There is no way of avoiding this but our losses in this war have been no larger than were to be expected. The object of all war is victory and defensive attitude can never bring this about.' As we can see, his intentions weren't to kill the soldiers but to achieve victory; therefore we shouldn't claim him as being a butcher. On the other hand, preparations for the war weren't done as adequately: The Germans were trying to protect Thiepval and therefore fought from a defensive position, so their trenches were dug deep and securely; the British wanted to drive the Germans out therefore fought from an offensive position, and so their trenches were less deep and secure. This puts people on the fence on whether he is or is not a butcher. If his mind set was really straightforward and purely wanted victory, why would he be so rough on the preparations? Moreover, the number of soldiers were 300,000 untrained British versus 100,000 trained and experienced German soldiers, even us, people who have never studied about war and tactics would know that that chance of winning is almost 0. .
Secondly, Haig held a lot of responsibility on the perfunctory work he had done with the plan and tactics. Haig's plan was to bomb the German trenches nonstop until nothing survives in there: Haig demanded the soldiers to advance in waves, at a walking pace to keep formation, next, the Infantry would advance to take hold of German positions then the Cavalry would charge and sweep through their trenches. After this, they would destroy their fortifications and at last destroy their artillery. Sadly, The British did poor research and didn't know the German's current situation, they were just assuming that everything will go along the plan flawlessly, the result turned out to be quite pitiful. The Germans have armed Thiepval quite heavily and were aware of the British built up as the British suddenly stopped bombing for 7 days.
