Monday, July 10, 2006

Scholarship - The Somme


The First World War is my favorite area to study. It is the most horrific event in human history aside from (and overshadowed by) the even larger world war that followed.

I was notified by Amazon.com that this book was coming out. I usually delete those emails or send them to my spam folder, but I am a 'uge Martin Gilbert fan. I have his "First World War" and "Second World War" which are some of the best histories I have read on each respective subject. They detail the day-to-day (or week-to-week) progression of each war and add human faces (citizen soldiers mostly) to battles that killed and mutilated thousands. The Somme is THE quintessential battle of WW1 and a microcosm of all that pro and preceded it. The British Army lost 19,000 men (killed!) on day 1 as Tommys with 60lb packs went "over the top" towards German machine gun nests that lie beyond barb wire. This date, July 1, 1916, is the bloodiest day for the British Army (Antietam is America's - 4,000 killed). When the battle ended 6 months later, 300,000 soldiers (on both sides) had been killed and thousands upon thousands more injured or simply lost in the quagmire of No Man's Land. The sad conclusion is that the battle lines hardly moved when the smoke finally cleared...I will provide a report upon completion.

1 comment:

Snizow said...

Very interested in checking this out. Let me know how it reads. I visited the Somme battlefield area in France back in '99 and was astounded at the stories. I remember the soldiers' memorial; a trench had been blown up during battle and filled in by falling dirt, leaving vertically protruding bayonets as the only signs of the soldiers that had just been buried within their former safe haven. Chilling.