Many guidebooks cover the Somme offensive in 1916, the five-month struggle that has come to be seen as one of the defining episodes in the history of the fighting on the Western Front during the First World War. But no previous guide has concentrated on the first day, 1 July 1916, when the British Army suffered around 60,000 casualties. That is why, on the centenary of that great battle, this new volume in Pen & Sword s Battle Lines series is so timely. In a series of tours that can be walked, biked or driven, expert authors Jon Cooksey and Jerry Murland take the visitor along the eighteen-mile front line that was the starting point for the Somme offensive, from Gommecourt in the north to Maricourt in the south. The tours allow the visitor to trace the entire course of the opening day on the ground. In vivid detail the authors describe what happened, where it happened and why and which units were involved, and point out the sights that remain for the visitor to see.REVIEWS The original edition of this guidebook was among the first battlefield related books that I amassed when I first started out as a Guide. It was very much ahead of its time in its content as its style of presentation.

The unique selling point of this guidebook is however not its high standard of presentation, it is the range of military history it captures. As you would expect the Somme's First World War battlefields are examined in detail but it is the inclusion of the 1346 Crecy campaign and the 1940 Blitzkrieg that make this such a useful book. An ideal starting point if you are planning a technology themed Battlefield Study.Despatches, Summer 2016 - Mike Peters".