How useful are sources A and B to a historian considering the success of the Battle of the Somme?
This will be question 2 paper 1 in the Conflict and Tension part of the AQA GCSE exam. The sources will either be cartoon (picture based) or written. This one is based on a newspaper and an eyewitness account. In order to do well you need to comment on provenance (Nature, origin and purpose / who made it? why? motive?) and link this into context (what you know happened at the time.) If you don’t mention both sources you will struggle to get above a Lv 2 (4-6 out of 12). If you only have provenance or context in one source that is capped at Lv3 (7-9). To hit the coveted Lv4 you need provenance and context of both sources, along with a comment about how together they can make a more useful source about the success of the Somme.
Both sources are useful to historians studying the success of the Battle of the Somme, however they are useful in different ways. Source A is useful because it is an example of British propaganda. It is taken from a British newspaper, published 2 days after the first day at the Battle of the Somme. It is useful to show the success of the battle because it is a positive article, suggesting that the British were making ground. This is true, however only later on in the Battle, where the British did eventually over run the German position. The source is also useful to evaluate tactics used- it suggests that the British and French advanced due to this. This is useful to show how British propaganda was portraying the Creeping Barrage as a successful tactic, helping to contribute to the Somme. Propaganda is meant to boost morale, therefore fails to mention the fact that the barrage failed at first due to miscommunications and deep German dugouts. The source is useful because propaganda gives insight into government intentions of portraying the success of battles even if this is not the case.
Source B is useful as it is an eyewitness account and it directly shows that the British were using advanced weapons such as machine guns. They would later use tanks which would help break stalemate along the front. This is useful to historians as it reflects the success of these new weapons, as hundreds lay dead from German machine gun fire. At the battle in the first day over 20,000 died showing that the battle was a failure to begin with. However it turns into a success later due to the advancement of weaponry and tactics.
Both sources are useful and combined they provide an accurate view of the success of the Somme, one from the perspective of the British government who were controlling newspapers, the other an eyewitness account. Taken together it is possible to determine that the Somme was an ultimate success due to advances in weaponry and tactics, but that also there was a high death rate on the first day. Overall Source A is most useful to give insight into the ways that opinion was closely controlled and monitored during the war.
Miss Genie History 