"Twenty-five years after the publication of his previous classic study of the Battle of the Somme, Peter Liddle reconsiders, in the light of the most recent research and scholarship, one of the most significant and controversial episodes in British military history. His acute and authoritative study re-examines the concept and planning of the operation and follows the course of the action through the entire four and a half months of fighting that followed. His narrative is based on the graphic and revealing first-hand testimony of soldiers who knew what it was like to participate in every stage of the protracted struggle. He does not concentrate exclusively on the front-line infantryman but looks also at the gunner, sapper, medical man, airman and nurse who played their parts in the battle. Through their experience we get a direct insight into how they coped with the extraordinary stress of the fighting and gain some understanding of how the morale of the British Expeditionary Force held up."--