1. Does Source B support the evidence of Source A about what happened on the first day of the battle of the Somme? Explain your answer. (7 marks) Both reports that were based on the first day of the Somme had very few similarities, although there were a few. For example both sides mention that a huge attack was launched on the 1st July. Another resemblance was that lots of lives were lost, even though Haig mentioned how many Germans died ‘Germans were surrendering freely’ and Private Coppard mentioned about how many English died ‘hundreds of dead’, both show that so many people died just on the first day. Saying this Coppard did survive and although that is not much it is a degree of success and better than no one. There are many disagreements within the two paragraphs of what happened on the first day of the Somme. Firstly Haig starts by saying how well the attack went ‘successful attack this morning’ whereas Coppard immediately starts saying that so many died, this shows the difference in morale between the two people. Haig claims so many successes on the first day ‘enemy short of men’ and ‘troops in wonderful spirits’. Coppard claimed none and just mentioned what all the soldiers were going through and how painful it was. Both reports had very different tones, Haig’s seems very abrupt and like it is a script whereas Coppards really comes from the heart and shows real feeling within it. I partly think this is because Private Coppard was there when it all happened, seeing his friends injured and dead. He knows exactly what happened and how tragic it all was whereas Haig was not at all anywhere near the actual battle and probably had quite bad communication with the people there. He was also probably trying to keep everyone’s spirits and hopes up back home, so a) people didn’t get worried about their friends and family and b) so more people joined up and came to help fight and c) people had good hope that we w