Modern World History: Pages 33-36

Case study: General Haig and the Battle of the Somme

The Battle of the Somme is one of the most important events of the First World War. If you look at Sources 50-52 on page 33 of 'Modern World History,' you can see why. It was a huge battle and thousands of men died in it. Most of the men were young men in their late teens or their early to mid-twenties. A lot of the men were in 'pals battalions'. If you joined a pals battalion, you would be fighting with men from your area back home. Many of these pals battalions were almost completely destroyed. Villages in Britain and around the British Empire lost all their young men in this battle. For example, the 11th Cambridgeshire Battalion sent 750 men into the battle on 1st July and 691 of them were hurt or killed. The huge numbers of casualties in the Battle of the Somme have made this battle famous.

However, this battle is also famous because lots of people have asked questions about the leaders of the soldiers. Many people believe that the soldiers followed their orders very bravely but that their leaders made lots of mistakes and let them down. It is easy to agree with this but we are going to look at the Battle of the Somme more objectively.

What actually went wrong? Was it the fault of the British army's leader, General Haig? Some military historians think that Haig did not make lots of mistakes. Some military historians think that the Battle of the Somme was not a military failure.

The plan

In the beginning, it was planned that the French would attack the Germans. The British would support the French in this. The British commander (army leader), General Haig, wanted to attack the Germans further north and west in Flanders; however, the German attack at Verdun changed these plans. By the summer of 1916, it was agreed that General Haig would send the soldiers (mainly British) to attack the Germans in the area around the River Somme. The aim of this was to get control of more land and to push the German troops (soldiers) away from Verdun. Another aim was to kill as many German soldiers as possible. This was part of a 'War of Attrition'.

The tactics

Haig and his deputy, General Rawlinson, worked out all the details.

• There would be a huge artillery bombardment and mines would destroy the German positions
• The British soldiers would then cut the Germans' barbed wire and smash the Germans trenches and dug-outs
• The British soldiers could then walk – not run - across no man's land
• The British soldiers would carry heavy packs and equipment to rebuild the German trenches. They could then defend these trenches and stop the Germans taking back the lost land
• British cavalry soldiers would be ready to charge into any spaces in the German line

Were these the right tactics?

Haig knew about the German dug-outs and the barbed wire in front of them. However, he thought the British artillery would be able to destroy the Germans and their trenches.

• The defenders (here, the Germans) were on high ground and could see the British soldiers coming to attack them
• The German trenches had been there since 1914 and they had dug them very deep down. They had made their trenches stronger with concrete
• The Germans had stretched barbed wire like a big band all along the front. The barbed wire was more than 30 metres wide. It was almost impossible to get through it
• Many of the British shells were bad quality. They certainly bombarded the Germans but a lot of these shells were not powerful enough to destroy the German defences. Many of these shells didn't explode

The battle

In the last week of June1916, the British shot 1.7 million shells at the German Front Lines.

1st July 1916…

The infantry attack began at 7.30a.m. on 1st July. Attacks usually began at dawn, but the army leaders were sure that the Germans wouldn't fight back very hard. They thought the battle would be easy to win. Soldiers called sappers put two huge mines under German lines and then they detonated them. The noise was so loud that people heard it in London!

The battle began. About 750,000 men (27 divisions or groups) went 'over the top.' That meant that they would climb out of their trenches and run towards the enemy lines. They ran towards the Germans. They had only 16 divisions or groups of men. At first, the French soldiers were successful. They were more used to battles like this than the British were and they could move quickly because they were not weighed down by heavy packs of equipment. However, the French were soon isolated. The British were too far behind them and moving too slowly. The French had to withdraw and go back.

The British were moving too slowly and this gave the Germans time to climb out of their trenches and set up their machine guns. Some German soldiers later said that there were so many British soldiers that they could have beaten the Germans. They just moved too slowly. In a lot of places, the barbed wire fence was not broken, so the British soldiers had to squeeze through gaps in the fence. This meant that the Germans could shoot them easily as they came through these narrow spaces. On the first day of the battle there were about 57,000 casualties. A third of these died. At the time it was chaos. No-one really knew what was happening. However, it soon became clear that this was a huge military failure. It was the worst failure in the history of the British army. A lot of the younger officers had been killed and the soldiers were confused. They didn't know what to do. No-one was there to tell them.

and thereafter…

Haig's deputy, General Rawlinson, was shocked by what happened on that first day. He said that he was not sure if they should continue. However, Haig said that they must continue and the attacks continued all through July and August. He felt he had to relieve or help the French at Verdun. He was also sure that he could win this battle.

He learned some lessons from the disasters of the first few days. Also, the British did get some land from the Germans – for example, the village of Pozieres was captured on 23rd July. However, many people were not happy with Haig. They said he was just throwing away men's lives. They said that he was old-fashioned because he thought cavalry charges were good tactics. This was not really fair. For example, on 15th September, Haig sent the British soldiers to attack in a different part of the Somme and he used tanks for the first time in the war. There were no great victories or wins but the British slowly and steadily got control of more land and destroyed more of the German army as often as they could. When the winter started, Haig decided to stop the attacks and the battle of the Somme ended on 18th November. They had taken from the Germans a piece of land just 25kms. long and 6kms wide. This land had cost the British 420,000 casualties. The French had 200,000 casualties and the Germans had about 500,000 casualties.

The aftermath

Lots of people criticised Haig after the battle and said he had made mistakes. He was criticised by his own soldiers, by politicians and by the newspapers. Lots of people called him 'The Butcher of the Somme.' Was this fair? Haig thought it was not fair. He had told politicians in 1916 that a lot of men would probably die or be injured in this battle. He had told them that this was necessary if they wanted to win the war. Haig also believed that he had achieved his aims at the battle of Verdun. He had saved Verdun. Also, some of Germany's best soldiers had been killed or injured in the battle.

However, ordinary people in Britain were still not happy about what had happened. The Battle of the Somme made people change their attitudes towards the war. Before the Battle of the Somme, people had believed that if they won one big battle, the British soldiers could break through the German lines and then end the war. The Somme made people realize that this would be a long war of attrition.

The battle also made people lose confidence in their leaders. They didn't trust them so much any more. In the first few days of the battle, a lot of the reports had been misleading or not very accurate. This made the press (newspapers) and ordinary people suspicious of the army commanders. Haig and the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George had lots of disagreements.