The First Day on the SommeA history of the British Army’s experience at the Battle of the Somme in France during World War I. After an immense but useless bombardment, at 7:30 AM on July 1, 1916, the British Army went over the top and attacked the German trenches. It was the first day of the battle of the Somme, and on that day, the British suffered nearly 60,000 casualties, two for every yard of their front. With more than fifty times the daily losses at El Alamein and fifteen times the British casualties on D-day, July 1, 1916, was the blackest day in the history of the British Army. But, more than that, as Lloyd George recognized, it was a watershed in the history of the First World War. The Army that attacked on that day was the volunteer Army that had answered Kitchener’s call. It had gone into action confident of a decisive victory. But by sunset on the first day on the Somme, no one could any longer think of a war that might be won. Martin Middlebrook’s research has covered not just official and regimental histories and tours of the battlefields, but interviews with hundreds of survivors, both British and German. As to the action itself, he conveys the overall strategic view and the terrifying reality that it was for front-line soldiers. Praise for The First Day on the Somme “The soldiers receive the best service a historian can provide: their story is told in their own words.” —The Guardian (UK) |
Contents
The Somme and the Germans | |
The Preparations | |
The Last Few Hours | |
Zero Hour | |
Review at 8 30 A M | |
Review at Noon | |
Review at Dusk | |
The Aftermath | |
The Cost | |
The Years that Followed | |
Order of Battle of British Infantry Units | |
A Tour of the Somme Battlefield | |
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Common terms and phrases
2nd Lieut 2nd Royal 46th North Midland Accrington Pals ambulance trains ammunition artillery attack barrage battle Belfast Boisselle bombardment Bradford Pals British soldiers British trenches Capt captured casualties cavalry Cemetery corps commander crater dead defences Devons dug-outs enemy Essex fighting fire Fourth Army France Fricourt front-line trench German front line German lines German machine-gun German shells German trenches Gommecourt Gough Green Howards grenades Grimsby Chums guns Haig heavy Imperial War Museum July killed L/Cpl La Boisselle Lancs Lieut-Col Lieut-Gen Light Infantry Liverpool Pals London Maj.-Gen Mametz Man’s Land Manchester Pals Matthews Montauban morning Newfoundlanders North Midland Northumberland Fusiliers officers ordered Paddy Kennedy platoon position prisoners Rawlinson recruits Reginald Bastard Reserve Regiment Schwaben Redoubt sector sent sergeant Sheffield City Battalion shell hole Sherwood Foresters Somme Thiepval took troops Tyneside Irish Tyneside Scottish Ulster Division units village Volunteers wire wounded yards