Research Table

Your task is to make a presentation, using the sources as evidence, on one of these three views.

1. 1.The commanders were donkeys. They were incompetent and didnt take care of their soldiers, the lions. They sat in safety behind the lines while they sent their troops charging against machine guns and barbed wire. Their men resented them and only obeyed because they would be shot otherwise.

1. 2.The commanders didnt do a great job and the soldiers paid the price. However, we shouldnt blame only the military commanders, since the politicians shared in the big decisions and ordered the commanders to try to win the war.

1. 3.The commanders did a remarkable job while facing tremendous challenges. They had to create a huge army from ordinary civilians in a short space of time. They also learnt new tactics and used new weapons as they became available. They took as much care of their men as they could and relations between officers and men were good.

Research the sources in the four case studies and choose 6-10 sources to use in your presentation.

The aim of your presentation is to help your audience to make up their minds about your chosen view. This means that the sources you choose could support or contradict the view you are studying.

Photo of the 12th East Yorkshires washing and shaving in their dugout near Roclincourt, January 1918 shows that officers shared the same conditions as the soldiers suffered similar discomfort and poor conditions in the trenches doesn't support that statement as you can see that the officers share similar condition not fully reliable as there is now photo of the soldiers' condition

'Gommecourt Wood', a poem by Private G Getley, 1917 shows courageous mood and air in soldiers (some) officers were indeed brave and fought courageously and bravely alongside the soldiers disproves the theory that officers were cowards and left all the dangerous work to the soldiers puts soldiers and officers at a similar level

Memories of Lieutenant-Colonel M E Hancock on life in the trenches

the officers weren't in faraway mansions they lived in dugouts in the back of the trenches Hancock saw hi commanding officer working hard to dig out this shelter the commander seems rather responsible and makes sure he isn't out of the action controlling the men disproves the fact that the officers were irresponsible and cowardly Hancock's attitude may come across as sour

Haigs Summary 5B Shows that Haig didnt really care about the deaths He believes that all these deaths shouldnt cause any anxiety He states the troops are in excellent heart and that the ranks have been filled up with keen men He then continues to state that he will keep on using this method to taken the german trenches Shows that he is ignorant to the conditions of the soldiers

Map showing extent of land captured Shows that it took thousands of live just to cross a small area of land over a long period of time Shows that waves of soldiers were sent over Kept going albeit knowing that hope was low The commanders evidently didnt realize the situation that the men were going through

Haigs letters to newspapers 1b Haig states that the price of the deaths are a so called learning experience He claims that the british troops have accomplished the confidence to win in the long run This is sugar-coating, as many soldiers died for no reason

Walking They didnt really analyse the situation

Soldiers' experiences of conditions at Gallipoli during the campaign in 1915

British report The source shows that the officers and commanders did indeed know of the difficulties and dangers to do with the landscape of the area of attack Seeing all these difficulties, it would make sense not to continue with their plans for the attack Yet they still went forward with the attack, posing them as donkeys

Letter from Admiral Sir John Fisher He states that the plan of attack is doomed to failure there are many opportunities for disaster he believes that that a disaster of this magnitude cannot be afforded he strongly opposes the plan this proves that not all officers were foolish, but most were due to the actual events that happened, eg they carried on with the faulty plan