First World War

1

Was General Haig the Butcher of the Somme?

Miss Boughey www.weatherheadhistory.ik.org
2

July 1st 1916
The Battle of the Somme started on July 1st 1916.
It lasted until November 1916. For many years
those who lead the British campaign have received
a lot of criticism for the way the Battle of the
Somme was fought especially General Sir Douglas
Haig. This criticism was based on the appalling
casualty figures suffered by the British and the
French.

General Haig the man who planned the Battle of
the Somme.
3
Was this a fair nickname?
Douglas Haig has been blamed for the slaughter of
thousands of men who were under his control in
World War One. The Battle of the Somme was one of
his worst fights were 60,000 British soldiers
died in the first day alone. After the Battle of
the Somme, Haig got the nickname "Butcher of the
Somme. He was given this nickname because some
people felt that Haig had not cared how much
ground was gained for the heavy loss of British
life.
Haig had been ordered to launch the offensive to
let the French recover at Verdun, where there
was heavy fighting.
4

By the end of the battle of the Somme, the
British Army had suffered 420,000 casualties, the
French lost 200,000 soldiers and the Germans lost
almost 500,000 soldiers during the Battle of the
Somme.
More German soldiers died than British soldiers
at the Battle of the Somme. Surely this
shows that Haigs plan was partially Successful!

60,000 British soldiers died on the first day of
the battle alone. This was the worst day of
fighting in British history.
5
Britain had never experienced a War of stalemate
before. Living in trenches and fighting In No
Mans Land was a New experience.
Ironically, going over the top at the Somme was
the first taste of battle many of these men had,
as many were part of "Kitcheners Volunteer Army"
persuaded to volunteer by posters showing Lord
Kitchener himself summoning these men to arms to
show their patriotism.
6
Bombardment
Haig genuinely felt that this tactic would work.
He had been advised that barbed wire in No Mans
Land would be destroyed by the shells.
The battle at the Somme started with a weeklong
artillery bombardment of the German lines.
1,738,000 shells were fired at the Germans. The
logic behind this was so that the artillery guns
would destroy the German trenches and barbed wire
placed in front of the trenches.
7
Safe Underground
In fact, the Germans had deep dugouts for their
men and all they had to do when the bombardment
started was to move these men into the relative
safety of the deep dugouts. When the bombardment
stopped, the Germans would have known that this
would have been the signal for an infantry
advance. They moved from the safety of their
dugouts and manned their machine guns to face the
British and French.
8

The Allied troops climbed out of their trenches
and moved over no mans land towards the German
front lines. Many were gunned down in no mans
land. However due to the huge number of troops
attacking the German line soldiers did get
through. They were followed by cavalry. This was
not a great success. The muddy conditions made
horses a slow and riders easy targets. The man to
man combat that followed was bloody and horrific.
Haig had been a successful British Commander
many times. Using cavalry was a traditional and
successful method of attacking. Nobody was used
to this new modern warfare.
9
In just five months the Allied forces had
advanced along a thirty-mile strip that was seven
miles deep at its maximum. Lord Kitchener was a
supporter of the theory of attrition - that
eventually you would grind down your enemy and
they would have to yield. He saw the military
success of the battle as all-important. However,
it did have political and social consequences in
Britain. Many spoke of the "lost
generation". Many people found it difficult to
justify the near 88,000 Allied men lost for every
one mile gained in the advance.
10
Did Haig see the soldiers of the British Army as
nothing more than pawns in his vain glory search.
Was Haig unbending in his belief in the 'big
push' theory that one major victory would end the
war. The loss of hundreds of thousands of
soldiers was simply a statistic of war in the
mind of this man. The Battle of the Somme was
not the first time Haig had tried the tactic of
bombardment. Haig continued to send men into the
Somme battlefield for four months even when it
was obvious that the plan was a disaster.
Butcher?
11
Haig was faced with an impossible dilemma in a
war that no-one was prepared for or able to win
on the battlefield. Haig was under constant
pressure from the British Government for a morale
boosting victory over the Germans. It was not
considered acceptable to simply sit in the
trenches of the Western Front and wait for the
Germans to give in. In 1916 the Germans were
attacking the French fortress of Verdun. By
attacking the Germans on the Somme, Haig was able
to relieve the pressure on the French at Verdun.
Hero?
12
What do You Think?Butcheror Hero?