Douglas Haig, good and bad points

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.
420,000 British casualties
200,000 French casualties
500,000 German casualties The Battle of 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 that the artillery guns would destroy the German trenches and barbed wire placed in front of the trenches. Haig genuinely felt that this tactic would work. He had been advised that barbed wire in No Man’s Land would be destroyed by the shells. More German soldiers died than British soldiers at the Battle of the Somme. Surely this shows that Haig’s plan was partially successful! 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. The number of British casualties that were recorded during the Somme is said to have been the highest in the British military history. He was slow to adapt new technology; out side of the tank; the germans developed gas, sub-machine guns, flame throwers. and once they saw the british tanks they built the A7 to counter it, plus developed infantry anti tank guns.

After the end of WW1 Field Marshall the Earl Haig set up the Haig Fund to help all servicemen who were either financially hard up or were incapacitated due to being wounded,,the fund grew and is now what we call the Poppy Appeal. He was great at seeing the big strategic plan. Haig won the war.