Was Haig the Butcher of The Somme?

A video I created for my Year 10 history class. It looks into the tactics that Haig used at the Somme and some reasons why they were ineffective.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the WWI footage or the BlackAdder goes forth footage or the music. However I did edit them together and made the voice over. I also filmed the last bit in France on the history trip - the full trip will be uploaded in the next few weeks.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• General
• Haig
• The
• Butcher
• of
• Somme
• WWI
• BlackAdder
• Goes
• Forth
• Year
• 10
• History
• George
• Clarke

[johnsammyanfal]

The British soldiers at the Somme were not primarily conscripts, but volunteers of the 'pals regiments'. This magnified the personal tragedy because the menfolk of entire towns were virtually wiped out. They fought in line formation because they were poorly trained and thought incapable of difficult flanking manovers under heavy fire. Wirecutters were in shortage because it was assumed that the initial artillery bombardment would do the job. The men were not butchered but died a heros death.

[MrGeorgeClarke]

@johnsammyanfal The Somme was in the second half of 1916, conscription had been introduced earlier that year so although the initial army was mainly made of pals battalions conscripts replaced the dead. By the end of the Somme it was predominately conscripts who fought there. I find it difficult to say running into machine gun fire or getting snagged on wire and bleeding out or being blown half to hell a hero's death - that sounds very much like slaughter or for want of a better word butcher

[Baseballschaap]

the idea of "walk towards the trenches" was just total idiocy... Haig WAS the butcher of the somme, in fact, the only thing that really won the war was the exhausted situation of Germany... the allies were exhausted just as much, and it was only after the USA joined in late 1917 (i thought it was) that they had actual food instead of bread that consisted 50% out of sawdust... furthermore, it was because of this late joining that Italy joined the allies as well...

[MrGeorgeClarke]

@Baseballschaap Italy joined in 1915 long before America was involved but yes the USA certainly helped with the resources in the war. That said Britain's soldiers were fed more than 3,000 calories a day throughout the entire war, even though the food was tasteless, in the German lines they were actually starving by the end, this is why Britain was the last country in the war to introduce conscription and had a volunteer army until 1916.

[SuperRip7]

Butcher indeed.

[swanyAJ]

@johnsammyanfal our wire cutters didnt work on german wire. and they where told to walk in lines

[THthefirst]

The with history, esp this part, is that you have to separate the fact from the fiction and myth. The Somme is massively affected by myth. Many people think they know about it, but in fact know little apart from the common perception of men marching slowly to their deaths.

Your analysis is very simple - he was a butcher, but why was he any different from any of the other generals on all sides?

[THthefirst]

@MrGeorgeClarke Sorry, that's not actually true. The conscripts signed up in May 1916 were not trained by November 1916 when the Somme ended.

[ADZ01982]

@Baseballschaap Sorry but you miss out the fact that neither the German the French the Italians the Russians or the Americans or anyone else involved in WW1 had any better grasp of winning tactics than the UK or Haig. They ALL used the same techniques as Haig NO nation had a clear technique of breaking the dead lock. It was the British who attempted to use tanks and mining enemy posistions to break the stagnation.

[jed371]

Haig was the man who won the first world war. His series of victories in 1918 are unprecedented in British military history

[sagajagan]

If you want to get an understanding of the contempary opinion of Haig, read up on his funeral. Thousands of his former soldiers came to pay their respects, aswell as the French and Americans. Why would they do this if he was simply a cold hearted butcher? Haig was loved at the time, it is only post war revisionism that has led to the 'lions led by donkeys' crap, and even though there are plenty of historians who support Haig, the Media always chooses to portray the negative interpretation.

[MrGeorgeClarke]

@deadmeat1471 Now studying A-Level WWI History I can say that I agree my judgement seemed to come out of nowhere - that's not to say I don't agree with it still though. I understand that you can justify Haig as a victim of circumstance but the fact is it was the repitition of the same tactics that made him the Butcher - the definition of stupidity is trying the same thing over and over again expecting a different result and Haig still expected a cavalry breakthrough til very late in the war.

[deadmeat1471]

@MrGeorgeClarke

Pretty good video. It seems the logic is a bit out of whack though. You clearly state that no one had any training in such an industrialized war. This and that the troops were mostly conscripts.

However then you say Haig was a butcher because he didn't form such successful tactics until later in the war. How can a person be blamed for not knowing something no one else knew? Seems to me you put an inhuman task on a human man. I wouldn't personally judge him so harshly.