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Loading... Elegy: The First Day on the Sommeby Andrew Roberts
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On 1 July 1916, after a five-day bombardment, 11 British and 5 French divisions launched their long-awaited 'Big Push' on German positions on high ground above the Rivers Ancre and Somme on the Western Front. Some ground was gained, but at a terrible cost. In killing-grounds whose names are indelibly imprinted on 20th-century memory, German machine-guns - manned by troops who had sat out the storm of shellfire in deep dugouts - inflicted terrible losses on the British infantry. The British Fourth Army lost 57,470 casualties, the French Sixth Army suffered 1,590 casualties and the German 2nd Army 10,000. And this was but the prelude to 141 days of slaughter that would witness the deaths of between 750,000 and 1 million troops. Andrew Roberts evokes the pity and the horror of the blackest day in the history of the British army - a summer's day-turned-hell-on-earth by modern military technology - in the words of casualties, survivors, and the bereaved. No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)940.4272History and Geography Europe Europe Military History Of World War I Special campaigns and battlesLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (4.25)
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Andrew Roberts is one of the best military historians of the moment, award winning, and not afraid to tackle tough subjects with honesty and clarity. Elegy is a look at one of the most written about battles in the First World War, the Battle of the Somme, a battle that was supposed to relieve the pressure on the French at Verdun. Instead tens of thousands were killed on the first day with many more following over the following months during the Battle.
Roberts starts his history of the battle with an interesting description of how the Newfoundlanders faired on day one with no support but had to go forward following orders. Roberts uses letters and diaries of the men to describe the three month period from when the Battle began until its end in November 1916.
Elegy evokes the horrors of the first day of the needless slaughter as men after man were mown down by machine gun fire. So little was gained on that day and the targets each battalion had were not achieved, in fact some not until the end of the battle.
This book has clearly been written at speed and there are some errors, and the sources that Roberts’s uses are British, but then again he is telling the story that is deep in the British psyche of military disasters. What this short book does give is the bleakest of pictures about the battle there is no romantic view of mechanised war.
There are many reasons why things went dreadfully wrong at the Battle of the Somme, such as the Allies not managing to keep secret the date and time of the ‘surprise’ attack for which the Germans were able to prepare themselves in advance and dig themselves in well. That many of the British Artillery shells were duds and therefore had no impact whatsoever on the German front line, the British soldier also had to carry a 66lb of equipment most of which was unnecessary. Also the intelligence on German numbers was woeful and underestimated the actual number. All of whom were dug in safely as the bombardment took place.
The Somme will always remain deep in the British psyche especially at the wastefulness of and tragedy of World War 1. This is a short book, readable for those who want to know more, but there are many excellent books on this Battle that are better. (