What were general Douglas haig's strengths and weaknesses?

Answer 1

He was the guy who esentially started the battle of the somme, some say he is a butcher and some say he is a hero.
Some of his tactics were very controversial, and some say he was the start of the agument 'lions led by donkeys'
He was in charge of the british army from 1915 to 1918.

This is the start of my essay if it helps, it is just generally about general haig and the battle of the somme:

The Battle of the Somme was one of the biggest wars of World War One in 1916 the British forces attempted to break through the German front line in northern France .The Somme was set up by Sir Douglas Haig who was in charge of the British army from 1915 to 1918, he did this because the French fighting in the battle of Verdun were struggling and their numbers were very depleted. Haig new that fighting this fight would cause a great number of casualties and indeed deaths as shown in source one. He was right, there were 60,000 deaths and casualties on the first day alone. Though intended to be a breakthrough, the Battle of the Somme instead became a slaughter, some say General Haig's tactics still remain controversial today.

The British were going to attack on a 15 mile front between Serre, north of the Somme. The French armies would attack an 8 mile front south of the Somme. To make sure that the attack was fast enough the atillery forces bombarded German lines for a week before the attack, firing over 1 million shells. British commanders were so confident that the Germans would be savaged,they ordered their troops to walk towards the German lines. As the British walked towards the German lines, the machine guns started and the slaughter began. A few units did reach the German trenches,but they could not risk their upper hand and were driven back. By the end of the opening day, the British had suffered 60,000 casualties,and 20,000 of them where dead,this meant that 60% of the soldiers involved in the attack on the first day were killed! That making it the largest single loss of the British. When it became clear that the battle could be a serious faliure, Haig new that avancing would be more limited and concentrated on the southern area of the Battle. The British took their positions in the south on 14 July, but again could not follow through with their attack. Over the next two months of the battle the British where gaining little ground. Despite this loss and near faliure, on 15 September Haig kept on with his battle, and started using tanks. However, there was not many tanks, and the ones they did have were only lightly armed and were subject to many breakdowns. In source four it shows that General Haig made sure that the British attacked whenever possible because just defending themselves would not mean that that they could end up victorious. In mid November the Battle ended, but not without serious loss.

The battle was successful, and did what it aimed to do, it distracted the Germans from Verdun and lots of German soldiers were captured, as said in source 10. Even though, having advanced only 5 miles, the British suffered around 420,000 casualties, the French 195,000 and the Germans about 650,000.