The First Day on the Somme 1 July 1916 (Penguin History) [Paperback]

Martin Middlebrook (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0140171347 | ISBN-13: 978-0140171341 | Publication Date: 1992

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 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. Martin Middlebrook's classic account of the blackest day in the history of the British army draws on official sources, local newspapers, autobiographies, novels and poems from the time. Most importantly, it 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. Compelling and intensely moving, it describes the true events behind the sacrifice of a generation of young men - killed as much by the folly of their commanders as by the bullets of their enemies.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

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.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Penguin UK (1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140171347
• ISBN-13: 978-0140171341
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #518,757 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If Only All Military History Was This Well-Written, June 1, 2000

By 

R. A Forczyk (MD, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The First Day on the Somme 1 July 1916 (Penguin History) (Paperback)

This is a very detailed account of the first day of the Somme offensive in 1916. In one day, the British Army suffered over 57,000 casualties (including 21,000 dead) - a 50% loss rate. Middlebrook chronicles how Kitchener's New Army was raised and trained in 1914-1915, with high hopes for achieving a decisive success in 1916. While the Germans knew the date and location of the offensive, they failed to move up adequate reserves because they underestimated the length of front that was to be attacked. General Rawlinson, Commander of 4th Army, bears much of the blame for the disaster in Middlebrook's account, due to his insistence on slow, clumsy "wave" infantry attacks, inflexible artillery support and non-use of cavalry for exploitation. Faulty British tactics led to total repulse on most of the front with heavy casualties, but in the one place where success was achieved with three divisions, Rawlinson forbade further advance. Attacking in broad daylight, at a walking pace into dug-in machine guns behind extensive barbed wire was found to be a very bad idea. Rawlinson had no concentration of effort; all infantry and artillery was spread evenly along the front. Nevertheless, British numbers (a 7-1 advantage) and courage could have scored a major success according to Middlebrook if the New Army had been properly used. The author stops to review the battle at set periods and he concludes with a very well-done analysis chapter. Excellent appendices cover both sides Orders of Battle, senior officer casualties, battalions that lost more than 500 men on 1 July and Victoria Cross winners. Although the maps could be a bit better, this is military history that is thoroughly researched and well written.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tragic, Harrowing, but Inspirational - Read IT!, August 31, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The first day on the Somme, 1 July 1916 (Hardcover)

If you read only one book ever on the First World War, this should be it. When written some thirty years ago Middlebrook was not only taking the opportunity of interviewing still-lucid but fast-ageing survivors, but establishing a whole genre - one that he himself was to remain master of in a whole series of later books, all splendid. "The Somme" does however remain his best, partly because of the sheer pathos and epic grandeur of the theme and the simple dignity with which the survivors describe the sacrifice of a generation. I have read and reread this book over a twenty year period, and my children in turn have been as moved as myself, and it has been the inspiration for an emotionally wrenching family visit to the battlefield and its memorials. Like few books I have ever read this tells of the dignity, valour and heights of virtue to which ordinary men can rise. It tells of misery and suffering on an epic scale, but the underlying memory of generosity and of the soaring grandeur of the human spirit. This book achieves in prose what Sassoon and Owen did in poetry. It is truly inspirational. Don't just read it - give it to your children too.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A thorough account of one day's deaths, February 8, 2003

By 

Takis Tz. (InYourHead) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The First Day on the Somme 1 July 1916 (Penguin History) (Paperback)

The battle of the Somme has gained such notoriety for what it has "managed" to stand for: thousands of corpses littered one on top the other in a huge battlefield while thousands of men are charging over them while machine gun fire is mowing them down systematically and shelling is tearing them furthermore to pieces.
Being possibly the last battle in modern history where "old tactics" were used against modern werfare, the battle of the Somme has been a very brutal antiwar message. A message not learned of course.
The British army suffered its doomiest 3 days in its history as it sent waves of 1000's of men to charge withoout any cover against trenches defended by machine guns. The results might seem to you (even if you dont know the story) predictable, but for the British generals of the time things were apparently not as clear.
While the author makes his approach primarily from the British point of view (for the respective German view try the classic "All quiet in the the Western Front) he still manages to capture the overall atmosphere of that surreal bloodbath. He does so by providing countless first hand accounts by the people who -miraculously- survived. These accounts bring forth a picture of trully hard to imagine dimensions. One of unparallel death toll, carnage, pointlessness, human idiocy, vanity, and in short a picture only humans in this world are capable of "painting".
As over 60.000 British soldiers literally became "food for the cannons" (a german euphemism) in less than a day, they turned an otherwise dull landscape in France into a place of remembrance and somber thought. And, contemplation for future generations one would think. This would of course presuppose that future generations are aware of such dark pages in history which i very much doubt.
The author walks a tight rope as he tries to first give you a historical overview of what had happened up to that point of the war, what the balances were (sociologically) and he moves on to the logistics and military analysis of the war without tiring the reader as he becomes more concerned with the human aspect of the people who were actually there. Those that lived and more importantly those that died.
He doesnt overpush his case, he hardly needs to, as you will also find out. Some of what he describes is so hard to stomach that there is obviously no need to overstate it in order to drive the point home. The more you read on the more you acquire the reality that death isnt notable only when it's brutal. In the end what makes war one of the most pointless human "expressions" is that the termination of life always comes down to the ancient conflict between the question "why" and the reasons for war themselves. The answers should be obvious. Emphasis on the "should"..
Overall,this book is one of the very best accounts on the battle of the Somme. Keeping in mind the time this book was written it has extra value as it contributed in setting new standards for writting history. It lets the people themselves narrate compared to the "old school" history books where an author would go on a monolithic account that would tire and illuminate only marginally.
Stunning...