The Somme

Herosim and Horror in the First World War

Martin Gilbert

• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9781429966887
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 20th Century History
• Index: History

One of our most distinguished historians delivers an authoritative and vivid account of the devastating WWI battle that claimed more than 300,000 lives.
At 7:30 am on July 1, 1916, the first Allied soldiers climbed out of their trenches along the Somme River in France and charged out into no-man's-land toward the barbed wire and machine guns at the German front lines.
By the end of this first day of the Allied attack, the British army alone would lose 20,000 men; in the coming months, the fifteen-mile-long territory along the river would erupt into the epicenter of the Great War. The Somme would mark a turning point in both the war and military history, as soldiers saw the first appearance of tanks on the battlefield, the emergence of the air war as a devastating and decisive factor in battle, and more than one million casualties (among them a young Adolf Hitler, who took a fragment in the leg). In just 138 days, 310,000 men died.
In this vivid, deeply researched account of one history's most destructive battles, historian Martin Gilbert tracks the Battle of the Somme through the experiences of footsoldiers (known to the British as the PBI, for Poor Bloody Infantry), generals, and everyone in between. Interwoven with photographs, journal entries, original maps, and documents from every stage and level of planning,  The Somme is the most authoritative and affecting account of this bloody turning point in the Great War.

"A steadily astonishing piece of work that acts as a worthy remembrance." — New York Post

"His superbly written, absorbing re-creations of innumerable small life-and-death struggles make this book a fitting commemoration of the tragedy." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• List of Illustrations
• List of Maps
• Contents
• Preface
• Prelude: ‘Chewing barbed wire’
• 1. The prospect: ‘To break through and win victory’
• 2. June 1916: ‘There is much in the wind’
• 3. The first day of the battle: ‘Dead men can advance no further’
• 4. The first full week of battle: ‘It looked like victory’
• 5. The last three weeks of July: ‘Boys of the Bull Dog Breed’
• 6. Fromelles: ‘A bloody holocaust’
• 7. Pozières: ‘Death grinning at you from all around’
• 8. The battle continues: ‘A little uneasy in regard to the situation’
• 9. Criticism and commitment: ‘Under no circumstances must we relax our effort’
• 10. Both sides fight on: ‘This fantasy of woe’
• 11. The continuing struggle: ‘I am in God’s keeping’
• 12. The arrival of the tanks: ‘We are feeling top dogs’
• 13. The struggle intensifies: ‘Death and decomposition strew the ground’
• 14. October 1916: The Grand Design begins
• 15. The soldiers’ sacrifice: ‘What else had they been born for?’
• 16. The first two weeks of November: ‘The mud of the moment’
• 17. The final battle: ‘A light from our household is gone’
• 18. Aftermath on the Somme: November 1916 to November 1918
• Epilogue: ‘We feel proud to be able to cry’
• Maps
• Appendix: Approximate size of army formations
• Bibliography of Works Consulted
• Also by Martin Gilbert
• Acknowledgements
• Index
• Copyright