Haig - butcher of the Somme - is this statement justified?

INTRODUCTION

Sir Douglas Haig was the son of john Haig, the head of the successful whisky distilling company. He was born in Edinburgh on June 19th 1861.

Sir Douglas Haig has been blamed for the slaughter of thousands of men who were under his control in WW1. The Battle of the Somme was one of his worst fights where 50000 men died on the 1st day alone.

Haig was in Charge of the Battle of the Somme, which didn't go very well and there were lots of casualties. There, Haig was given his nickname "Butcher of the Somme"

The term “Butcher of the Somme” was given to him by those who felt that Haig did not care how much ground was gained, for the heavy losses inflicted on the British troops during the Battle of the Somme. Defenders of Haig argue that he had few options and had himself been ordered to launch the offensive to let the French recover at Verdun, where there was heavy fighting.

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PLAN

Haig took over responsibility for the attack and came up with his own plan. Haig’s plan meant a massive bombardment along an 18mile long stretch of front, which would hopefully destroy German resistance, of about 750,000 men. They would then cross no mans land and take the Germans front line. Haig's cavalry would then go through the break and sweep around behind the enemy lines and kill German reinforcement officers.

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED?

When the heavy artillery started firing, the Germans went and sat in their dugout shelters, which were lined with concrete, and they were totally safe during ...

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PLAN

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED?

When the heavy artillery started firing, the Germans went and sat in their dugout shelters, which were lined with concrete, and they were totally safe during the 7 day bombardment which was meant to kill them. At 7:23 am July 1st the British Royal Engineers blew up 60 000lbs of explosives 53 feet under the German line, which left a crater 90m deep by 300m wide. When the time came for the British troops to go over the top of the trenches (7:30 on the 1st of July 1916) they did and the Germans came out of their 30-foot deep concrete bunkers and set up machine gun posts and were waiting to shoot them. Any soldiers that did get to the Germans trenches couldn't get through either because the shells which were fired just lifted up the barbed wire then dropped it in an even bigger tangle than it already was. This meant no one could get through and they got shot. After the first mass attack infantry had to keep pressure on the Germans, Haig believed if they could keep pressure on the Germans the Battle would succeed. Haig was not dis-heartened by the losses on the first day and gave orders to continue attacking. One attack on the 13th July achieved a small breakthrough of the German frontline, but German reinforcements closed up the gap. Haig thought that the Germans were beginning to get exhausted so he ordered more attacks to be made on the German Front line. There were many small victories such as Poziers on the 23rd of July, but none of them where anything substantial that would have a bearing on the War. On November 13th the first major victory came with the capture of the fortress at Beaumont Hamel. Unfortunately after the first victory, the battle of the Somme had to be brought to an end on 18th November 1916, because of weather conditions getting worse and worse. The land gained by the allies during the Battle of the Somme was minimal and at its deepest point there had only been 12km gained.

On the 28th January 1928, Haig died and was buried at Dryburgh Abbey.