Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If Only All Military History Was This Well-Written, June 1, 2000
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.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Their Story., December 23, 2001
Martin Middlebrook does in this book what many military historians fail to do, and that is to keep a lucid balance between the numerous oral histories of the veterans enclosed and his own story line of the events as they unfolded. He gives these men free range to tell their story and is never critical of them in his writing. His style I feel has been repeated since then by other writers, but he was really the first to recognize the importance of getting these men to talk before they passed away. This book is an excellent choice for both someone who wishes to know the history of that catastrophic day as well as those who enjoy hearing the veterans speak in their unvarnished language, the language of a generation which did not consider themselves as heroes, but rather as men doing their duty to their country. That is the main thing I take away from this book, though they were naive when they first went over the top, they quickly realized through the attrition and stagnation of their surroundings the utter futility of war and that the supreme sacrifice was to die for a country that did not honor them, yet sent over a million to their death. This day was the first time for the new army (Kitcheners Army) as they called the infinite number of men who willing volunteered, to really stretch their legs. The battle of Loos was the first but not on as grand a scale. Over 120,000 soldiers were destined to go over the top. Middlebrook stipulates several well written analytical points as to why this operation was not just an utter failure but the darkest day ever in British History. It is infuriating to read how divisions were to attack as simple diversions for the real assault, so thousands of men fell for no reason, simply offered as cannon fodder for the larger picture. The failure to capitalize on the mines going off was a particular logistical failure that cost many men their lives. The English would suffer 60,000 casualties of which 19,000 would be killed or die of their wounds. This is a very important book to read, and is widely unknown in America because we were involved for such a short time. I thank Mr. Middlebrook for bringing these men to life in this book, instead of listing them as statistics in the over all battle. This is an important message for future generations, especially the youngest ones. As they say the battlefields of the future will be much the same as those that our WWI ancestors fought upon.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tragic, Harrowing, but Inspirational - Read IT!, August 31, 1999
By A Customer
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.
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