The First Day On The Somme (2003) - Plot & Excerpts
The First Day on the Somme, Martin Middlebrook, 1971, Penguin Books, ISBN 0-14-139071-9The Great War of 1914-1918 included many battles that have become legendary, perhaps none more so than that of Verdun. A separate effort, aimed at alleviating the pressure the French were experiencing at Verdun, became known as the Battle of the Somme, July 1, 1916. The story of this bloodiest of all British battles has been admirably told by Martin Middlebrook.This book is the tale of human courage of the men in the trenches, dimwitted thinking of generals, unfounded belief in the power of the artillery, and above all, the honor and devotion to duty of the single infantry private. It was believed that a week of artillery bombardment would pulverize the German defences, and allow the British to advance to their targets in parade formations.This was not to be. The Germans had dug deep, and the amount of barbed wire was staggering. Moreover, the British expected their artillery to cut the German wires and create lanes along which to advance; they also sent out parties to cut holes in the perimeters and marked them with white strips. The artillery didn't manage to cut the wire nearly as well as was expected, and the infantry met huge tangled obstacles along the way. The biggest blunders were General Rawlinson's decision to delay the onset of the attack after the artillery bombardment was over; the Germans had time to man their machine gun positions, which had survived the bombardment much better than expected, and this enabled them to scythe down thousands of men who walked towards their positions. The Germans couldn't believe it when they saw the British advance methodically and slowly, and the murderous cross-fire slaughtered the British.Another unbelievable error was not to use the only breakthrough on the right flank to attack the Germans from the side and behind - as well as the decision not to use cavalry. It was the end of the era of the cavalry to be sure, but in this battle, the large cavalry contingent could have made a huge difference, had it been let to advance through a breach and cause havoc in the rear of the Germans. They could only wonder at this decision when their lines became thin and tenuously jeld, but the British never released the cavalry and thus lost the only chance of success at the Somme.In a way this battle reminds me of Tarawa and the US Marines. There, too, the belief in the intense naval bombardment caused casualties when the Japanese re-manned their positions right after the bombardment lifted. Hundreds of Marines were killed as they waded ashore in the direct sight of Japanese with their machine guns and artillery. The US did not lose 57,470 men in casualties as the British did, however. This single day cost the British more than any other day in any war, or indeed, months of other wars. The heartbreaking tale of innocence lost is a key part of this book as Middlebrook confidently relates the fates of men who joined up with their friends to form units such as the "Manchester Pals" and "Grimsby Chums". These men fought and died with their friends, and in the process, those who survived ceased to believe in their country which had sacrificed them.This book is an excellent starting point if you want to read quality books on war. Middlebrook's series on the Bomber Command of WW2 is unrivalled, as is his book "Convoy" which tells the story of the bitter sea battles of the Atlantic through the eyes of men on one such journey.
THE ORIGINS OF MODERN DISSILLUSIONMENT: Can anyone really understand this most classic of WWI battles, with its numbing calculus of bodies? The total inanity of it? The massive amounts of technology involved and the sheer amount of human wastage... 20,000 dead and 40,000 wounded withing 5 hours of fighting...? Martin Middlebrook has done a great job at bringing the evocative spirit of the Army to light and its sacrifice on the Somme. It is a small tragedy that people all over the British Commonwealth and the US would completely forget what modern man was capable of doing almost 100 yrs ago. It was a largest pile of human killing ever witnessed in a single day and it should be more properly remembered. Although other battles have lasted longer and consumed a few more lives... only at the Somme in 1916 do you see the full horror of mechanised death unbound. Middlebrook descibes this army how and why it was comprised, the Pals Regiments (a novel idea that tragically would never be used by any army to recruit people), the regular Older British Army from 1914, the "Old Contemptables," the strategic situationa and the tactics employed in the greatest concentration of artillery firepower ever witnessed. So much so that it was described as a 24 hour frieght train passing overhead for 2 full weeks of pre-bombardment. The heroics are here as well, the medical facilities that could not save many without modern antibiotics, the relentless marching with "guns at slope" into the German Machine Guns. Whole regiments destroyed. Whole battalions of 700 men with less than 100 effectives by noon on the first day was hardly novel.The Somme represented a lot and in some ways signifiies the beginning of the modern era of doubt and the downfall of absolute authority and tradition. Authority and tradition that allowed such a catastrophe to happen. Beyond the battle if one is looking for the origins of post-modernism, as Wittgenstein learned, WWI taught the forgotten generation a lot. From the biting impact of bullets upon 10s of thousands of sacrificed servicemen, people eventually came to see that the world was more than empty slogans of glory and death for "King and Country".Middlebrook has done a great job with this book.
