The First Day on the Somme
1 July 1916
1st Edition
Published on 29. June 2006
384 pages
978-0-14-192694-0 (ISBN)
Description
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.
'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.
Reviews / Votes
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 *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
File size
15,42 MB
ISBN-13
978-0-14-192694-0 (9780141926940)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
03/2016
Penguin Books Ltd
€19.00
Shipment within 15-20 days
Book
05/1992
Penguin Books Ltd
€33.61
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Person
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.
