Somme 1 July 1916
A refreshingly balanced examination of a well-trodden area of military history.
The first day of the battle of the Somme has always been perceived as a day of tragedy for the British Army, with the slaughter of 60,000 men on the battlefield. What seemed to be poor planning on the part of the British command meant that soldiers were sent into no man's land to face the horrors of uncut barbed wire and waves of German machine gun fire. However, there were triumphs amongst the tragedy.
This book discusses the successes and failures of the British and the German forces along the frontline. It also offers a detailed account of the battle itself, following the actions of individual units throughout the day.
Andrew Robertshaw is Director for Education at the National Army Museum and is currently working with Whitehall on their Household Cavalry museum project. He has presented numerous programmes on the First World War for the BBC and Channel 4; he is currently working on 'Finding the Fallen' for the Discovery Channel. In 1997 he published A Soldier's Life (Heinemann/Penguin). He frequently lectures on battlefield archaeology and the First World War, and is Chair of 'No Man's Land', the European Group for First World War Archaeology. He lives in Surrey.
Peter Dennis was born in 1950. Inspired by contemporary magazines such as ‘Look and Learn’, he studied illustration at Liverpool Art College. Peter has since contributed to hundreds of books, predominantly on historical subjects. He is a keen wargamer and modelmaker.