A.J.P. Taylor, a historian criticises Haig about the training of the younger soldiers, testing of artillery and the choice of the Somme as a place to battle. “ They had received hasty and rudimentary training. They could not shoot accurately”. He also mentions that the Germans had already set up defences here and the British were battling up a hill. This also shows how unprepared the British were for this battle, yet at home they thought that everything was going according to plan, but they did not know that Haig was sending hundreds of men over at a time to almost certain death. We can trust A.J.P Taylor, as he is a historian who has the benefit of hindsight and he is a useful source and he comes from an unbiased back round and he wasn’t emotionally involved in the war as he didn’t fight in the war.
A national newspaper was sent a letter by Lord Landsdowne who was an ex cabinet minister so he is likely to be biased as he used to work for the government. His letter was about the seriousness of the casualties in the Somme. “We are slowly but surely killing off the best of the male population of these islands”. Around 620,000 troops were killed, this figure was only the British, there are many more people dead if we include the Germans. For this extreme large total of dead only a few square miles were gained in this whole battle (around 8 km).
Duff cooper was hired by the Haig family to right sir Douglas Haig’s official biography. We cannot trust his opinion as the Haig family paid him, so he will show Haig in a good light and agree with his tactics. “To have refused to fight at the Somme then would have meant abandonment of Verdun to its fate and break down of co-operation with the French”. This statement clearly backs up my views on Cooper, as it shows Haig in a good light that makes the source unreliable.
Philip Warner is a historian that thinks that Haig’s ways were expected at the time, as there was no alternative. He admits too many soldiers died and people who offer alternative strategies are being naive.” If the criterion of a successful general is to win wars, Haig must be judged a success”. Some historians (A.J.P. Taylor) think that Haig was a failure and cost the country unnecessary casualties, whilst other historians believe that Haig cost the country too many men but there was no alternative and he was a success.
A German machine gunner scrutinises the attitude of the Allies and the carelessness of the allies. “When we started firing, we just had to load and reload. They went down in hundreds”. This statement backs up A. J. P. Taylor in the sense that the soldiers did no have enough training and were not prepared for the battle. We might not be able to trust this source as the German machine gunner might just be trying to dislike the Allies as they were his enemy and he will probably hold a grudge. But as A.J.P. Taylor and the German machine gunner say similar things about what happened, this probably means that the statements are true. Therefore we can assume that the German machine gunner is reliable.
To conclude I think it is very difficult to come to a conclusion on whether or not Haig did deserve the nickname ‘The butcher of the Somme’.
There are many points against him being called the butcher of the Somme. For example Haig’s tactics were in line with what was used at the time and Haig also achieved his objective, which was to relive pressure off Verdun so he must be judged a success to some extent. If this battle had not been fought the Germans would have surely pushed through to France and taken the Allies first and biggest line of defence, France itself.
Although there are a lot of sources against and for Haig we have to question the reliability of them as they could be from someone who was emotionally affected from the war or who is totally bias for any reason. These factors will help and hinder any decisions made whether Haig was the butcher of the Somme or not. I believe that Haig was the butcher of the Somme as there were far too many unnecessary deaths. I believe that Haig’s tactics should have been reviewed even if people say there was no alternative to trench warfare. Warner said that people who say he should have changed his tactics are wrong and are being naïve I believe that Warner is being harsh here and there could have been alternatives. Haig should have also had much better training programmes for the recruitment soldiers, as they seemed to have lousy training, which would ultimately have gave them the wrong attitude towards war. If this factor was worked on I’m sure there would have been far less casualties to the Allies during the war. In my opinion Haig does deserve the title “Butcher of the Somme” as 1.3 million deaths in one battle is far too much.