The bloodiest battle in the history of the British Army. In 1916 the Great War seemed caught in a stalemate. The British were determined to break it with a huge summer push. By the time the campaign wound down in November, it proved to be the most destructive ever encounter for the Army, seeing thousands of casualties for every day of the conflict. It wasn’t meant to have been like this: the British had a massive artillery superiority, and were primed to crush their enemy. In the end, despite fierce fighting, the Germans lost far fewer men. The Somme has come to be an emblem for the horrors of war, for the pounding of shells and the hunkering down in rain-sodden trenches. What happened? How did it go so wrong for the British? Here in sharp detail, the bestselling writer John Harris tells the story of one the key battles of world history, describing in gripping terms how a series of events soon spiralled wildly, and hopelessly, out of control. This is an unforgettable history of assault and bitter defence that takes the reader into the ferocious heart of a conflict whose scars remain today.
"The first day on the Somme was the blackest day of slaughter in the history of the British Army, this is a powerful account of the experiences of soldiers who faced it.
Now, 100 years later, Robert Kershaw attempts to understand the carnage, using the voices of the British and German soldiers who lived through that awful day.
In a letter to Tony Essex, the editor of the television series The Great War, Laing described this photograph which was taken 'about November 1916 when Jerry evacuated the line on a [length] of about thirty miles, and a likewise depth ...
This new edition of Paul Reed's classic book Walking the Somme is an essential traveling companion for anyone visiting the Somme battlefields of 1916.
It is a battle that has left its mark on the landscape today, with a French national cemetery and a commemorative chapel acting as memorials to the battle.The book is introduced by a chapter describing the role of the area in the Franco ...
A U.S. release of a classic memoir by the author of Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It weighs the significance of World War I as it is reflected in memories, works of art, cemeteries and traditions that illuminate humanity's ...
It was, they believed, a form of hysteria. It was contagious. And it had to be stopped. Breakdown brings an entirely new perspective to bear on one of the iconic battles of the First World War.
Somme Success provides a detailed description of all facets of air operations of the period using the firsthand accounts of those who were there.
Corporal Tommy Keele llrh Battalion, Middlesex Regiment 1 found myself a job in the theatre, in a show at Drury Lane, called The Whip. Everyone knew that the Drury Lane Theatre was putting on these big racing shows using mechanical ...
Chronicles the British and French offensive against entrenched German lines in 1916, with analysis of the objectives and plans for the battle, the slaughter of the frontal assault, and the war's trench-based attrition.