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  • Published: 23 October 2013
  • ISBN: 9780241952382
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 432
  • RRP: $39.99
Categories:

Somme

Into the Breach




'What the reader will longest remember are the words - heartbroken, blunt, angry - of the men who lived through the bloodbath' Daily Mail

'There was hardly a household in the land'. writes Lyn Macdonald, 'there was no trade, occupation, profession or community, which was not represented in the thousands of innocent enthusiasts who made up the ranks of Kitchener's Army before the Battle of the Somme...'

The year 1916 was one of the great turning-points in British history: as the youthful hopes of a generation were crushed in a desperate struggle to survive. On paper, few battles have ever been so meticulously planned. Yet while there were good political reasons to launch a joint offensive with a French Army demoralised by huge casualties at Verdun, the raw troops on the ground knew nothing of politics. A hundred and fifty thousand were killed in the punishing shellfire, the endless ordeal of attack and counter-attack; twice that number were wounded.

Here, Lyn Macdonald lets the men who were there give their own testimony. Their stories are vivid, harrowing, sometimes terrifying - yet shot through with humour, immense courage and an astonishing spirit of resilience.

  • Published: 23 October 2013
  • ISBN: 9780241952382
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 432
  • RRP: $39.99
Categories:

About the author

Lyn MacDonald

Over the past twenty years Lyn Macdonald has established a popular reputation as an author and historian of the First World War. Her books are They Called It Passchendaele, an account of the Passchendaele campaign in 1917; The Roses of No Man's Land, a chronicle of the war from the neglected viewpoint of the casualties and the medical teams who struggled to save them; Somme, a history of the legendary and horrifying battle that has haunted the minds of succeeding generations; 1914, a vivid account of the first months of the war and winner of the 1987 Yorkshire Post Book of the Year Award; 1914-1918: Voices and Images of the Great War, an illuminating account of the many different aspects of the war; and 1915: The Death of Innocence, a brilliant evocation of the year that saw the terrible losses of Aubers Ridge, Loos, Neuve Chapelle, Ypres and Gallipoli.

Her most recent book, To the Last Man: Spring 1918, has been published by Viking. All are based on the accounts of eyewitnesses and survivors, told in their own words, and cast a unique light on the First World War. 

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Praise for Somme

Somme expresses the full range of meaning of the word 'grim'...I doubt if there are any better than this

John Terraine, Daily Telegraph

A worthy addition to the literature of the Great War

Daily Mail