Two British staff officers sent up to the front to report back on the situation was so shocked by the swamp like edges of the battlefield that one broke down and sobbed. "Good God, did we really send men to fight in this?".
IOW, the British military leadership didn't even bother to visit the place -- they just said, "keep moving." Haig was not alone in this: it was probably the defining reason for the unbelievable carnage of WWI.
Ever read Alan Clark's The Donkeys? It makes you want to reach into the book and throttle Sir John French and Douglas Haig.
Did the Daily Mail find out that they got snookered on that photo???