After an immense but useless bombardment, at 7.30 am. On 1 July 1916 the
British Army went over the top and attacked the German trenches. It was
the first day of the battle of the Somme, and on that day the British
suffered nearly 60,000 casualties, two for every yard of their front.
With more than fifty times the daily losses at El Alamein and fifteen
times the British casualties on D-day, 1 July 1916 was the blackest day
in the history of the British Army. But, more than that, as Lloyd George
recognised, it was a watershed in the history of the First World War.
The Army that attacked on that day was the volunteer Army that had
answered Kitchener's call. It had gone into action confident of a
decisive victory. But by sunset on the first day on the Somme, no one
could any longer think of a war that might be won.
Martin Middlebrook's research has covered not just official and
regimental histories and tours of the battlefields, but interviews with
hundreds of survivors, both British and German. As to the action itself,
he conveys the overall strategic view and the terrifying reality that it
was for front-line soldiers.