Was Sir Douglas Haig the "butcher of the Somme-? This is my argument:.
Sir Douglas Haig started his military career off as the head boy of his class at a military college in Sandhurst. As he grew older he became more respected and worked his way up the promotion ladder.
The idea of the battle of the Somme was to relieve pressure on Verdun. Verdun is town in France, which was under siege from the Germans. It was also planned to lift the spirits in the French camp and damage the German armies morale. At first the battle did not go as planned, no ground was made and this was meant to be an easy battle. The battle went on for a long time and hundreds of thousands of men from both the Allies and the Germans were killed.
Haig and his men had very different views of how the war was going. This is summed up in two quotes. Haig said, "The work of our artillery is wholly admirable-, this evidently shows that Haig is happy with the performance of his soldiers and that they are doing well in the battle of the Somme. But lieutenant J A Raws said, "It's horrible but why should people at home not know?- This statement clearly shows that men are unhappy, and the situation is not what Haig has made it out to be. Haig's diaries were used as propaganda to support the war effort back home. Propaganda is where usually the Government or people in charge deceive, lie or exaggerate situations to provoke an emotion from the country's people against the enemy, and to gain support for any actions that the Government or people in charge are planning to do. Haig could have been lying to keep the morale at home high. This also casts doubt on the reliability of Haig's sources. We may not be able to trust the soldiers views as they could be angry as they could have seen a disturbing image for example they could have witnessed one of their friends being shot or hit by a shell. He must be trusted to some extent, as soldiers are the prime eyewitness accounts of the battle.