What do You think about The First Day On The Somme (2003)?
I rarely give 5 stars to books here on Goodreads and I debated doing so here. The fact that I did so is probably more to do with my particular interests in this conflict, and the awful day of July 1st 1916 than any particular outstanding merits of the book itself in terms of writing or particular literary style (although I found that style to be somber, informative but also very readable). Any Brit with any level of interest in WW1 will be familiar with the awful events of July 1st 1916 and that 50-60000 casualties taken by the Army on that day. However this book does an excellent job of telling the whole story of that day, the successes (and there were some) as well as the carnage and the losses. To those with only a passing awareness of the battle, it may seem that it only lasted one day when in fact, it dragged on until November and the winter finally brought the tremendous struggle to an end.The full battle is beyond the scope of the book although Middlebrook covers the remainder of the battle in summary at the end. It is amazing that it took the allied armies 3 months to reach objectives that were goals of that first day's "big push". Studying the battles of WW1, and the Somme in particular, makes one realize that it is all too easy to resort to platitudes such as "Lions led by Donkeys" and to blame "The Generals" for the appalling war of attrition into which the Western Front descended. There is no doubt some truth in this but it is a lot more complex that that and much of that history seems to be more developed today than in 1972 when this book was written. However, 50 years after the events is still long enough to gain perspective and, it seems to me, Middlebrook is very fair in his analysis of the performance of the generals. It is clear that the Chiefs of Staff were holed up in luxury several miles behind the line, and they do come in for criticism, but WW1 saw a large number of officers and commanders killed and this is mentioned here too in some detail.What I like about this book is the structure and the approach. MM sets the scene and explains the lead up to the conflict itself and the battle in particular. This is obviously important - one can't see such major fighting in isolation as we need to know why it happened and why it happened there and how it related to the rest of the war. For example, the conversations between the allies are well covered, in particular the desperation of the French to have the Brits relieve the pressure they were under in trying to hold Verdun against a sustained German offensive.However this is not simply a book about the tactics of the battle and the war (although those are well covered) but we get to hear about the common soldiers; how they died, how they lived, what happened. It also covers the lost opportunities - the right side gains that were lost for want of reinforcements and cavalry that were never used. The feeling of going over the top when you can see bullets kicking up dirt on the parapet. How it must have felt walking into that wall of fire.It's a very good book, highly recommended. At the same time analytical, thought provoking and poignant.
—Jerry Smith
This book was the catalyst for my enduring fascination for books covering the Western Front. I use to despair in trying to read books about the Great War, as they were mind numbing with the numbers of dead, I was too young to appreciate what I was reading. Martin Middlebrook’s “The First Day on the Somme” changed all that and gave me a love for this period of history and a better appreciation of what these poor soldiers went through. If anyone wants to better understand the Great War or the Battle on the Somme this is the book to start off with. For those who are interested the author went on to write another account from the German perspective covering the March 1918 offensive titled “The Kaiser’s Battle”.
—'Aussie Rick'
The truth is that I enjoy reading history. Military history in particular. But the death-strategies (manslaughter on an epic scale) of WW I leave me cold. Middlebrook's "Somme" is page after page of carnage without any military or even political achievement. Rather it was a template for both sides to fight the last war with waves and waves of humans trying to ignore rapid fire weapons and the ever increasing technology in killing without a clue as to how to gain victory. Line after line of numbers, regiments, armaments, casualties, deaths and the missing start to lose their shock value and begin to look as though it is a very bright and industrious term paper rather than a chronicle of a campaign. Statistics play an important part in understanding history and, for that matter, the essence of human folly, but I felt as though I had eaten too much of a unseasoned dish.....full, but unsatisfied.
—Jack Buechner
