EASY READING FOR NEWCOMER

[tonyoz777]

I'm doing my third visit to The Somme in July this year.

 

I have another two family members coming along and it will be their first trip.

 

Any suggestions on "easy reading" books or DVD's to give them a background before we get there ?

 

Thanks in advance

[Stoppage Drill]

For your particular purpose, I think Middlebrook's "First Day on the Somme" would suit handsomely, dated though it now is.

[Steven Broomfield]

And as a 'general history' of the battle as a whole (or rather, series of battles), you still can't fault Anthony Farrar-Hockley's book.

[David Filsell]

Mr S

Mind FH wrote while the files were unreleased and the book does seem extremely dated now. ( And the maps are truly awful.)

Regards

David

[Dragon]

I enjoyed Lyn Macdonald's Somme. It has a strong narrative in approachable language and draws heavily on the words of the men who were there. I know it isn't faultless, but as your companions are new to the topic, I should think they would find it engaging. I bet many members of the GWF came to the subject via Lyn Macdonald, even though they won't admit it.  

 

A more recent account drawing on soldiers' words is The Somme: The Epic Battle in the Soldiers' Own Words and Photographs by Richard Van Emden

 

If your people want to read from the German perspective, Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger is generally compelling. His memoir is wider than the Somme, but I don't think that would be a problem.

 

You can also buy the DVD of the contemporary film of the Battle of the Somme quite inexpensively online.

 

Gwyn

Edited 6 March , 2017 by Dragon

[kenf48]

Acknowledging the above, Martin Middlebrook has also written, with his wife Mary, a guide book, 'The Somme Battlefields - a comprehensive guide from Crecy to the Two World Wars'. It is an engaging guide which puts into context that which they are seeing on the ground, for example the half dozen or so pages on Thiepval give a description of the fighting in 1916, then a history of the memorial and nearby 'places of interest'.

 

Peter Hart's 'The Somme' (2008)  like all his books fulfils the requirement of 'easy reading' but at a couple of inches thick in paperback may be a bit daunting to a newcomer.

 

'The Somme' Gary Sheffield (2004) is much more concise and also  covers the whole campaign his analysis may be more challenging though to the reader's preconceived notions of futile sacrifice.

 

 Middlebrook's first day, and Lyn Macdonald have stood the test of time, however a more modern account of the first day is 'Elegy'  Andrew Roberts (2015).  Personally I was a bit underwhelmed, there were too many technical errors but having said that it can be demolished in an afternoon, easy chapters and while some of the errors may offend the purists it won't get the casual reader too bogged down in orbats etc. and moves along at a cracking pace.

 

Alternatively why not just point them towards online sources such as the Long Long Trail?

Or perhaps better still the Imperial War Museum 

http://www.iwm.org.uk/history/what-happened-during-the-battle-of-the-somme

 

Ken