This is an interestingly different battlefield memoir, describing the scene of the infamous 1916 battle rather than the battle itself. Although beautifully written, readers should be forewarned that the text contains only incidental references to the bloody fighting, which is described in more detail in Masefield's later "The Battle of the Somme" (Heinemann, 1919.)
Masefield says of the old front line "It is a difficult thing to describe without monotony, for it varies so little." You will enjoy this book if you enjoy elegiac prose. His tone is subdued but nevertheless he is celebrating the heroism of the British forces: not surprising since Masefield was writing at the behest of Charles Masterman, the head of Britain's War Propaganda Bureau, for whom he was working by 1917.
John Masefield was an author and poet laureate of Great Britain, most famous for his poetry collection "Salt Water Ballads." He was 37 when he joined the Red Cross to serve in France during World War I. Masefield went on the Dardanelles expedition with an ambulance unit and witnessed Britain's disastrous Gallipoli campaign on the Turkish coast. When he returned to England, Masefield was recruited by Masterman and produced a number of texts and lectures putting a positive face on the challenges faced by British troops in the war.
The battle of the Somme began July 1st, 1916 and produced over a million casualties. Masefield declares "It first gave the enemy the knowledge that he was beaten." However he is exaggerating, since the result was merely a strategic withdrawal of the German forces to a better fortified line (the Siegfried Stellung) from which they launched their final offensive two years later. Masefield makes much of the German's superior position, but it should be borne in mind that they were subjected to the most massive artillery barrage of the war, taken by surprise, and vastly outnumbered. Anyone interested in a fuller account of the battle should try a more recent text on the Western Front or for personal memoirs of the battle try Siegfried Sassoon's "Memoirs of an Infantry Officer" or Robert Graves' "Goodbye to All That."
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Top reviews from other countries
Marty
A concise but moving account of the Somme battles
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 29, 2016B Parkin
Recommend this for everyone interested in human history.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 15, 2016J.Forsythe
Dont buy the kindle version
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 11, 2022T. Perry
Delighted with this book!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 7, 2016