Why Was Hag Called The Butcher Of The Somme

General Douglas Haig was the general of the army and he had a really important role to play. His role was to command the army; however, his plans didn’t turn out to be a success because there were so many deaths. This was in the Battle of the Somme.
The Battle of the Somme was on July 1st 1916 – November 18th 1916. This battle had started as Germany had attacked France in Verdun and France was losing. This then meant that they had to call one of their allies and the only near friend was Britain. They called Britain and the British soldiers was at the River of the Somme, Britain were also the distraction for France. As Britain were at the River of the Somme Germany had sent most of their soldiers there, this had then led to the Battle of the
General Douglas Haig can’t be blamed for all the lives lost because they weren’t trained and it was the public people that had put their names forwards to fight for the country. General Douglas Haig didn’t make the Germans divert and come towards the British army so Haig can’t be blamed for doing something that he hasn’t even done. A major reason is that the weather was bad so the British army couldn’t do anything as it’s a natural cause. Haig had also learnt from his mistakes as Haig had changed the plans after he knew that they were losing the war. Another reason is that the British army were making all the decisions on the no-man land so the soldiers knew what they were doing instead of the soldiers sending someone to Haig to make the decisions. If the soldiers had sent many of their men to General Douglas Haig, then they would’ve lost so many lives. The British army had changed the tactics and the soldiers had used a technique called the creeping barrage. The creeping barrage is used when you throw a bomb and you can quickly move in the smoke so the opponent can’t see you. The creeping barrage had worked really well as the Germans were dying and the British soldiers could actually make their way to the other side of the no-man lands without losing many
Another reason is that Britain were losing the war and they had more deaths than Germany in the first couple of days. Also, this first day of the war was also known as Britain’s bloodiest day in history as on that day the most British men had died out of any other war Britain had ever been in. another reason is that the British army attacked Thiepval twice and they failed, the soldiers were then told to go and attack the same place again by Morlan and General Douglas Haig. This proves that General Douglas Haig is ‘the Butcher of the Somme’, because many young men fought in the war to save the country and they had lost their lives. However, it still doesn’t mean that General Douglas Haig is ‘the Butcher of the Somme’, because the young men had volunteered, Haig didn’t force them to fight they wanted to with their own will. Also, despite the British army having lost many of the soldiers in the first day they had won the war with less British men as Germany had more deaths. At the end of the war the British army had lost 432,000 men over the 4 months the soldiers fought for the country and Germany had lost 500,000 over the 4 months that the soldiers had fought for the