The Battle Of The Somme The History And Legacy Of World War I S Biggest Battle

*Includes pictures *Includes excerpts of soldiers' accounts *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading "Somme. The whole history of the world cannot contain a more ghastly word." - Friedrich Steinbrecher, a German officer. World War I, also known in its time as the "Great War" or the "War to End all Wars," was an unprecedented holocaust in terms of its sheer scale. Fought by men who hailed from all corners of the globe, it saw millions of soldiers do battle in brutal assaults of attrition which dragged on for months with little to no respite. Tens of millions of artillery shells and untold hundreds of millions of rifle and machine gun bullets were fired in a conflict that demonstrated man's capacity to kill each other on a heretofore unprecedented scale, and as always, such a war brought about technological innovation at a rate that made the boom of the Industrial Revolution seem stagnant. The enduring image of World War I is of men stuck in muddy trenches, and of vast armies deadlocked in a fight neither could win. It was a war of barbed wire, poison gas, and horrific losses as officers led their troops on mass charges across No Man's Land and into a hail of bullets. While these impressions are all too true, they hide the fact that trench warfare was dynamic and constantly evolving throughout the war as all armies struggled to find a way to break through the opposing lines. Though World War I is almost synonymous with trench warfare, that method of combat was nothing new. There had been extensive use of trenches during the later stages of the American Civil War (1864-1865), and trench warfare was constant during the Second Boer War (1899-1902), the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), and the Balkan Wars (1912-1913). These conflicts showed that modern firepower combined with entrenched positions gave a decisive advantage to the defender, yet European observers failed to learn any lessons from these conflicts, and the scale of trench warfare in World War I far eclipsed anything seen before or since, especially on the Western Front. Needless to say, the First World War came at an unfortunate time for those who would fight in it. After an initial period of relatively rapid maneuver during which the German forces pushing through Belgium and the French and British forces attempting to stymie them made an endless series of abortive flanking movements that extended the lines to the sea, a stalemate naturally tended to develop. The infamous trench lines soon snaked across the French and Belgian countryside, creating an essentially futile static slaughterhouse whose sinister memory remains to this day. The Battle of the Somme is still controversial for the British to this day. On July 1, 1916, the first day of fighting, more British soldiers were killed or wounded than at any time before or since, including D-Day in World War II. The commander, General Douglas Haig, was revered for most of his lifetime, then dubbed the Butcher of the Somme, and now is viewed as a skilled man in a very difficult position who made a number of avoidable mistakes. British schoolchildren are still taught about the devastating battle, which saw over 3 million soldiers participate and over 1 million killed, wounded, or captured, and its effects on the rest of the war. The Battle of the Somme: The History and Legacy of World War I's Biggest Battle analyzes one of the Great War's most important conflicts, and how it was emblematic of the stalemate that came from new technology and trench warfare. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Battle of the Somme like never before.

If you want to discover captivating stories of people and events of World War 1, then keep reading... Three captivating manuscripts in one book: World War 1: A Captivating Guide to the First World War, Including Battle Stories from the Eastern and Western Front and How the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 Impacted the Rise of Nazi Germany The Battle of Verdun: A Captivating Guide to the Longest and Largest Battle of World War 1 That Took Place on the Western Front Between Germany and France The Battle of the Somme: A Captivating Guide to One of the Most Devastating Events of the First World War That Took Place on the Western Front The First World War was one of the most devastating conflicts in our history. The death toll was like nothing experienced before, and it is estimated that over 11 million soldiers were killed, wounded, or went missing, and many of those bodies have never been found. Regardless of how people remember the First World War, and whether or not they romanticize the life of a soldier on the front lines, it is important that the world never forgets this brutal and bloody conflict. The tumult and chaos that remained in the wake of the First World War had far-reaching and devastating consequences, not just for Europe and the survivors of the war, but for the entire world. The ruins of Europe provided a fertile breeding ground for fierce nationalism, which led to the rise of the Third Reich and allowed the evil of Adolf Hitler to go unchecked for far too long. Some of the topics covered in part 1 of this book include: The Fatal Shots That Set the Stage for War The Western Front and the First Battle of Marne War in the Trenches The Eastern Front and the Battle of Tannenberg The Battle of Ypres and the Christmas Truce Second Battle of Ypres and the Introduction of Chemical Warfare Chemical Warfare on the Western Front My Boy Jack, the Very Human Cost of the First World War The Gallipoli Campaign The Battle of Jutland The Decline of the Russian Empire The Battle of Verdun The Battle of the Somme America Joins the War The Final Days of the War and the Treaty of Versailles World Leaders Who Played a Pivotal Role in the First World War And much, much more! Some of the topics covered in part 2 of this book include: The Road to Verdun The Citadel of Verdun The Significance of Verdun The First Phase of the Battle of Verdun The Battle of Verdun Gets Bogged Down in the Trenches A Summer in Hell And much, much more! Some of the topics covered in part 3 of this book include: The Road to the Somme The Significance of Verdun The Battle of the Somme Begins Z Day The Battles of the Somme And much, much more! So if you want to learn more about The First World War, scroll up and click the "add to cart" button!

