{"product_id":"the-first-day-on-the-somme-1-july-1917","title":"The First Day on the Somme: 1 July 1916","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMartin Middlebrook's \u003ci\u003eThe First Day on the Somme\u003c\/i\u003e is a compelling and intensely moving account of the blackest day in the history of the British army.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e On 1 July, 1916, a continuous line of British soldiers climbed out from the trenches of the Somme into No Man's Land and began to walk slowly towards dug-in German troops armed with machine-guns and defended by thick barbed wire. By the end of that day, as old tactics were met by the reality of modern warfare, there had been more than 60,000 British casualties - a third of them fatalities.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e As well as drawing on official sources, local newspapers, autobiographies, novels and poems from the time, most importantly \u003ci\u003eThe First Day on the Somme \u003c\/i\u003ealso takes in the accounts of hundreds of survivors: normal men, many of them volunteers, who found themselves thrown into a scene of unparalleled tragedy and horror.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe First Day on the Somme\u003c\/i\u003e describes the true events behind one of the largest battles of the First World War, and the sacrifice of a generation of young men - killed as much by the folly of their commanders as by the bullets of their enemies.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e 'The soldiers receive the best service a historian can provide: their story is told in their own words'\u003cbr\u003e Guardian\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e 'A particularly vivid and personal narrative'\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Times Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eMartin Middlebrook \u003c\/b\u003eis a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the author of many important books on military history including \u003ci\u003eThe Kaiser's Battle - March 1918\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Falklands War - 1982.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"sb-details\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFormat:\u003c\/strong\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublished:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1992\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 365\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e Penguin Books Limited\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISBN:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9780140171341\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Middlebrook, Martin","offers":[{"title":"Poor Condition — £1.00","offer_id":47977580789937,"sku":"SB-0140171347-C4","price":1.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0618\/2669\/5345\/files\/0140171347.jpg?v=1790373983","url":"https:\/\/sellbooks.co.uk\/products\/the-first-day-on-the-somme-1-july-1917","provider":"Sell Books .co.uk","version":"1.0","type":"link"}