Haig and His Men
Source Based
I think that Source A does not prove that Haig did not care about the
lives of his men. It just shows that he knows that you cannot fight a
war without having casualties. You know that he knows this because he
says "No amount of skill on the part of the higher commanders, no
training however good, on the part of the officers and men, no
superiority of arms and ammunition, however great, will enable
victories to be won without the sacrifice of men's lives."
He knows that in this particular battle there will be heavy
casualties. You can see this when he says "The nation must be prepared
to see heavy casualty lists."
Haig's views on warfare were inline with what most people thought at
the time. He believed that the country should expect men t loose their
lives for Britain to win the war.
Source B shows us that Haig was not receiving accurate information. He
believed that the barbed wire had been cut, which was not true. If he
had been given correct information he may have changed tactics, and
maybe so many lives would not have been lost. Haig had never been to
the front line and was relying on information from others. You can
tell that he did not know what was happening by looking at Source C