The Somme: July-November 1916

This is a book mainly, but not exclusively, for those studying GCSE History. I am suggesting that in order to study the First World war, we need to look at the major battle for the English - the turning point. For the French perhaps, it was the Marne or maybe Verdun. The Russians and Germans had their battles too. As did the Turks. But for us, the Somme was the central piece of fighting which we all remember. Before the Somme, Western Europe faced a “normal” war which, in its own way, was gallant, even knightly. After 1916 dragged to an end, warfare became a tug of war over a muddy plain full of unburied corpses and broken bits of machinery. By studying that, we can have a good introduction to the terrible fascination of the years 1914-1918 - nearly 100 years ago now.