lost their lives. The Somme had been the bloodiest battle of the war.
It earned field Marshall Haig the title ‘The Butcher of the Somme’.
Haig had planned to use his the large artilary guns at his disposal to destroy the German artillery and their trenches. This main objective was to destroy the German barbed wire, so his men would find it easy to reach the German trenches.
But in reality all this did was lift the barbed wire up and put it back down again somewhere else. He also didn’t manage to kill all of the German soldiers because they were safely hiding under the trenches in deep dug outs.
Haigs views on modern warfare were out of touch, he believed that the machine gun was an overrated weapon. Even though most of the 60,000 men killed on the first day were killed by machine guns. Haig also believe that men should walk over no-mans land. Even though this made them easy targets. He didn’t believe in modern tactics, where a group of men run forwards then another group covers those men. So men were under cover for longer and could use the element of surprise as a weapon.
Haig believed that winning a battle depended mainly on morale and determination. But he never visited the front-line to boost mens morale like other generals had done.
Haig said after the first day that ‘everything had run like clockwork’
But how can this be possibly be the case if sixty thousands British troops lost their lives. In the same report he said “Our troops are in wonderful spirits and full of confidence.
Again, how is it possible for Field Marshal Haig to know this if he has never visited the Front Line?
When you first look the evidence you must realise that Haig’s views on modern warfare were inline with what most people thought at the time. Haig believed that the country had to expect ‘heavy losses’.
This shows that he expected many men to loose their lives for Britain to win the war.
Modern historians have said that Haig should have called a halt to the advance after heavy casualties but he may have been told something different. It has been reported that he was told that the bombardment had destroyed the barbed wire, which it hadn’t. These two pieces of evidence show that Field Marshall Haig had been receiving inaccurate intelligence reports.
The main argument in the favour of people who belive that Haig does not deserve the reputaion of “the butcher of the somme”. Is that Britain went on to win the war. However I still think that the enourmous loses at the Battle of the Somme are inexcusable.
Many Modern historians and soldiers from the battle believe, like me that Haig deserves the tittle of the “butchur of the Somme”
“Our High Command had not advanced beyond the tactics of the Stone Age … except to throw into battle large numbers of men month after month.” This extract was written by Lovat Fraser, a British soldier. He clearly shows what he thought of Field Marshall Haig tactics when he said they had not advanced beyond the Stone Age. But what this point fails to tell us is how he would have tackled the problem.
A modern historian, Llewellyn had this to say, “Haig method of winning the war was clumsy, expensive in loss of life and based on a misreading of the facts. As a modern historian he would have clearly analysed the facts. This means that this opinion is based on reliable evidence. Another historian had this to say: “Haig must be judged on his success, the cost of victory was appalling but Haig’s military methods were in line with the ideas of the time. This shows that Haig’s views on modern warfare were in line with the views of the time. Haig’s attitude were the same as the upper class. They believed that the working were below them, and therefore expendable.
Field Marshall Haig made a number of costly mistakes which included not stopping after early failures, not destroying barbed wire and not destroying the German threat.
many people at the time did not blame Haig because they had been told to expect heavy causalties. But when people began to examine the evidence surrounding the Battle of the Somme they began to blame Haig. That is why modern historians now think that Field Marshall Haig was to blame.
If I were a soldier at the time I do no think I would have doubted Field Marshall Haig’s methods because the Battle of the Somme was just another battle of heavy casualties.
Nowadays generals are in a position of care. They need to look after their troops instead of squandering them. One of the main reasons for this is that there is an expectation that no loss will be tolerated. If Haig was a General of today he wouldn’t have squandered so many men because today it is just not right.
Also the 1st world war was a new kind of war it was a war where many more men could take part, the tecnogly also allowed killing at a much greater speed, therefore the blood shed was much greater. It is easy to blame someone using hindsight. But I belive that field Amrshall Haig does deserve his title as the “Butcher of the Somme”
