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Somme: The Heroism and Horror of War
"Gilbert has unearthed fascinating details of the campaign . . . An unforgettable read."--"The Philadelphia Inquirer" At 7:30 a.m. on July 1, 1916, the first Allied soldiers climbed out of their trenches along the Somme River in France and charged into no-man's-land, toward the barbed wire and machine guns at the German front lines. In the months that f...more
Paperback, 352 pages
Published
April 19th 2007
by John Murray
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From July to Nov of 1916 this ill advised battle claimed over a million young lives. The book is literally a collection of first person accounts of the total savagery of "The Great War" The Somme distinctly becomes a testimonial monument to the brutalization of soldiers under the command of delusional old men, who after multiple attempts (Ypres, Gallipoli) continue to harbor visions of massive "breakthroughs" on the trench warfare battleground, and sacrifice massive human l...more
Rating: 6/10. I think I might have rated this book too high. It's a pretty conventional account of the preparation and execution of the Somme campaign in WWI told from the British side. I've probably read a dozen books on this battle. One of the formations he keys in on is the Newfoundland regiment and its decimation on July 1st and that was quite interesting. My impression is that this book was a 'knock-off' to make a few bucks between the author's well-known Churchill volumes.
David
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Michael K. gave it to me as a cast gift
The story of the Allies' offensive from July to November, 1916 in the region of the River Somme, told largely from Britain's point of view.
This was an battle of staggering magnitude: there is a memorial at Thiepval to honor only British and South Africans killed there who have no known grave, and they number 73,335. That is to say, more than all American dead from the entire Vietnam War.
Such a strange war, which saw the first widespread use of aircraft and tanks, the la...more
This was an battle of staggering magnitude: there is a memorial at Thiepval to honor only British and South Africans killed there who have no known grave, and they number 73,335. That is to say, more than all American dead from the entire Vietnam War.
Such a strange war, which saw the first widespread use of aircraft and tanks, the la...more
A moving history of the battle by a super historian told through the writings of soldiers and generals.
This is not a regular military history of a battle,more of a human story of men in battle. Every soldier mentioned in the narrative has his grave or name on which memorial mentioned. This book gives you the facts of the battle but mixed with poetry and diary extracts makes it all the more human.
The staggering day one british forces death toll of 19,240 is still the most shocking thing of it all.
I was at the O2 in london recently watching Iron Maiden.If all the people in the O2 ...more
The staggering day one british forces death toll of 19,240 is still the most shocking thing of it all.
I was at the O2 in london recently watching Iron Maiden.If all the people in the O2 ...more
Horror is mild. It's hard to believe that men would endure the hell that was trench warfare.
good book
Puts into perspective the Lions led by Donkeys perception of the bloodiest battle in Britain's long military history.
A good but depressing book about the battle of the Somme in World War I.
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Sir Martin John Gilbert is a British historian and Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford. He is the author of over eighty books, including works on the Holocaust and Jewish history. Gilbert is a leading historian of the modern world, and is known as the official biographer of Sir Winston Churchill.
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