Does Douglas Haig Deserve to Be the Butcher of the Somme

Was General Haig ‘The Butcher’ Of The Somme?
Was General Haig ‘The Butcher’ Of The Somme?

In this essay I will discuss whether General Haig deserves to be remembered as 'the butcher of the Somme'. Also I will inform you why people referred to him as the butcher of The Somme. General Haig's title of 'the butcher of the Somme' originated after the First World War, when, due to large number of deaths Britain suffered from the war and mostly the Somme. The British soldiers have said that General Haig murdered all of his soldiers on purpose. While others have said, he was the best General out of three, meaning the other 2 competitors would have been a lot worse.
Arguably some people say Haig does deserve his nickname. This is because Haig sent thousands of men to their deaths continuously after his war efforts seemed not to be working. For instance 60,000 soldiers died in the first day alone in the battle of the Somme. The reason that so many people died was that Haig ordered his men to walk across no-man’s land. They were easy targets for the German machine guns. However Haig assisted Britain in winning the war and although he did so with tremendous loss of life, these men did not die pointlessly. They died to protect their families and everyone else on the home front, and they died to prevent Britain from becoming a German territory.
The main reason people call him “The Butcher” is because he didn’t train his men which meant that he sent his men into battle knowing they didn’t have any experience in war. On the first day alone, 60,000 soldiers were killed and a further 4000 were injured. This shows that he didn’t care about his men. He also made his soldiers walk across no man’s land. He made them do this because he thought that the German soldiers would have died but they didn’t. This also shows that he didn’t spy on his enemies to find out what they had prepared. After he found out the Germans didn’t die, he didn’t change his plans he still forced his soldiers...