The first day on the Somme, 1 July 1916 - Hardcover

Middlebrook, Martin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 039305442X ISBN 13: 9780393054422

Publisher: Norton, 1972

Synopsis

On 1 July, 1916, a continous line of British soldiers climbed out from the trenches of the Somme into No Man's Land and began to walk slowly towards dug-in German troops armed with machine-guns and defended by thick barbed wire. By the end of that day, as old tactics were met by the reality of modern warfare, there had been more than 60,000 British casualties - a third of them fatalities. Martin Middlebrook's classic account of the blackest day in the history of the British army draws on official sources, local newspapers, autobiographies, novels and poems from the time. Most importantly, it also takes in the accounts of hundreds of survivors: normal men, many of them volunteers, who found themselves thrown into a scene of unparalleled tragedy and horror. Compelling and intensely moving, it describes the true events behind the sacrifice of a generation of young men - killed as much by the folly of their commanders as by the bullets of their enemies.

About this title

About the Author:

Martin Middlebrook is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the author of The Battle of Hamburg: The Firestorm Raid, The Berlin Raids, and Convoy: The Greatest U-Boat Battle of the War.

Review:

"The soldiers receive the best service a historian can provide: their story is told in their own words." —Guardian

"A particularly vivid and personal narrative." —Times Literary Supplement

"Pioneering and hauntingly eloquent." —Peter Parker, Spectator

About this edition

• Publisher: Norton
• Publication date: 1972
• ISBN 10: 039305442X
• ISBN 13: 9780393054422
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 346