Somme: Page 1 | click here for Page 2
SOMME: INTO THE BREACH
THE PLOT If asked to describe what happened during the Battle of
the Somme, most people would refer to the tragic loss of life and the stoic endurance by
British and its allies’ troops in the trenches after incompetent generals sent their men
walking towards the German guns like lambs to the slaughter. While it is true that the
generals’ inexperience and lack of foresight on the Somme led to overall failure, the Battle
of the Somme was punctuated by a series of successful attacks and rearguard actions
which if exploited intelligently could have led to a very different result.
Concrete dividends from the repeated do or die attempts to defeat the Germans may be
hard to identify. However there was a positive underlying message. Not only did the Battle
form a crucial part of the learning process which helped the British generals adopt
winning tactics eventually, but it also ripped the heart out of the German Army. It was
certainly not a British victory, but it was the beginning of the German slide towards defeat. Click here to know more
TASTER: 1ST CHAPTER The book begins with a description of the British soldiers waiting for the mine to be exploded under a German strongpoint near
the sleepy French village of Beaumont Hamel on 1 July 1916.
AUDIOBOOK Penguin has released an audiobook of Somme: Into The Breach click here to see details.
Click here to go to Somme page 2
