Elegy: The First Day on the Somme, by Andrew Roberts
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Elegy: The First Day on the Somme, by Andrew Roberts
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The New York Times-bestselling author of Napeoleon: A Life and The Storm of War tells the shattering story of the blackest day in the history of British army: the first day of the Somme Offensive, July 1, 1916 On July 1, 1916, after a five-day bombardment, 11 British and five 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.
Elegy: The First Day on the Somme, by Andrew Roberts- Amazon Sales Rank: #159336 in Books
- Published on: 2015-10-15
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.60" h x 1.10" w x 5.90" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 320 pages
Review "Highly readable, gives a succinct and cohesive overview of the day, and is hearteningly even-handed." —Peter Parker, Spectator"The book’s opening chapters on the strategy and tactics of the battle provide an excellent, succinct summary of the constraints within which it was planned." —Hew Strachan, Evening Standard"Roberts has played it straight with a clean and lucid overview so that one can actually see and understand what happened on that day." —John Lewis-Stempel, the Times
About the Author Andrew Roberts is a prize-winning historian, journalist, and broadcaster. His books include Masters and Commanders, Napoleon: A Life and, The Storm of War.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful. Not a great general, but one trapped (as millions of others ... By Scott Syfert Just finished Andrew Roberts' new book on the first day of the Somme, and it was magnificent. I took a tour of the Somme battlefield two years ago, and Roberts book is as evocative and moving as the trip was. Especially the story of the massacre of the Newfoundlanders at Beaumont Hamel, which is astonishingly, and astonishingly told. I have read quite a number of Roberts books, and as usual Elegy moves briskly along with a combination of balanced conclusions, sharp attention to detail and emotion. Its hard to make a subject that has been written on so many times fresh and novel, but Roberts does so. I have continued to struggle with how to assess Haig and his performance, but I think Roberts has it right in the end. Not a great general, but one trapped (as millions of others were) in a nightmarish situation and forced to learn on the job and with really no other or better options. A marvelous read, highly recommended. Read the Somme and thank God we don't live in those times.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. "Into The Valley Of Death" By John D. Cofield "The First Day on the Somme" is one of those phrases which sends a trickle of horror down the spine. The Battle of the Somme in the summer of 1916 was one of the most hellish struggles in the long drawn out war of attrition which was World War I. The first day of the battle on July 1 was the worst single day of the war for the British, who suffered 57, 471 casualties by sundown. Yet in the end, as Andrew Roberts ably explains in this short but invaluable history, the Somme can be seen as the war's true turning point, when the Allied Powers took the offensive and kept it, except for brief periods, for the next two and a half years. The First Day on the Somme thus occupies a special place in legend alongside the Light Brigade's Charge and the blood baths of Antietam or Thermopylae.By the summer of 1916 World War I had dragged on for nearly two years. German armies were deep into Northern France and held wide swathes of territory in the East. The French had been defending the fortress of Verdun for months and were on the verge of exhaustion. General Sir Douglas Haig, commander in chief of the British Expeditionary Force, and his French counterparts decided to mount a new offensive at a region of the Western Front which had heretofore been relatively quiet, the Somme Valley and adjacent countryside. Haig and his officers hoped and believed that a breakthrough at the Somme would cut open the German lines and force a retreat which would then become a rout, ending the war within a matter of months.Haig and his staff had a sound plan, but as Roberts points out, in warfare nothing goes to plan. The week long artillery bombardment which was meant to decimate the German forward forces was unsuccessful because the enemy was too well prepared and well dug in. The British and Colonial soldiers, both Regular Army and Volunteers, were required to carry heavy packs filled with supplies and equipment. As the sun rose on July 1 and the orders went out to "go over the top," thousands of soldiers clambered out of trenches and began walking in long lines towards the enemy, expecting little or no resistance. Instead, they were met with machine gun fire and artillery blasts that decimated them. Ordered not to stop to render aid, the men pushed forward as their wounded comrades begged for aid, only to fall themselves a few feet away. The carnage was made even worse by the use of "pals' battalions," companies and brigades made up of men from the same professions, towns, and villages, meaning that the high casualty rates threw whole regions into deep mourning.Despite the catastrophic first day the Battle of the Somme went on for months. As the British and French learned from their earlier mistakes they began to fight and advance more effectively. New technologies like the tank came into use and proved effective, and the Allies gained critical advantages that stood them well for the remainder of the war. What seems to have made the difference more than anything else was the recognition that this was a new kind of war in which the old methods of conflict were no longer valid. In the end, the Somme must be accounted a victory for the Allies, though at terrible cost.Andrew Roberts read the histories and memoirs of countless veterans of the Somme, walked the battlefields from end to end, and visited the cemeteries of the thousands who died there. He quotes extensively from the letters soldiers and their families exchanged, and mentions the heartbreaking inscriptions wives and parents had carved on the tombstones of their men. This is an engrossing book which clearly explains the movements of the troops on the 1st of July, assisted by several well drawn maps. There are numerous anecdotes of individual soldiers' experiences which are often heartrending and unforgettable, like the tale told by one wounded man who lay in a shell hole for hours, hearing bees buzzing in the grass and watching skylarks flying and singing across the blue sky. Photographs are included throughout the text, showing officers and individual soldiers, battlefields and landscapes, and ,most heartbreakingly, rows and rows of white tombstones.Elegy: The First Day on the Somme makes for somber but necessary reading as we approach the one hundredth anniversary of the battle. Andrew Roberts is to be commended for his painstaking work to document the events of that terrible but consequential day.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Summary discussion of the Somme By Peter Morelli Excellent short review of the Somme.
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