Source A : The Battle of the Somme 1916

At the Somme the British troops were told that the Germans and their trenches would have been blasted by the bombardment and that the wire would have been destroyed.

In fact they went into the worst slaughter ever suffered by a British army.

The wire was not even damaged.

Thousands of men died trying to struggle through it.

The deep bunkers had not been destroyed either, and from them the Germans slaughtered the British as they advanced across No-Man's-Land.

From Britain at War 1914-1918 (1982), by Craig Mair

Source C : Attitudes to Senior Officers

'Good morning, Good morning !' the General said
When we met him last week on our way to the line.
Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of 'em dead,
And we're cursing his staff for incompetent swine.
'He's a cherry old card', grunted Harry to Jack
As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack.

But he did for them both with his plan of attack.

From The General, a poem written in 1917 by Seigfreid Sassoon,
An infantry officer in the First World War

Source D : Field Marshall Haig as a military commander.

Silent, humourless and reserved, Haig was also shrewd and ambitious and had great self-confidence. Perhaps his greatest failing was his constant, often misplaced, optimism, which seemed to stem from his belief that he had been chosen by God to serve his country. It was probably this inability to recognise defeat that led to his continuing attacks on the Somme and at Passchendale.

From Great Battle of World War 1 (1989), by Anthony Livesey

Source E : Field Marshall Haig as a military commander.

If the test of a successful General is whether or not he wins wars, then Haig must be judged a success. The cost of victory was appalling but Haig's military methods were in line with the ideas of the time, when attrition was the method all sides used to achieve victory.

The full horrors of the First World War make it difficult to reach a clear verdict on Haig. He did push the most powerful army in the world of French soil. Although some people criticise the cost of his methods, they do not offer other methods.

From Field Marshall Haig (1991), by Philip Warner

Source G : Life in the Trenches

The mud was difficult to cope with. Many men got trench foot - their legs swelled up so badly that they'd scream at you not to come anywhere near them in case you touched their legs. It was a kind of gangrene. I think. We were given a special oil and it was supposed to stop trench foot. I don't think it was effective for everyone by any means.

From the memories of Tom Broach, aged 93 in 1993
Tom had fought in the trenches