Somme 90 A Commemorative Edition on the Ninetieth Anniversary of The Battle of the Somme

Book Code:  EX1812

Somme 90 A Commemorative Edition on the Ninetieth Anniversary of The Battle of the Somme

 

Combining powerful testimonies from the men who fought on the Somme battlefields with specially-commissioned photography and dramatic archive images of the Somme, this unique First World War book builds up into a detailed narrative of the 1916 Somme campaign, “the Big Push”, from the infamous First Day through to its bitter end at the Ancre and the Butte de Warlencourt almost five months later. From Gommecourt down to Montauban, the baptism of fire that the local Pals Battalions underwent all along the 1 July front is documented through maps and images from each location.

SOMME 90, A VISUAL HISTORY OF THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME, locates the conflict as a key event of World War I, and revisits the killing fields of the Somme, exploring the aftermath of the Great War, the establishment of the Imperial War Graves Commission, the construction of the battlefield cemeteries, the thousands of pilgrims who came in the Twenties, and the building of the memorials at home. Fold-out panoramas of these infamous Great War battlefields, taken by the British Army in 1915, are displayed, alongside sumptuous panoramas of the landscapes today. A genealogical section is also included, to guide the reader through the tracing of forebears who may have fought on the Somme.

The accompanying DVD includes archive footage from the battle, scenes from the 1 July service at Lochnagar Crater, and extensive interviews with key figures from the Somme today, who tell their stories of the Tommies on the Somme, and explain its haunting fascination ninety years on.

The Battle of the Somme, also known as the Somme Offensive, took place during the First World War between 1 July and 18 November 1916 in the Somme department of France, on both banks of the river of the same name. The opening day of the battle on 1 July 1916 saw the British Army suffer the worst one-day combat losses in its history, with nearly 60,000 casualties. This book was released to coincide with the 90th Anniversary of the Battle of the Somme to commemorate the hundreds of thousands of men who gave there lives to protect our home soil. The book is in colour throughout and has sections on the various aspects of the battle, what was learned and why we should remember. With incredible b&w and colour photographs depicting scenes from the fight and a preface by HRH The Prince of Wales.

 

Duncan Youel & David Edgell

Hardcover landscape format with slipcase 226pp. Includes a free DVD on the Battle of the Somme