The Somme

Contemporary Review, July, 2005

The Somme. Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson. Yale University Press. [pounds sterling]19.95. viii 358 pages. ISBN 0-300-10694-7. The latest study of the Great War's most famous battle is by the same two historians who have written on the Passchendaele and, before that, on the Western Front's command.

Here they argue that behind the fateful assault on Germany's western lines 'the great decisions on British strategy' had not been purely military. There had been 'significant civilian input' from authorities in London and Paris. From the beginning of the war, key decisions, including the 1916 offensive, were taken not by the military but by the Cabinet in London whatever Churchill or Lloyd George wrote after the war. The Somme, which cost Britain the equivalent of 25 divisions, was a 'melancholy' story of political and military incompetence and its lessons would go largely unheeded. This is a magisterial piece of scholarship, based on a thorough examination of surviving records and presented in a clear, balanced and straight-forward manner. It is a model of historical research and should do much to further our understanding of the Great War and how it was fought. (T.B.)