First Day of the Somme: The Complete Account of Britain's Worst-ever Military Disaster - Couverture souple

Macdonald, Andrew

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1775540405 ISBN 13 : 9781775540403

Editeur : HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand), 2016

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur :

The complete account of Britain's worst-ever military disaster. It took several million bullets and roughly an hour to effectively destroy General Sir Douglas Haig's grand plans for the first day of the Somme, 1 July 1916. By day's end, 19,240 British soldiers were dead, crumpled khaki bundles scattered across pasture studded with the scarlet of poppies and smouldering shell holes. A further 35,493 were wounded. This single sunny day remains Britain's worst-ever military disaster. Responsible were hundreds of German machine guns and scores of artillery batteries that had waited silently to deal death to the long-anticipated attack. Reviewing the day's events fully from, for the first time, both the British and German perspectives, Andrew Macdonald explains how and why this was a disaster waiting to happen. While laying the blame for the butchery squarely on widespread British command failure, he also shows that the outcome was a triumph of German discipline, planning and tactics, with German commanders mostly outclassing their opposite numbers. Published for the hundredth anniversary of the Battle of the Somme in July 2016, this is a major contribution to World War 1 history and an epic story of courage, misery and endurance in its own right.

Revue de presse :

Meticulously researched, acutely analysed and eminently readable, this fascinating new study deserves to become a standard work. --Major General (Retired) Mungo Melvin CB OBE, President of the British Commission for Military History

Andrew Macdonald s stimulating examination of the epic events of 1 July 1916 will stand out among the many books marking the centenary of the Battle of the Somme. This lively and refreshing study is a most welcome addition to the historiography of the war on the Western Front. --Professor Peter Simkins MBE, University of Wolverhampton, President of the Western Front Association

An incisive and riveting dissection of the first day of the Somme from both sides of the hill. Andrew Macdonald goes from strength to strength. --Dr Christopher Pugsley ONZM, formerly Senior Lecturer, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand)
• Date d'édition: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1775540405
• ISBN 13: 9781775540403
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 480