The First Day on the Somme: 1 July 1916 (Signed)

Middlebrook, Martin

ISBN 10: 0713901942 / ISBN 13: 9780713901948

Published by Allen Lane, London, 1981

About this Item

Reprint, 8vo, 365pp, photo illustrations, VG+ Copy in VG+ DJ; author's presentation copy, inscription on title page reads: For Peter Flynn with best wishes Martin Middlebrook Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.

Seller Inventory # 41946

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The First Day on the Somme: 1 July 1916 (Signed)
• Publisher: Allen Lane, London
• Publication Date: 1981
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0713901942
• ISBN 13: 9780713901948
• Binding: Hard Cover
• Edition: Reprint.
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Signed: Signed by Author
• Seller catalogs:
  • War Studies and Defence

About this title

Synopsis

On 1 July, 1916, a continuous line of British soldiers climbed out from the trenches of the Somme into No Man's Land and began to walk steadily 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 fatal. Martin Middlebrook's classic account of the blackest day in the history of the British army draws on official records, local newspapers, autobiographies, novels and poems from the time. Most importantly, it also takes in the accounts of hundreds of 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 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.