The experiences of two young men in a momentous conflict The Battle of the Somme, fought in 1916 on the Western Front, became emblematic of the futility of the First World War. This grand attack was intended by the British and their allies to be the solution to the stalemate of trench warfare that had prevailed since the First Battle of Ypres in the winter of 1914/15. Instead, it proved to be yet another failed attempt to break through lines of heavily defended fixed positions. The resulting loss of life for no real tactical-much less strategic-advantage reached new and staggering numbers and revealed the inability of military commanders to deliver a decisive battlefield victory. The year of the publication of this Leonaur book marks the centenary of the Battle of the Somme and in these pages readers will come to understand the battle from the perspectives of two young, British Army officers who experienced it standing beside their men on the front line. Both accounts reward the reader with intimate detail of life in the trenches, with all its discomforts and horrors, together with revealing insights into the thoughts and deeds of the men who went ‘over the top’ into the reaping fire of a battlefield of the industrial age.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their spines and fabric head and tail bands.