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Soldiers' views

The men who attacked on 1 July 1916 saw a very different battle from the one in Haig's diary. But soldiers' views of Haig himself were more mixed than you might expect.

1 July 1916: going over the top

At 7.30 in the morning the bombardment lifted and whistles blew along the British front. Minutes before, huge mines had been exploded under the German lines, including one at Hawthorn Ridge that was filmed as it went up. Thousands of men climbed out of their trenches, many carrying around 30 kg of equipment.

Where the wire was cut and the German defences had been smashed, especially in the south near Montauban, the British took their objectives. In much of the north the wire was still there, and German machine-gunners came up from their dugouts in time to meet the attack.

The Newfoundland Regiment attacked at Beaumont-Hamel. About 800 men went forward, and only 68 answered the roll call the next morning.
The Accrington Pals attacked at Serre. Of about 700 men, roughly 580 were killed, wounded or missing.
The 36th (Ulster) Division broke into the German lines near Thiepval, but had to fall back when the attacks on either side were stopped.

Source D: an officer's letter

"I honestly believe Goldy and many other officers were murdered, through the stupidity of those in authority."

From a letter by Lieutenant John Raws of the Australian 23rd Battalion, written in August 1916 during the fighting at Pozières, part of the Somme battle. "Goldy" was a fellow officer. Raws was killed on 23 August.

What it shows: some soldiers were furious with the people who planned the attacks.

Think about: Raws was writing privately to his family, so he had no reason to hide his anger, and he was there. But he doesn't name Haig. The Australians at Pozières were part of General Gough's Reserve Army, so "those in authority" could mean Gough and his staff as much as Haig, who was in overall command.

Source E: a machine-gunner remembers

George Coppard joined the army at 16 and fought at the Somme as a machine-gunner. In his memoir, With a Machine Gun to Cambrai, he described the bodies of men caught on German wire that the bombardment was supposed to have destroyed. He asked how the planners could have believed the shelling would clear it, when any ordinary soldier knew that shellfire often left wire in a worse tangle than before.

A summary of part of Coppard's memoir, published in 1969.

Think about: Coppard was an eyewitness, and his point about the wire matches other evidence. But he wrote it down more than 50 years later, when the "lions led by donkeys" view of the generals was popular. Memories can change over time.

Did soldiers blame Haig?

Most ordinary soldiers never saw Haig. Many blamed "the staff", the officers at headquarters who planned attacks far behind the lines, more than any single general.
Haig ran the war from his headquarters, which was normal for the commander of an army of over a million men. He often visited his generals, but he didn't see the front-line trenches during attacks.
Morale held. The British army never collapsed or mutinied on a large scale, as parts of the French army did in 1917, and it kept fighting until victory in 1918.
After the war many ex-soldiers respected Haig because he spent his last years working for them through the British Legion. Huge crowds, including many veterans, lined the streets at his funeral in 1928.
Others never forgave the generals. Poets and memoir writers such as Siegfried Sassoon mocked cheerful generals whose plans got their men killed.

Practice question

How could you follow up Source D to find out more about why the attacks at the Somme cost so many lives?

Edexcel asks this for 4 marks in its Western Front question. You need four short parts:

Detail I would follow up: Raws says officers were "murdered" through the "stupidity of those in authority".
Question I would ask: what orders were the Australians given at Pozières, and who gave them?
Type of source I could use: the battalion's war diary, which recorded orders and events each day.
How this might help: it would show whether the attacks were badly planned, and whether the blame lies with the local commanders or with Haig.

Updated 18 October 2026