The first day on the Somme : 1 July 1916

Bibliographic Information

The first day on the Somme : 1 July 1916

Martin Middlebrook

Penguin, 1984, c1971

  • : pbk

Available at  / 9 libraries

Search this Book/Journal

Note

Originally published: London : Allen Lane, 1971

Bibliography: p. [356]

Includes index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Martin Middlebrook's "The First Day on the Somme" is a compelling and intensely moving account of the blackest day in the history of the British army. 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 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. As well as drawing on official sources, local newspapers, autobiographies, novels and poems from the time, most importantly "The First Day on the Somme" 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. "The First Day on the Somme" describes the true events behind one of the largest battles of the First World War, and the sacrifice of a generation of young men - killed as much by the folly of their commanders as by the bullets of their enemies. "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". ("The Times Literary Supplement"). 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".

by "Nielsen BookData"

Details

  • NCID
    BA12156951
  • ISBN
    • 014006883X
    • 0140171347
  • Country Code
    uk
  • Title Language Code
    eng
  • Text Language Code
    eng
  • Place of Publication
    Harmondsworth
  • Pages/Volumes
    xviii, 365 p., [16] p. of plates
  • Size
    20 cm
Page Top