Customer Reviews

Somme

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For the British, Ypres and the Somme are the definitive battles of the Great War. In this retelling of the latter, Hart has set the standard by which the newest generation of Great War history will be measured. This is a magnificently researched and readable look at arguably the most deadly battle of that deadly war. Hart is curator of the Imperial War Museum's audio archive and he puts to good use his familiarity with that wonderful resource. The result is direct quotes from dozens of participating soldiers. These recorded histories are in large part new sources (at least for me as a reader of Great War history) as opposed to the letters, diaries, and official histories that usually make up the bibliograpy of works such as these. Add to this Hart's sharp writing style, insightful comments, and ease at making sense of chaotic and confusing battle scenes (something that unfortunately is too rare among WWI historians) and you have a book that is difficult to put down, no matter how much you already know about the Somme. The author also does not shrink from describing the horror of battle, and in fact devotes an entire chapter to the medical services (such as they were) at the Somme. He is critical more of Rawlinson and Gough than of Haig (although admiting that Sir Douglas was ultimately responsible for his army commanders' actions) and covers all the major actions of the battle in some detail. One is certainly reminded of Lyn McDonald's work when reading this, but Hart gives us more than McDonald did in her account of the Somme in that her focus on the stories of veterans left portions of the battle undiscussed. While McDonald's version remains a masterwork, Hart's will join it as a magnificent recounting of those 4 1/2 months in 1916.

Many bloody battles have a moment, often commemorated in a painting, of a glorious death or act of defiance that makes the bloodletting and terror bearable, at least in retrospect. Napoleon leading his men across the bridge at Arcole, Armistead reaching for the Federal guns at Gettysburg, McAulliffe responding "Nuts" to the demand for surrender.

The Somme had more than its share of heroism, but nothing that makes a good painting or heartening story for schoolchildren. Instead the Somme is men venturing out from trenches to kill each other in a small, brown, inglorious landscape. My girlfriend calls the Hart's massive tome "the maggoty corpse book," and the great number of unburied bodies is a note running repeatedly in its many first hand accounts from soldiers of many lands.

Hart does tend to fault Rawlinson to what I thought was an excessive extent. Rawlinson's main fault seems to be not resigning rather than follow the direction of Douglas Haig. It should be noted that most generals leading their country's conscripts would have been sacked after the July 1 slaughter north of the Bapaume road, where numerous New Army battalions were mowed down for little lost to the Germans except ammunition. Haig was not. Haig retained the top command, set the tone, and the learning curve of the British Army after July 1st was an embarrasingly low and bumpy one. And Haig was still making the same mistakes of overambitious attacks in 1917.

Peter Hart has produced a number of books from the IWM "First Person Stories" which make a tremendous source for the historian seeking answers to "how could this have happened?" This new work, The Somme, along with Bloody April, are Hart's new works separate from long time co-author Nigel Steel.

The Somme is an outstanding, highly readable work which uses historical facts to tie together hundreds of first hand accounts of the battle. This book makes no attempt to put the unmitigated horror of the story into a larger historical framework of World War I. It tells the story of soldiers who endured the four month bloodbath of 1916 which produced little but to relieve pressure on the French at Verdun.

I highly recommend this work as an interesting and informative "read" that lets the reader draw his own conclusions about the waste of the "Pals Battalions".

I have read litterally hundreds of books on WWII but this is one of the first on WW1. What a way to start. This book is really outstanding. I am about 3/4 of the way through and its still a great read and I have a hard time putting it down. The attention to detail is awesome, with the best part being the gripping natatives from the soldiers themselves. This book literally leaves the reader speachless at the horror of this battle. This book is amust-have for someone who wants to understand what WW1 was like for the average foot soldier in the trenches.

600 page book om the battle of the Somme. Written in chonological order, starting with the pre-attack to the 1st awful day right through to the battle's conclusion. Started off a little slow, and wasn't sure I could sit through this read. Once I got to July 1 the book started to really flow. Throughout was quotations of the actual participants, which at first I didn't like, but really did make this book great. Also included are maps of the portion of the battle being discussed, which really help the reader keep in perspective.
Very well written book that makes you feel that you are there, but glad you are not.

Just finished this book last week. Hart did a terrific job of explaining events and intertwining them with first person accounts of the action. This terrible battle is brought to life for the reader and you get a graphic sense of what it was to fight and die in the Somme. I enjoyed the book very much and plan on reading other books by Peter Hart in the future. Good Read.

This is a very large book filled with numerous stories about a terrible battle in WWI. The sories in this book just make you feel as you were there. At times I felt as if I knew the soldiers and I thought at times I did not want to turn the page becuase I was sure the person I was reading about would be killed on the next page. But I turned the page, some lived through the day others did not. You can feel the loss. This is a very powerful story that is well told.