In this analysis paper on the World War I battle of Somme we will take a look at the head-on battle approach on the western front and discuss the strengths and weakness in this approach made by historians. In particular, I will compare comments made from the war memories of David Lloyd George and the by a French Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig. While military officers may have deemed the relentless head-on attacks as a military necessary, others who fought in these attacks saw the death around them have different opinions. The battle of Somme was a joint effort between the British and the French with the intentions of having a quick and decisive victory over the Germans. The battle was anything but quick. It lasted from July 1 1916 till November 18, 1916, a total of 141 days and estimated over 1 million casualties. Making it one of the bloodiest battle in human history.…show more content… Some of losses he believed to be irreplaceable. He had many arguments with Douglas Haig about military tactics. His memoirs suggest that Haig was incompetent and uncaring when it came to his troops in Somme . George believed that if any victory was to be claimed at the battle of Somme it was only do to the mistakes made by the Germans. Haig on the hand believed that constant pressure must be applied on all areas of the front in order to wear down the enemy. He goes into a lot of detail as to why he feels the head-on battle approach is necessary to include why an army cannot win a war on defensive tactics. He states that that wearing-out stage while may incur heavy losses is necessary and is why he attacked whenever it was possible. It could be concluded that because of these thoughts that George believed Haig sacrifice of his men was a meaningless battle of
