Douglas Haig: The Butcher Of The Somme

Douglas Haig was appointed commander of the army on tenth of December 1915 - he was fifty-four at the time and he had had a very successful military career. Haig decided to attack the Germans at the river Somme in 1916 to attract German soldiers from the town of Verdun where they were fighting the French and had almost broken through. But even though he was victorious there was a very high casualty figure. I will explore whether Haig deserves the title ‘Butcher of the Somme,’ with reference to multiple sources.
Firstly, he should in fact have the name "The Butcher of the Somme" because of his attitudes towards modern technology and the way he threw away many soldiers’ lives. It is clear that he did not appreciate the machine gun and stated "it is a much overrated weapon that could be taken by pure grit and determination." With this attitude he gained very little land with the cost of
However, I believe that Haig in fact did not deserve the title accredited to him, as although Britain suffered several casualties (six-hundred thousand), so did the other nations, (for example Germany suffered six-hundred and fifty thousand.) Moreover, due to the fact that World War One was one of the most horrible wars in history, it is inevitable that some people will attempt to single people out as the cause of such terrible events. Haig also wanted to call the offensive off, but he was denied this as he had to help the French forces at Verdun. I do believe it is fair to say that the Battle of the Somme was largely a failure, although it was certainly not a complete one - although the British failed to take significant ground from the Germans, Haig succeeded in removing German forces from Verdun, and led to a large reduction in the number of German troops. Whether achieving these objectives was worth the massive loss of life, however, remains a controversial