Product Description

The Battle of the Somme, fought between July and November 1916, was among the bloodiest conflicts of all time. The aim was to end the stalemate on the Western Front – the result was carnage. In a total of just over a hundred days of fighting, the death toll reached 310,459. Half the bodies were never recovered. At the close of the battle, the British and French forces had not even reached the line they set themselves for the first day. Yet, despite its horrific destruction, the fighting at the Somme was characterised by incredible individual bravery.

In commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the battle, Martin Gilbert, one of Britain’s most distinguished historians, graphically recreates the tragedy. He interweaves individual stories, wartime documents, letters and poetry in a deeply moving, succinct narrative.

From gripping descriptions of struggles on the battlefield to poignant evocations of the memorials and cemeteries that stand there today, this is a definitive guide to the Somme. It is a story of unparalleled folly and heroism, from which, as it unfolds, there emerge deep implications that are shared by all wars.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #227019 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-19
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Review

'A brilliant evocation of the battle'

(The Times )

‘Powerful’

(BBC History magazine )

‘Tireless ... a day-by-day account of the fight, triumph and tragedy hand in hand’

(Spectator )

‘A superb book that works not only as history but as a guide for visitors to the battlefield today. Amongst the slew of new titles we can expect commemorating the battle, this stands unrivalled’

(Good Book Guide )

‘Admirably comprehensive’

 

(Literary Review )

Praise for Martin Gilbert:

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‘In his transmission of the horror of the war, Martin Gilbert has achieved something probably no historian but he could’

(John Keegan, The Sunday Times )

‘A masterly panorama ... Gilbert never forgets – and never allows his readers to forget – that the “embattled armies” were composed of millions of individuals, that it is the human experience and the human cost that matters’

 

(Lyn MacDonald, Sunday Times )

‘An immensely readable epitome of one of the most complex events in history’

(Paul Johnson, Evening Standard )

‘Lucid, comprehensive and authoritative’

(Philip Zeigler, Daily Telegraph )

‘Martin Gilbert is an exceptionally gifted historian with the zest to ferret out all kinds of source materials and the skill to analyse and to interpret them cogently and convincingly’

(Asa Briggs, Guardian )

About the Author
Martin Gilbert is the Official Biographer of Sir Winston Churchill; his prolific output on this stubect include the one-volume biography, Churchill: A Life. Among his other books are: First World War, Second World War, D-Day and The Day the War Ended, as well as a magisterial three-volume History Of The Twentieth Century, and twelve historical atlases. Martin Gilbert was knighted in 1995. Two years later he was awarded a Doctorate of Literature at Oxford University for the totality of his historical work.

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Customer Reviews

"There was a time when Death and I
Came face to face together
I was but young indeed to die
And it was summer weather." Mary Emily Bradley

On 1 July 1916, more than 90 years ago, thousands and thousands of young men rose from their trenches near the River Somme in France and came face to face with death. The Battle of the Somme may be one of the bloodiest battles of one of the bloodiest wars since time began. On the first day of the battle alone the British Forces had almost 20,000 men killed and another 37,000 men wounded. The noted British historian and biographer Martin Gilbert has taken an intimate and very personal look at this battle in his book "The Somme: Heroism and Horror in the First World War".

The book is set up as a straightforward chronological narrative. Gilbert notes that the French were being pressed severely at Verdun and pressed the British command to launch an offensive on their front that would serve to relieve pressure on the French. He goes on to discuss battle planning and the logistics of preparing for a massive assault. The plan was horrifically simple: send hundreds of thousands of men forward against entrenched positions, hope the Germans ran out of machine gun bullets before the British forces ran out of men, and open up a hole in the German lines wide enough for the Cavalry to break through the hole and mount a major offensive against the fleeing Germans. The plan's simplicity was matched only by the futility of its chance for success. From there Gilbert takes us chapter-by-chapter through the first day of the campaign, the first week, through the summer and then through the end of the battle in November of 1916 almost exactly two years before the armistice.

Those looking for an in-depth military analysis of the campaign should look elsewhere. Gilbert provides enough strategy (and maps) to give the reader some idea of the order of battle. However, this does not seem to be the point of the book. As the subtitle "Heroism and Horror in the First World War" suggest, this book seems to be an attempt to `individualize' the fighting sufficient for the reader to gain a sense of exactly how much was lost in this battle. Joseph Stalin is reputed to have said: "[a] single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic." Gilbert seems to have taken this axiom to heart and attempted to remove the battle from the realm of statistic to that of tragedy.

Gilbert takes pains at every step of the way to look at the battle through the eyes of the (British and Commonwealth) officers and men who fought the battle. As Gilbert tells these stories the reader is met (too, too frequently) with this closing line: "Today his name is on the Thiepval Memorial" or "he is buried in Bazentin-le-Petit Communal Cemetery". At the same time Gilbert sets out to provide some sense of the duty and courage and honor that bound the troops on both sides of the trenches together. There were certainly incidences of cowardice and desertion but, for the most part, these men walked into the valley of the shadow of death knowing full well they would likely never return. They performed feats of bravery, they died trying to save their fellow soldiers and they fought with no small amount of fierce brutality.

In taking this approach Gilbert managed successfully to remove the battle from the realm of statistics to one of a human tragedy. He also successfully paid his very personal homage to those that died in the battle. Gilbert does not, in my opinion, over sentimentalize those who fought and died but he does pay them no small amount of homage in recognition of their sacrifice simply by bringing these individuals names back to light more than 90 years after they perished.

Martin Gilbert's Battle of the Somme may not be to everyone's taste, particularly those looking for more of a technical or strategic look at the battle. Some may feel that his repeated homage to individual soldiers detracts from the flow of the book - although I thought that this was the point of the book. However, it makes a nice companion piece for those with an interest in the Great War, those who have read broader histories of the war, including Keegan' and Gilbert's excellent treatments or those, like me, looking for a popular (rather than technical) analysis of one of the 20th-century's most apocalyptic battles. For those people, Martin Gilbert's Battle of the Somme is well worth reading.