th day) the Germans knew that the British were forming an attack. This meant the all they had to do was come out of their trenches and set up their own weapons. 150,000 men were sent over the top from the British trenches along the 18 mile front, all of them expecting no German survivors; however most of the British were killed by German guns. Also most of the shells sent over in the 7 day period didn’t explode and none of them managed to cut the wire. Also the British soldiers were not fed or watered for the whole period; they went the whole 7 days and nights, shelling the Huns without a single piece of food or drop of water! Is this the real way to treat your own army?
