Why was Douglas famous?

Answer 1

Field Marshall Douglas Haig was a wartime 'famous' icon, for his terrible leadership at the Battle Of The Somme. The battle commenced in 1916, half way through the First World War. The aim of the battle was to relieve the pressure on the French at Verdun, and to draw the German's attention away. Haig planned the battle, along side General Rawlinson, who arguably should have take some of the blame for the battle's bloody outcome. Haig thought the by flying spotter planes over the German lines, he could spy on them, and see what they were up to in the closing hours before the battle. He planned other planes to bomb the front-lines, in order to destroy the German mortars, and also to bomb the fortressed villages behind the front-lines, which housed German reinforcements and many other amounts of artillery. The bombing would also cut the barbed-wire fence, lining the German trenches. Then, they would send the British Troops walking across No-mans land to the German trenches, were the Tommie's would 'take-out' the surviving German soldiers. However, on the day of the battle, the British found that none of this brilliant and sophisticated plan had worked. Low cloud proved impossible for the British spotter planes to see what the Germans were up to. The bombing had not completely taken-out the the fortressed villages, were many soldiers and artillery stocks survived, and the barbed-wire had not in fact been cut, but had been thown up and tangled even more so by the bombs. And the Germans had in fact made secret dugouts in the trenches, were many soldiers survived the bombing, leaving the Tommies unknowingly outnumbered.

So you see, Douglas Haig sentenced many troops to their deaths, and with the figures standing at 30,000 deaths on the first day, earned the title 'Butcher of the Somme'.