First Day On The Somme

[Snapper]

This book will recount how battalions that took two years to build and train vanished in sometimes less than fifteen minutes on a mad day in July 1916. These men were our grandfathers or their contemporaries. This book will break your heart. Perhaps you don't want that. To my mind the Great War is ignored all too much in favour of the A list events of WW2 we all rightly subscribe to. Do yourselves a favour and ease off Easy company for a while and immerse yourselves in earlier Bands of Brothers. They must never be forgotten.

[LeeEnfield]

This book will recount how battalions that took two years to build and train vanished in sometimes less than fifteen minutes on a mad day in July 1916. These men were our grandfathers or their contemporaries. They must never be forgotten.

 

 

HEAR HEAR,.................Very Well Said, That Man...............

 

Do you have anymore details on it, (ISBN, etc ??)

 

I guess we are all, at times guilty, of, while not forgetting those who served in earlier conflicts, esp, if there is no family connection, or memorial, its a 'good thing',..........if thats the right expression, to have a 'reality check,'.........every so often. :whistle:

I mean, the majority of us attend memorial service's held to mark armistice day, when ALL those who fell in combat are remembered, but, I'll be the first to hold my hand up and say, I look at far more WWII related documentation than WWI.

 

This book reviewed above looks as though it's worth a read.

 

LEST WE FORGET............

 

Andy

[Great War truck]

Yes quite right. On the same subject i am currently reading "The Somme. A new panoramic perspective" which is superb. I really wish i had it with while exploring the battlefields last time i was there, as the maps, panoramic photos and other diagrams really help orientate yourself. A superb book, one of the best that i have on the subject (and i have many). Saying that i do read a lot of WW2 stuff as well. I just cant help myself.

 

Tim (too)

[Joris]

Mate, do you have an ISBN number or an address where I can get that book? Sounds really interesting!

[Snapper]

Thanks for the support friends. I'm not sure if it is the correct word, but I love WW2 history. Obviously I am interested in the hardware, but I find I am increasingly interested in the people over and above everything else. In the case of the Great War this is even more the case, because, for me it is a complete mixture of all the human experience and emotions in one and being an old romantic I get lost in it. The big problem is the bits of newsreel we have from that time are in mono (no coloured in gimmics) and without sound. All the men walk like an army of Buster Keatons waiting for a barn wall to fall on them. But they are much more real than that...soap box removed. Down to business.

 

The First Day of The Somme by Martin Middlebrook is a Penguin paperback (hard copies can be got too). ISBN 0 14 01 7134 7 You can find this book on the web from Tom Morgan books. Tom is a Western Front Assoc affiliate and if you check is Hellfire Corner and bookshopsite out you will probably be able to order a copy signed by Martin Middlebrook for no extra cost

 

I thoroughly recommend McCrae's Battalion by Jack Alexander. This is a fantastic book. I have previously described it as a Band of Brothers for WW1. This is very much the case. It is a stunner. The 16th Bn Royal Scots were the 2nd Edinburgh Bn and made up of sportsmen to start with. All of Hearts Fc and some from Hibs and then men from all over Scotland (and England). Their journey to La Boiselle and beyond is a heartbreaker.

 

ISBN 1 84018 932 0. It comes from Mainstream Publishing, who trade over the net from Edinburgh.

 

Lyn MacDonald's Somme is a classic. She has a bit of an agenda, but the details of the whole Somme campaign are told in gripping style and the mass of personal accounts make all her books a "must". The thing that stunned me in her account of the first day was how the reader doesn't innitially appreciate that 19,500 men have died over a few pages. Awful. My copy is an ancient MacMillan paperback. I think her books are Penguins now. She does not appear to write anymore, but I think she is still alive.

 

Cheers,

 

MB

[Great War truck]

Yes, you are quite right. The scale of the slaughter makes it virtually incomprehensible. Such a high figure of 19,500 British dead on the first day is such a high figure that it becomes unreal. What i like about Peter Barton's "Somme a new panoramic perspective" (ISBN978-1-84529-399-4) is that it breaks it down into the individual locations and then again into the actions of some individuals. Brings it all a lot closer to home. What i also like about it is the "then and now" type photos. You would think that this would be impossible in such a sea of mud, but this is not the case. A lot of the then photos show the ground with all the trenches but before it is too chewed up by shelling so you can make out the landmarks, which compare easily with the modern colour comparisons. I have still not finished it, but it is one worth savouring.

 

I think Lynn McDonald has now passed away. I very much enjoyed her "To the last man" about the German Spring offensive 1918, but the British always shine the most when there backs are against the wall.

 

Tim (too)

[LeeEnfield]

I've got a copy of Lyn MacDonalds, 'They Called It Passchendale',............Very Moving..........

(ISBN 0 7181 1735 2)

[Snapper]

You're right about To The Last Man. A classic. They Called It Passchendaele is a great book, too. I am reading a biography of Siegfried Sassoon at the moment, mainly for the WW1 period and the after effects as opposed to his whole life as a poet and sexually repressed chappy with predilictions I know Michael Gambon described on The Best of Top Gear this evening as "making your eyes water". Old Sig was nonethless a very brave soldier devoted to his comrades and his war poetry and writings are stunning. On Passing The New Menin Gate is my favourite. More on this when the book is done.