The Somme: The Darkest Hour on the Western Front [Hardcover]

Peter Hart (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 17, 2009

The definitive account of one of the bloodiest battles in world history—a military tragedy that would come to define a generation.

On July 1, 1916, the British Army launched the "Big Push" that was supposed to bring an end to the horrific stalemate on the Western Front between British, French and German forces. What resulted was one of the greatest single human catastrophes in twentieth century warfare: scrambling out of trenches in the face of German machine guns and artillery fire, the British lost over twenty thousand soldiers during the first day. This "battle" would drag on for another four bloody months.

Expertly weaving together letters, diaries, and other first-person accounts, Peter Hart gives us a compelling narrative tribute to this infamous tragedy that epitomized the futility of "the war to end all wars."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Hart is the current master of an approach to military history developed by Martin Middlebrook and Lyn Macdonald. Direct quotations from participants establish the face of battle, then combined with a narrative/analytical backdrop contextualizing the personal experiences. As oral historian of Britain's Imperial War Museum, Hart has unrivaled access to relevant sources. This book, published in Britain in 2005, is a masterful synthesis of the human and the operational aspects of a campaign that increasingly defines the British experience in the Great War. Hart vividly presents the runup to the Big Push expected to end the war; the disaster of July 1, 1916, when the British army suffered nearly 60,000 casualties; and the numbing months of attrition as British troops bled against the German defenses. Hart describes the horror as reflecting not the stupidity of individual generals and politicians but the determination of nations to resolve their differences by a war fought to the finish. The British army learned how to fight battles like the Somme, built around fire power. But its learning curve was slippery with blood. Hart honors the men who paid the price. Photos, maps. (Jan. 7)
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Review

“Peter Hart pays handsome tribute to the ordinary soldiers who gave their lives in battle. One could not wish for a more appropriate testimony to that generation. (The Literary Review)”

“Starred Review. This book, published in Britain in 2005, is a masterful synthesis of the human and the operational aspects of a campaign that increasingly defines the British experience in the Great War. (Publishers Weekly)”

“Peter Hart's The Somme is a memorial. The book brings to life the men who fought at the Somme in an accurate and precisely detailed history of one of the most gut-wrenchingly obscene desecrations of humanity our species ever perpetrated upon itself.... As director and oral historian of the British Imperial War Museum in London, Hart is uniquely positioned to do justice to the British participants in the battle. A talented historian, he succeeds in that most important element of history, storytelling. (Washington Post, Robert Bateman)”

“The most comprehensive and insightful account of the vast tragedy of the Somme that I have read. (The Spectator)”

“Hart brings the human experience of the combatants well to the fore. A monumental feat of research, his book is also a memorial of the most compelling kind to the hundreds of individuals whose recollections are presented so vividly here. (The Scotsman [Edinburgh])”

“Hart is an accomplished author and in The Somme he is on top form. His narrative descriptions of the brutal realities of battle are outstanding. (BBC History Magazine)”

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 624 pages
• Publisher: Pegasus (January 17, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1605980161
• ISBN-13: 978-1605980164
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #540,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another fine WW I history from Peter Hart, February 7, 2009

By 

David W. Straight (knoxville, tennessee United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Somme: The Darkest Hour on the Western Front (Hardcover)

Peter Hart is certainly one of the great WW I historians. Aces Falling and Bloody April, both about the air war, are superb and unforgettable works. The Somme is a massive and detailed history of the months-long battle. As he did in Bloody April and Aces Falling, Hart includes a wealth of personal narrative: letters, diaries, reports, etc. At a guess, perhaps 30% of the book is such narrative. The authors are mostly British, but include Australians and New Zealanders, etc, with some narratives from Germans and a very few French. They range from Generals to lower-ranking officers, NCOs, and ordinary privates (it would seem that the lower ranks were perhaps not as productive in this regard--front-line trenches were not the ideal place for diary-keeping).

