Description

Book 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.



Trade Review
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 *

The First Day on the Somme

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    A Paperback / softback by Martin Middlebrook

    £12.34

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      Book details

      Publisher Penguin Random House Group
      Imprint Penguin Books Ltd
      Published 31 March 2016
      ISBN-13 9780141981604
      978-0141981604
      ISBN-10 0141981601
      Also in:
      Non Fiction History European history General and world history Politics, Philosophy & Society Battles / military campaigns

      Description

      Book 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.



      Trade Review
      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 *

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