The First Day on the Somme

1 July 1916

Martin Middlebrook

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Paperback

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English

Penguin
02 May 2016

History; General & world history; European history; First World War; Land forces & warfare

The first day on the Somme was the blackest day of slaughter in the history of the British Army- this is a powerful account of the experiences of soliders who faced it

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.

By: Martin Middlebrook
Imprint: Penguin
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 197mm, Width: 130mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 330g
ISBN: 9780141981604
ISBN 10: 0141981601
Pages: 384
Publication Date: 02 May 2016
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

MARTIN MIDDLEBROOK is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the author of many important books on military history including The Kaiser's Battle -- March 1918, The Falklands War -- 1982.

Reviews for The First Day on the Somme: 1 July 1916

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 *