Bibliography of the Battle of the Somme: Part 1 [of 2]

Heinrich Himmler apart, former poultry farmers don't figure much in the bibliography of military history. Martin Middlebrook, however, proves to be the outstanding exception. With this one book, his first, Middlebrook prised open a new window onto Great War studies in general, and in particular onto the 1916 Battle of the Somme. As part of the Somme centenary publishing effort, Pen & Sword Military republishes the hardback edition of Middlebrook's The First Day on the Somme. Based upon original, indeed groundbreaking, research, The First Day on the Somme has been and remains an entry-point into Somme studies for students ever since first published by Allen Lane in 1971. Penguin cannily holds onto the paperback rights, and that edition has never gone out of print. Now, nearly half a century later, historians – academic or otherwise – continue to draw upon and cite The First Day on the Somme.(1)