The Somme

by Peter Hart

Overview

One of the bloodiest battles in world history—a military tragedy that would come to define a generation.

On July 1, 1916, the British Army launched the “Big Push” that was supposed to bring an end to the horrific stalemate on the Western Front between British, French, and German forces. What resulted was one of the greatest single human catastrophes in twentieth century warfare. Scrambling out of trenches in the face of German machine guns and artillery fire, the Allied Powers lost over twenty thousand soldiers that first day. This “battle” would drag on for another four bloody months, resulting in over one million causalities among the three powers.


As the oral historian at the Imperial War Museum in London, Peter Hart has brought to light new material never before seen or heard. The Somme is an unparalleled evocation of World War I’s iconic contest—the definitive account of one of the major tragedies of the twentieth century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781605980812
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	03/15/2010
Pages:	624
Sales rank:	238,473
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.70(d)

About the Author

Peter Hart studied at Liverpool University before becoming a director at the Imperial War Museum in London. As the museum's Oral Historian, he works frequently with war veterans recording their wartime experiences.

Peter Hart studied at Liverpool University before becoming a director at the Imperial War Museum in London. As the museum's Oral Historian, he works frequently with war veterans recording their wartime experiences.

Table of Contents

Preface 11

1 The Rocky Road 15

2 Armies and Weapons 38

3 Moving On Up 57

4 1 July 1916 109

5 The Morning After 211

6 Creeping Forward 222

7 Stumbling to Disaster 283

8 From Bad to Worse 323

9 You are not Alone 346

10 When Push Comes to Shove 361

11 Hammering On 408

12 October Attrition 443

13 Last Shake on the Ancre 483

14 Assessment 528

Acknowledgements 535

Appendix A Life in the Trenches 538

Appendix B British Orders of Battle 549

Appendix C German Orders of Battle 561

Notes to the Text 564

Index 576

Editorial Reviews

Hart superbly depicts these months of brutal combat in all their complexity.

The New York Times Book Review

From Hart's book I was able to learn and grasp (and even picture) the historic importance of the "creeping" or perhaps better say "staggered" barrage. Hart succeeds in showing how the gunners got steadily better (as did the guns). If you have tears to shed, you will prepare to do so when you read of the "Pals" battalions that were formed out of men from single localities and neighborhoods.

Christopher Hitchens - The Atlantic Monthly

Peter Hart's study not only is heartrending and definitive but also makes sense of this senseless disaster.

Time

From Hart's book I was able to learn and grasp (and even picture) the historic importance of the "creeping" or perhaps better say "staggered" barrage. Hart succeeds in showing how the gunners got steadily better (as did the guns). If you have tears to shed, you will prepare to do so when you read of the "Pals" battalions that were formed out of men from single localities and neighborhoods.

The Atlantic Monthly - Christopher Hitchens

Peter Hart's study not only is heartrending and definitive but also makes sense of this senseless disaster.

Time Magazine

From Hart's book I was able to learn and grasp (and even picture) the historic importance of the "creeping" or perhaps better say "staggered" barrage. Hart succeeds in showing how the gunners got steadily better (as did the guns). If you have tears to shed, you will prepare to do so when you read of the "Pals" battalions that were formed out of men from single localities and neighborhoods.— Christopher Hitchens

The Atlantic Monthly

Peter Hart pays handsome tribute to the ordinary soldiers who gave their lives in battle. One could not wish for a more appropriate testimony to that generation.” (The Literary Review)


“Starred Review. This book, published in Britain in 2005, is a masterful synthesis of the human and the operational aspects of a campaign that increasingly defines the British experience in the Great War.” (Publishers Weekly)


“Peter Hart's The Somme is a memorial. The book brings to life the men who fought at the Somme in an accurate and precisely detailed history of one of the most gut-wrenchingly obscene desecrations of humanity our species ever perpetrated upon itself.... As director and oral historian of the British Imperial War Museum in London, Hart is uniquely positioned to do justice to the British participants in the battle. A talented historian, he succeeds in that most important element of history, storytelling.” (Washington Post, Robert Bateman)


“The most comprehensive and insightful account of the vast tragedy of the Somme that I have read.” (The Spectator)


“Hart brings the human experience of the combatants well to the fore. A monumental feat of research, his book is also a memorial of the most compelling kind to the hundreds of individuals whose recollections are presented so vividly here.” (The Scotsman [Edinburgh])


“Hart is an accomplished author and in The Somme he is on top form. His narrative descriptions of the brutal realities of battle are outstanding.” (BBC History Magazine)

From the Publisher