First Day of the Somme

A groundbreaking history of the first, horrific day of one of the most notorious, bloody offensives of all time, from its inept planning to its disastrous execution. It took several million bullets and roughly half an hour to 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 38,230 were wounded. This single sunny day remains Britain's worst-ever military disaster, both numerically and statistically more deadly than the infamous charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava in 1854. Responsible were hundreds of German machineguns and artillery batteries waiting silently to deal death to the long-anticipated attack. Someone had blundered. Working back from the "butcher's bill" of mass casualties on the battlefield, to the inept planning in London's Whitehall, the author...