In the long history of the British Army, the Battle of the Somme was its bloodiest encounter. Between July 1 and mid-November 1916, 432,000 of its soldiers became casualties--about 3,600 for every day of battle. German casualties were far fewer despite British superiority in the air and in lethal artillery. What went wrong for the British, and who was responsible? Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson have examined the entire public archive on the Battle of the Somme to reconstruct the day-by-day course of the war. The result is the most precise and authentic account of the campaign on record and a book that challenges almost every received view of the battle. The colossal rate of infantry casualties in fact resulted from inadequate fire support; responsibility for tactical mistakes actually belonged to the High Command and the civilian War Committee. Field-Marshall Haig, the records show, was repeatedly deficient in strategy, tactics, command, and organization. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers died for a cause that lacked both a coherent military plan and responsible political leadership. Prior and Wilson decisively change our understanding of the history of the Western Front.

If you want to discover the captivating history of The Battle of the Somme, then keep reading... The First World War was made up of many different battles, each brutal, bloody, and devastating in its own unique way. Every battle had its victories and losses, successes and failures. There were individual heroes on both sides and heroic actions by whole brigades. There were men who fought to the bitter end and died in the muddy fields of France, their bodies never recovered, and their final resting places left unmarked for more than a century. But as time moves on and the First World War fades from living memory, many of these battles are no longer viewed as single events but rather as parts of the whole, a linear progression in a greater story. The Battle of the Somme was a significant battle for all those who took part, but it was especially important for the British because it was the first time in World War One that they were forced to shoulder the main responsibility for an offensive, and they did not have enough time to fully prepare for the assault. But it is not just the military significance of the campaign that is important to the British; the Battle of the Somme lives on in the collective memory of the British nation, not only because of the unimaginable devastation and casualties suffered by the British Army in one single day, but also because of the effect that it had on the British national psyche. Whole villages lost a generation of young men on the banks of the River Somme, and families were torn apart as brothers fell side by side in the muddy fields of France. The Battle of the Somme was an unbelievable tragedy for the British nation. In The Battle of the Somme: A Captivating Guide to One of the Most Devastating Events of the First World War That Took Place on the Western Front, you will discover topics such as The Road to the Somme The Significance of Verdun The Battle of the Somme Begins Z Day The Battles of the Somme And much, much more! So if you want to learn more about the Battle of the Somme, scroll up and click the "add to cart" button!

The Battle of the Somme is widely regarded as one of the bloodiest and most controversial land battles ever fought. The first British troops went over the top on 1 July 1916 and by the day's end some 19,000 had been killed in the greatest one-day loss the British Army has ever known. This notoriety has ensured that the Somme and its many fallen warriors live on in countless books, plays and films. Documentary sources about the Somme abound and there is a voracious appetite among the book-buying public for more. Legacy of the Somme 1916 is a unique bibliographical and media guide to the battle, setting on record - in as comprehensive a listing as is possible - much of what has been written, filmed or sound-recorded in the English language between 1916 and 1995. This detailed listing includes official, unofficial and unit histories of the British and Commonwealth armies; biographies, autobiographies and memoirs; literature, drama and media; archives, tanks and war graves registers. Short commentaries accompany each entry and a detailed index enables accurate cross-referencing of subjects. First and foremost this is a unique work of reference which will appeal to all with an interest in the First World War. It will aid historians, researchers and enthusiasts to track down the vast amount of information available on the battle, and will also prove valuable to libraries, museums and the book trade.

On 1 July 1916, Douglas Haig's army launched the 'Big Push' that was supposed finally to bring an end to the stalemate on the Western Front. What happened next was a human catastrophe: scrambling over the top into the face of the German machine guns and artillery fire, almost 20,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers were killed that day alone, and twice as many wounded - the greatest loss in a single day ever sustained by the British Army. The battle did not stop there, however. It dragged on for another 4 months, leaving the battlefield strewn with literally hundreds of thousands of bodies. The Somme has remained a byword for the futility of war ever since. In this major new history, Peter Hart describes how the battle looked from the point of view of those who fought it. Using never-before-seen eyewitness testimonies, he shows us this epic conflict from all angles. We see what it was like to crawl across No Man's Land in the face of the German guns, what it was like for those who stayed behind in the trenches - the padres, the artillerymen, the doctors. We also see what the battle looked like from the air, as the RFC battled to keep control of the skies above the battlefield. All this is put in the context of the background to the battle, and Haig's overall strategy for the Western Front, making this the most comprehensive history of the battle since Lyn MacDonald's bestselling work over 20 years ago.

This book has proven a necessary addition to the library of any student of the First World War and an essential handbook for the increasing number of visitors to the battlefield.

Published to coincide with the commemoration of the centenary of the battle of the Somme, this new study comprises twelve separate articles written by some of the foremost military historians, each of which looks at a specific aspect of the battle. Focusing on key aspects of the British, French, and German forces, overall strategic and tactical impacts of the battle and with an introduction by renowned World War I scholar Professor Sir Hew Strachan, The Battle of the Somme is a timely collection of the latest research and analysis of the battle. The terrors of the Somme have largely come to embody trench warfare on the Western Front in modern imagination, but this new book looks beyond the horrendous conditions and staggering casualty rates to provide new, insightful research on one of the most pivotal battles of the war.