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The Somme: Heroism and Horror in the First World War
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Product Description
At 7:30 am on July 1, 1916, the first Allied soldiers climbed out of their trenches along the Somme River in France and charged out into no-man’s-land toward the barbed wire and machine guns at the German front lines.
By the end of this first day of the Allied attack, the British army alone would lose 20,000 men; in the coming months, the fifteen-mile-long territory along the river would erupt into the epicenter of the Great War. The Somme would mark a turning point in both the war and military history, as soldiers saw the first appearance of tanks on the battlefield, the emergence of the air war as a devastating and decisive factor in battle, and more than one million casualties (among them a young Adolf Hitler, who took a fragment in the leg). In just 138 days, 310,000 men died.
In this vivid, deeply researched account of one history’s most destructive battles, historian Martin Gilbert tracks the Battle of the Somme through the experiences of footsoldiers (known to the British as the PBI, for Poor Bloody Infantry), generals, and everyone in between. Interwoven with photographs, journal entries, original maps, and documents from every stage and level of planning, The Somme is the most authoritative and affecting account of this bloody turning point in the Great War.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #632022 in Books
- Published on: 2006-06-27
- Released on: 2006-06-27
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 352 pages
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The four-month–long battle of the Somme epitomized the futile bloodletting on the western front, with 19,000 advancing British soldiers killed by the Germans on the very first day. From the impersonality of this mechanized slaughter, Gilbert, dean of First and Second World War historians, strives to recover the pathos of personal experience by spotlighting the exploits and travails of various small units and individual soldiers, mostly on the British side. He brings them to life through firsthand accounts, reminiscences by comrades, poignant letters home and snatches of soldiers' poetry, always ending his vignettes with a notice of where the soldiers discussed lie buried—or at least memorialized, since the bodies of 73,000 of the dead were never identified. (Many excellent, very detailed maps of both the battlefield and the resulting cemeteries are included.) Gilbert's approach tends to break up the narrative arc, but then the battle didn't have much of an arc anyway; there were attacks and counterattacks, bombardments and lulls, but the front lines scarcely moved before the fighting finally subsided in mutual exhaustion. His superbly written, absorbing recreations of innumerable small life-and-death struggles makes the book a fitting commemoration of the tragedy. Photos. (July 6)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
The Great War is now viewed by many as a pointless, pitiless meat grinder that sacrificed a generation of men to no worthwhile moral purpose. If one accepts that premise, then the Battle of the Somme can serve as exhibit A. Ninety years ago, Allied (primarily British) and German troops began a five-month slugfest in northwest France. The battle, which saw the first widespread use of tanks, was contested by two million troops along a 30-mile front. When it was over, it had cost both sides a combined million casualties, with virtually no territorial gain. Gilbert, a renowned historian and biographer, utilizes the journals and memoirs of the participants to convey the savagery and horror of the battle, and he also effectively explains how the battle fit into the broader strategic objectives of the adversaries. At times, the relentless slaughter conveyed in Gilbert's narrative is mind numbing, but this is a masterful work that should be read by anyone who wishes to understand the futility of the "war to end all wars." Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
About the Author
Sir Martin Gilbert was knighted in 1995 “for services to British history and international relations.” Among his many books are The First World War (0-8050-7617-4), The Second World War, (0-8050-7623-9) The Day the War Ended (1945) (0-8050-7527-5), and Churchill: A Life (0-8050-2396-8).
Customer Reviews
A great battle whose memory has begin to fade
Gilbert's history of the Battle of the Somme will draw those who already have an interest in World War I. If you know little, a better place to begin is Gilbert's general history of the war, "The First World War: A General History." As others have noted, Gilbert uses a particular technique: he writes about the details of the four month battle, but interwoven are details of the experiences of particular soldiers, including where they are buried. It is rather like the style that Ken Burns uses in his television histories of the Civil War and World War II. I like this emphasis on the particular, since the Great War, as it was called, is fading in modern memory. Recently my husband and I visited the grave of a great uncle killed in 1918 in the second Battle of the Marne. The grave site at Oise-Aisne is beautifully kept (Joyce Kilmer is buried here), but there were no tourists, as opposed to the World War II monuments in Normandy, with which most people are familiar. If you find yourself in northern France, make a little time for these World War I memorials. If not, Gilbert's history of the Somme will help you feel as if you were there.
The personal Somme
This book is excellent giving the over all battle stratagy and the individual soldger point of view. The brutal nature of trench warfare is brought to stunning reality in this book as well as the cost of families. It is amazing just how full of life, passion and smarts these men who gave their lives for their country were. The number of those who were never identified is mind bogeling. It will bring a tear to your eye and let you know just how special those who fought on the Somme were. My own grand mother lost here boy friend on the Somme.
Too many names
The history part isn't bad, but there are all too many "XXX is buried at YYY" references -- including some about soldiers that aren't referred to in the book otherwise; the only reference to them is their burial place!