Hart provides a balanced outlook--he is kinder to most of the generals than many others have been--and explains why they do not deserve as much condemnation as they received by many after the war. Hart does conclude that the "bite-and-hold" approach worked much more successfully than the "big push" ideas that sought to grab massive amounts of territory. You get maps--lots of detailed maps that show front lines, objectives, and results. Hart works the front part by part--showing what happened in the different sectors--why some attacks were relatively successful while others were not. You also get, which provides a fascinating contrast, narratives from some of the fliers above the battle--their bird's-eye view of the front and the battles. This is certainly a fine addition to your WW I book shelves!

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Dark Hour but a first class history, February 22, 2009

By 

Martin Hornby "The Western Front Association" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Somme: The Darkest Hour on the Western Front (Hardcover)

'The Somme'. To many people these few words have come to be bywords for murder, mayhem and pointless slaughter. They conjure up views of Chateau Generals and poor Tommy Atkins living in fetid trenches waiting an untimely death in a hail of machine gun bullets.
At long last we have a book which challenges this often heard view of the battle of the Somme. For nearly 90 years many eminent military historians have helped to colour the views of our nation with the same old bigoted, jaundiced and ill informed view of this great but tragic battle.

In this work Peter Hart looks at the battle in a logical and orderly manner. The book starts by giving the reasons why Douglas Haig was forced into fighting on the chalk downlands of the Somme. Once the political reasons for the battle are covered he moves smoothly to the tumultuous first day. This starts at Gommecourt and steadily moves southwards along the battleline to Maricourt on the banks of the river Somme. All through the text one sees an educated analysis of the opening day's events, which are greatly aided by new facsimiles of the Official Histories maps.

Upon the conclusion of the first day the reader is then taken through the further battles that comprise the Battle of the Somme. All the time there is logical analysis of the Generals actions. In many parts one is made aware of unforgivable errors made by Haig, Rawlinson and others which lead to the death of many thousands of men. But one is also made aware of incidents that will hopefully lay down the myth of Lions led by Donkeys! The analysis of the battles is clear and concise, sticking to known facts. All too often we are served up myth and legend, in what are frankly pseudo histories of this conflict.

Throughout the book Peter Hart makes extensive use of personal accounts from those who we there. He has not been tempted to colour the reader's judgement of the overall battle by the misrepresentation of these most personal reminiscences. They add greatly to the understanding of how individual soldiers felt about their own localised situation within the tumult of the battle.

In conclusion I would recommend this book whole heartedly; this is a classic work that joins the ever increasing list of revisionist histories on the Great War. With the passing of time we are able to make reasoned judgements on the conflict. Peter Hart should be congratulated for producing this fine body of work. I would suggest that those who have accused him of being an apologist for Douglas Haig should question their own historical integrity and stop following the all too easy path of misinformed and some what bigoted comment on this tragic battle.

The one abiding conclusion to be drawn from this book is that War is awful, it is not and never has been glorious to those who are caught up in it. Peter Hart leaves one in no doubt of this fact.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Another Somme Book, THE Somme Book, February 22, 2009

By 

J. Grundy "Jim Grundy" (Hucknall, Nottinghamshire) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Somme: The Darkest Hour on the Western Front (Hardcover)

I cannot praise this book enough! Hyperbole is not something that I am given to but for any book on such a well trodden subject as the Somme to be as engaging as this signals a major achievement.

What I believe sets this book apart from many that I have read is the strength of genuine feeling that the author has for the men who experienced the battle. That is not necessarily the impression I get from some authors. You do get a real sense of how deeply moved he was when laying out the first hand accounts of men who underwent such appalling experiences. The book never, though, descends into sentimentality.

It would be a book that I would happily recommend to anyone who'd never read anything about the Somme or to someone who had their own personal library in the spare room. As such, it stands in a clear line from Martin Middlebrook's classic, "The First Day on the Somme", and stands some what higher, in my view, than Lynn McDonald's book, "Somme", good book though that is.