How Far was Haig responsible for the failings of the British War effort on the Western Front in 1916 and 1917

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How Far was Haig responsible for the failings of the British War effort on the Western Front in 1916 and 1917

        On the 10th December 1915 a new commander of the British Army was appointed, Field Marshall Haig. He went on to command the British army for the rest of the war that earned him a reputation for throwing many thousands of young soldiers into battle to die a pointless death. There are two views on this, the accepted view, which states Haig was responsible for everything and the revisionist view, which gives more balance to the argument, this says Haig bears some of the blame but he alone can not take all the blame. Both views are easy to support as there is evidence either way and so it is hard to come to a conclusion as to how much responsibility for the failings Haig should carry. For example Lloyd George had to chance to remove to remove Haig at any point so should he not share the blame? However Haig is often criticised for his lack of imagination and poor tactics.

        Haig was appointed Field Marshall to replace John French because he was deemed to be a failure. Haig was 54 and had enjoyed a successful army career so far. He had been a cavalry commander in the Boer War which had taken place fifteen years earlier where he had lots of success but against poorly equipped South Africans. Haig inherited an extremely poor situation. The Western Front was at a stalemate with both sides suffering heavy losses because of the trench warfare which had arisen after the Germans’ Schlieffen Plan had failed. The war had turned into a war of attrition with both sides just sending men to attack the other sides’ trenches then retreating meaning no one gained or lost land but huge casualties were endured by both sides.

Haig was accepted by most to be the best man for the job. He had no experience in trench warfare, but no one did, the trench warfare system was new to everyone. At his previous battles against South Africa he had fought on open plains – completely different to the muddy mess he had inherited on the Western Front. He was a specialist cavalry commander but cavalry had become almost obsolete with the advances in more powerful weaponry making his skills as a cavalry commander practically useless. Haig is known to have said that the machine gun was a much overrated weapon in 1915, after the Germans had already used it in the war to cause destruction against the British, which proves he hadn’t taken notice of the battlefield.

           After the war Haig was given the title ‘Butcher of the Somme’ because of the large loss of life that happened there. In the last week of June 1916 1.7 million shells were launched from 1500 guns at the Germans front line to devastate the German defences, giving the Germans plenty of time to prepare for the coming battle. Two mines were detonated under German defences at 7:00 and at 7:30 on July 1st as 750,000 men on the Somme front were sent over the top. Despite the bombardment the German defences and barbed wire were in relatively good condition. The Brits advanced at walking pace, as ordered, and were massacred. The French however made quick gains as they were not weighed down by heavy packs but had to retreat as they found themselves isolated from the British. The first day of the Battle of the Somme was the bloodiest day in British military history with 57,000 casualties with a 1/3 of these killed. But was Haig to blame for the chaos?

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        Some historians and many of the soldiers on the front instantly blamed Haig. Haig’s tactics are often criticised. He launched the shells to try and cut the Germans barbed wire. But what it actually did was to just throw the barbed wire up in the air and get it in an even bigger twist. This proved very costly to the British army because where the wire had been cut they would all have to rush that point where the Germans would just kill them with the machine guns. Haig also launched the shells to try and destroy German dugouts despite ...

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