Three Armies on the Somme

The First Battle of the Twentieth Century

De: William Philpott

Narrado por: James Adams

On July 1, 1916, British and French forces launched the first attack on the German armies lined up along the Somme in what was to become the defining battle of World War I. To this day, July 1 is often remembered for being the bloodiest day in British military history. Indeed, the British suffered some 62,000 casualties in that one day of fighting alone. As gruesome as that statistic is, it's just one of the many dark legacies left by the Somme Offensive. Among the others can be found all the sundry inhumanities of modern trench warfare: infantry lined up opposite machine guns; trench conditions in which vermin and disease were rampant; no-man's-land scattered with dead and dying; vicious gas attacks; soldiers rattled with shell shock. And yet, Philpott reminds us, without having fought and won this crucial battle, the Allied forces might never have prevailed over the Germans.

Here, Philpott boldly and convincingly breaks with the predominant view among historians, most of whom regard the Battle of the Somme as the worst of military tragedies. Three Armies on the Somme is an attempt to finally set the record straight: Many of the histories and memoirs written about this important battle - including those of the statesmen Winston Churchill and Lloyd George, both of which Philpott powerfully rebuts - recount the missteps of the British command but fail to account for the fact that General Haig was witnessing the spontaneous evolution of warfare as he marched his troops to battle.

It's often said that Haig was fighting a 20th century war using 19th century means. As Philpott shows, however, 20th century war as we know it simply didn't exist before the Battle of the Somme. New technologies developed, such as the machine gun and the armored tank; equally important were the technologies that couldn't develop fast enough: communications capabilities lagged far behind the commanders' needs for a battle of such scale. New methods of engagement were being drawn up along both lines, and as World War I raged on, it became clear that tactics aimed at attrition were the only feasible route to defeating powerful industrial nations that had made all their production and work force available in the name of war.

Allied forces initially billed the Battle of the Somme as a knockout punch to the Germans. Although this goal was almost certainly out of reach in 1916, the British and the French forces actually came much closer to defeating the Germans at the Somme than is popularly believed. At the very least, the Allies' hard-won victory in Picardy gave British and French soldiers the experience, confidence, and knowledge necessary to bring the Great War to an end.

William Philpott has given us an exciting and indispensable work of history - one that challenges our received ideas about the Battle of the Somme and about the very nature of modern warfare.

©2009 William Philpott (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

An excellent analysis of WWI military strategy

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I have one of the medals shown on the cover of this book framed and hanging on my wall. It's from my grandfather's service in the British army during WWI. Aside from that medal and a side plot on Downton Abbey, I knew very little about the Great War. William Philpot cured that an exceptionally detailed analysis of the battle that changed the course of the war. The detail is great (you may want to have a map of France in front of you while you listen), but it's the analysis of the Battle of the Somme's place in both the course of the war and the evolution of modern warfare that sets this book apart. Philpot does a deep dive into the strategic challenges of what he calls the first "industrial war" where armies are too big and complex to be defeated in a single battle but instead have to be ground down by attrition. He makes sense out of the eventual allied victory in 1918 where Germany launched a successful breakout that pushed the Allies back 30 miles only to suffer a catastrophic collapse because the previous two years had depleted military reserves needed to sustain its presence on the battlefield. Philpot makes a convincing argument that the Somme, for all the carnage suffered by the British, was the beginning of end for Germany.
Philpot also places the Somme in the larger evolution of modern warfare. This is the battle that began with soldiers forming up in long lines to be mowed down by machine gun fire and ended with the arrival of the first primitive tanks destroying those same machine gun nests. If you have any curiosity about the first world war, this book is the place to start.

liked it, very informative

gave good insight into the French and British turbulent relationship and their effort to win their battles.

Very " Haig-centric "

It is a fantastic audiobook but it leans towards the English in most cases. The Germans are described as incompetent and blindly flailing away during the battle where in every move that the Haig does is calculated for the greater good and what he sees far reaching . It goes against almost every thing I've ever read about Haig and his decision-making

War in the Industrial World

This is a very detailed narrative that covers the military history of WWI from the beginning of the Battle of the Somme. The author's discussion goes through to the end of the war but the emphasis is from July 1, 1916 to the end of 1916. The characterization of the battle as the first battle of the twentieth century is emphasized by the author's constant reference to the battle as the beginning of industrial war.
There is much more to the book than just a description of horrific casualty figures. The author provides a very good analysis of the changes that were brought to the battlefield by the increased industrialization of society. One of the major changes is that WWI is the only war where the majority of casualties were caused by artillery and not guns and bullets.
The author does a good job of explaining how the French beginning with the Battle of Verdun developed tactics that made greater use of artillery on the battlefield. The English had such great casualties on July 1, 1916 because they refused to utilize the knowledge that had been gained by the French. Slowly the English changed their tactics and developed greater manpower resources than the French. This allowed them to take the greater burden of the fight against the Germans.
With the beginning of the Somme the Germans slowly began losing the war. The author provides a good description of the changes in tactics made by Ludendorff in the German offensive of early 1918. However, industrial war became a contest of resources which Germany could not win.
This book introduced new ideas into the discussion of how WWI was fought. It also provided a good narrative of the battlefield action and the personalities of the leading generals. The author's new insights made it a very good book about a conflict that has been overshadowed by the rest of the violence of the twentieth century. I did think it was a bit long but it was never boring.

Somme sans ground axes

Bring good maps and follow closely. It's worth the effort. The presenter should have shown the same respect for German pronunciations as he did the French but that's a quibble.