How Did The General Haig Get Involved In The Trenches

Who was involved? British and French empires against the German Empire. Many soldiers on the British side were new to war and saw battle for the first time. This was also a factor in the large amount of casualties on the British side. There were also many colonial troops involved from the british commonwealth, for example: Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India,etc. Leaders of the Somme Offensive:
Sir Douglas Haig (1861-1928)
Haig’s name is usually associated with the attack he lead on Somme due to its controversies of the amount of soldiers that died for such little gain.
He led the 1st corps of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) to France.
He was a well experienced war general that was criticized on his war

There was not extensive damage that faced the Germans from the bombardment because many shells were duds and did not explode even to this day.

The Battle: The Battle of Somme was comprised of many smaller attacks that took place along the Somme front.
The First day:
The battle took place on July 1st 1916 and to signal the beginning of the Somme offensive 17 mines exploded When British troops went “over the top” out of their trenches, what happened next was disastrous. General Haig was so confident that the German trenches and defenses were obliterated that he ordered the Allies to walk across No-Man's land to expect no opposition. But as the Germans emerged from their heavily fortified bunkers below the ground they took their positions behind their machine guns and artillery. As they advanced towards the german lines they were meet with heavy artillery, barbed wire and german machine guns that teared through the Allies ranks. By the end of the first day, nearly 60 000 troops were wounded or dead. This day was one of the bloodiest days ever of the British army in