Surrey Towers
I would suggest you actually read some decent books about the BEF in WW1 (and land warfare in general) before making stupid comments about Haig. Yes everything went wrong in the northern sector of the Somme on 1st July, but that wasn't due to any lack of trying to pound two shades of poo out of the German defences first with artillery (in the southern sector, the battle did go quite well for the BEF with most objectives gained with acceptable losses). As for the men walking across no mans land, there was a reason for it. Command and Control. You may be able to make a civiee into a good private infantrymen in 6 to 12 months, making the NCO's and JO's required takes a lot longer and that was what most of the Pals battalions were, very inexperienced soldiers, led by very inexperienced NCO's and JO's. They didn't know skirmishing or the finer arts of assaulting a defended position. Plus they had to carry a lot of kit as they had to immediately reinforce the objectives they captured as it was almost granted that the Germans would launch an immediate counter attack (which was their doctrine and they were unfortunately very good at). Haig didn't try the same thing before instigating a rapid training program put in place to improve his men's chances before his next major assault on 14 July, which was more successful. Why did he keep the Somme battle going as long as he did. Simple, because he had to keep the Germans from reinforcing their attack at Verdun. As soon as he heard about Tanks, he wanted them and used them (getting the tactics right did take some time though) and he switched the battle off as soon as the Germans stopped their offensive at Verdun. 3rd Ypres in 1917, same reason for starting it and not switching it off when the weather turned against him. He had to keep the Germans occupied while the French deal with the fallout of a major mutiny, plus try to capture enough of the Belgium coast to stop U-boats from operating from there and push the Gotha bombers out of the range of London. As soon as the French had got themselves sorted out, he switched the offensive off. The 1918 German offensive wouldn't have had such an effect had the British Government listened to Haig as the 6 divisions that were taken from him to support the Italians in late 1917 / early 1918 may have helped stop the Micheal offensive earlier than it was (But Lloyd George, like Churchill was always trying to win the war by indirect attack on the junior partner of the main enemy which had no real effect on the major battlespace, i.e. France and Belgium). Haig's last offensives in the 100 Days, a text book case in all arms combat, plus as soon as units in the front were fought out, he switched the battle of in that area and attacked somewhere else (he even disobeyed Foch (the overall Allied commander in 1918) when he was ordered to keep the first battle of the 100 days going, His troops in that sector could do no more without taking massive losses, so he switched that battle off).
WWI was very much a coalition war and the UK were not the major partner in the Allied side or had a big chunk of their territory occupied!!!
Haig's 1919 report about the conduct of the war makes very interesting reading, in it he says that in every battle he fought bar the last 100 days, had he been able to do anything else, he would have done it, but his hands were tied by the lack of anyway to outflank the German lines or breakout once he had punched through the defensive line (the only thing that was fast enough was Calvary and one man with a machine gun could stop them in their tracks. None of the tanks were fast or reliable enough, nor was any of the wheeled MT. Plus of course, poor communications (the radio equipment of the era were not up to the job) and the German's habit of instant counter attack didn't help.
As for Haig being a butcher, I think the overall casualty rates v troops deployed when compared to casualty rates for everybody else show that Haig was far from it, however in any major war, the only way you win is by getting the PBI to get out of the trench/truck/APC/Helicopter and advance to fight the enemy in their defensive position, then hold and control that ground when it has been captured.