Eyewitness On The Somme 1916

In 1915, news of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps landing and the slaughter at Gallipoli stirred tens of thousands of young men to go to war.They answered the call and formed battalions of the Australian Imperial Force. By the time the new recruits were combat ready, the campaign at Gallipoli had ended. Their battlefields became the muddy paddocks of France and Belgium.Based on eyewitness account, Eyewitnesses at the Somme traces the story of one of these battalions, the 55th, from its birth in the dusty camps of Egypt through three years of brutal, bloody conflict on the bitter western front.When the Great War ended in 1918, over 500 of the 3,000 men who served in the 55th had been slain and another 1,000 wounded. Eyewitnesses at the Somme, shares personal stories of Australian men as they stared down the horrors of war with determination, courage and comradeship. With chapters devoted to the significant battles at Fromelles, Doignies, Polygon Wood, Pronne and Bellicourt, this book tells the story of one battalion, but in doing so it encapsulates the experiences of many Australians on the Western Front.

What was the soldiers experience of the Battle of the Somme? How did the men who were there record their part in the fighting or remember it afterwards? How can we, 100 years later, gain an insight into one of the most famous and contentious - episodes of the Great War? Matthew Richardsons graphic account, which is based on the vivid personal testimony of those who took part, offers us a direct impression of the reality of the battle from the perspective of the ordinary soldiers and junior officers on the front line. He draws heavily on previously unpublished personal accounts letters, diaries, and memoirs, some never before translated into English to build up a multifaceted picture of the Somme offensive from the first disastrous day of the attack, through the subsequent operations between July and November 1916. In their own words, the soldiers who were caught up in the conflict recall in unflinching detail the fighting across the entire Somme battlefield. The narrative features the recollections of British, Commonwealth, French and American soldiers, and interweaves their testimony with descriptions left by their German adversaries. For the first time in a single volume, the reader has the opportunity to explore all facets of this momentous five-month-long struggle. Over 100 black-and-white contemporary photographs, many previously unpublished, accompany the text, whilst a selection of artifacts recovered from the battlefield is illustrated in colour. These striking objects bear silent witness to the ferocity of the battle, and often reflect some moment of personal tragedy.

The 1st July 1916 was the blackest day in the history of the British Army when 60,000 unsuspecting men of the British 4th Army advanced into the teeth of a hurricane of German fire. This well-illustrated anthology examines the events of that terrible day from two very different perspectives. The vivid eyewitness account of the battle from the soldier's point of view is provided by Edward Liveing of the London Regiment. After joining the London Regiment in 1914, Liveing was deployed to both Palestine and to France, where he was wounded at the Battle of the Somme in 1916. This book describes his war on the front line up until his injury on the Somme.??Also on the field that day and engaged in filming the battle for posterity was cameraman Lieut. Geoffrey Malins, who produced the famous documentary film of the battle. At the outbreak of war in 1914, Malins, aged 28, traveled to the Western Front where he acted as a freelance war correspondent, filming newsreels in Belgium and France. 1915 brought a fateful change of direction for Malins when he was recruited by the British Kinematograph Manufacturers Association to make a film of the preparations and the execution of a battle on the Western Front. This proved to be a dangerous business and by the end of the first year Malins, now with the rank of Lieutenant, had found himself deafened, gassed and twice wounded in the line of duty. Malins continued his work as a wartime cameraman before he was discharged from the army in 1918, having suffered bad health for sometime previously.??These two contrasting accounts provide a remarkable insight into the chaotic events as they unfolded on the battlefield and provide the reader with two very different views of the battle as well as the visual records as produced by Malins, and the other photographers and artists at work on the Somme that day.

In 1915, news of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps landing and the slaughter at Gallipoli stirred tens of thousands of young men to go to war.They answered the call and formed battalions of the Australian Imperial Force. By the time the new recruits were combat ready, the campaign at Gallipoli had ended. Their battlefields became the muddy paddocks of France and Belgium.Based on eyewitness accounts, Snowy to the Somme traces the story of one of these battalions, the 55th, from its birth in the dusty camps of Egypt through three years of brutal, bloody conflict on the bitter Western Front. When the Great War ended in 1918, over 500 of the 3,000 men who served in the 55th had been slain and another 1,000 wounded. Snowy to the Somme, shares personal stories of Australian men as they stared down the horrors of war with determination, courage and mateship. With chapters devoted to the significant battles at Fromelles, Doignies, Polygon Wood, Peronne and Bellicourt, this book tells the story of one battalion, but in doing so it encapsulates the experiences of many Australians on the Western Front.

The 1st of July 1916, the opening day of the Battle of the Somme, was the blackest day in the history of the British Army. 60,000 men became casualties on that one day alone. In a major new documentary film premiering on the Discovery Channel next year, Emmy Award winning film maker Bob Carrruthers returns to the battlefield on 1st July and retraces the events which unfolded on that disastrous day. Drawing extensively on rare film and photographs from both British and German sources, the spirit of the men who fought and died on that day is beautifully evoked by these powerful and haunting images from 1916. The film also reveals how the sacrifice of the men of the Somme is being honored today by the work of the historians and enthusiasts who strive to increase our understanding of the battle and to commemorate the memory of that terrible day. This is the companion book to the documentary film and is written by well-known author and film maker Bob Carruthers.

Martin Pegler provides a compelling account of one of the most destructive battles of the Great War. His book features previously unpublished eyewitness accounts and the latest historical and archaeological research. The full orders of battle are included.