Haig as an Efficient and Highly Skilled Soldier

Haig as an Efficient and Highly Skilled Soldier

During the First World War, Field Marshall Haig was a military leader

from Britain. Throughout the war and soon afterwards his reputation

had labelled him as a successful hero. However, over the years after

the war people began to reflect on the horrors of the war and how

soldiers had to suffer due to Haig's order. Haig was given a name as

'the butcher of the Somme' because he had caused numerous deaths which

were avoidable. He had sent hundreds of thousands of soldiers to their

deaths in allegedly the 'bloodiest battle of all history,' the

Battleof the Somme. On the other hand, some people have a positive

view of Haig as a skilled leader who gave greatly to Britain's success

in the war, one in particular called John Keegan. He suggests Haig to

be 'an efficient and highly skilled soldier who did much to lead

Britain to victory in the First World War'. People who focus on the

outcome of the war generally support Haig, those who focus on the

deaths in war generally have a negative view of Haig. In this

assignment I will be looking at eight sources (C to L) and will use

them to form a conclusion to the question in the title. Source C, E,

H, J and K support Keegan's view but they are unreliable-they are all

biased towards Haig because the sources' authors had personal

associations and loyalties to Haig. The remaining sources (D, F and G)

oppose Keegan's view. Some sources strongly oppose Haig explicitly