Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front 1914-1918

Contemporary Review, Nov, 2004

Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front 1914-1918. Richard Holmes. HarperCollins. [pounds sterling]20.00. xxxi 717 pages. ISBN 0-00-713751-6. Debates over the Great War have raged since its end. Here Prof. Holmes, a tele-don who actually knows his subject and knows it well, is concerned with the war as it was fought by British soldiers.

(In this the book resembles Gordon Corrigan's Mud, Blood and Poppycock ... published in 2003.) The Army by 1918 was 'the greatest collective endeavour of the whole of British history' and is best understood by reference to the men involved. Prof. Holmes discusses military organisation, life in the trenches, the nature of command, the quality of food, dress, relaxation, relations with the enemy, the nature of fighting, morale, discipline, medical treatment and humour. He paints a broad canvas but his attention is always on the individual soldier. His mastery of the surviving evidence and his even-handed approach are the foundation for this book's great value to readers today and in the future. (T.B.)