The First Day on the Somme: 1 July 1916

The First Day on the Somme: 1 July 1916

by Martin Middlebrook (Author)

Synopsis

The soldiers receive the best service a historian can provide: their story is told in their own words - Guardian 'For some reason nothing seemed to happen to us at first; we strolled along as though walking in a park. Then, suddenly, we were in the midst of a storm of machine-gun bullets and I saw men beginning to twirl round and fall in all kinds of curious ways' 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 towards dug-in German troops armed with machine-guns. By the end of the day there were more than 60,000 British casualties - a third of them fatal. Martin Middlebrook's now-classic account of the blackest day in the history of the British army draws on official sources from the time, and on the words of hundreds of survivors: normal men, many of them volunteers, who found themselves thrown into a scene of unparalleled tragedy and horror.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 464
Edition: UK ed.
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 31 Mar 2016

ISBN 10: 0141981601
ISBN 13: 9780141981604
Book Overview: Martin Middlebrook's now-classic account of the blackest day in the history of the British army draws on official sources from the time, and on the words of hundreds of survivors- normal men, many of them volunteers, who found themselves thrown into a scene of unparalleled tragedy and horror.

Media Reviews
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 *
Author Bio
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 and The Falklands War 1982.