One of the bloodiest battles of modern warfare—a military tragedy that would come to define a generation

On July 1, 1916, the British Army launched the "Big Push" that was supposed to bring an end to the horrific stalemate on the Western Front between British, French, and German forces. What resulted was one of the greatest single human catastrophes in the history of warfare. Scrambling out of trenches in the face of German machine guns and artillery fire, the Allied Powers lost over twenty thousand soldiers that first day, but this "battle" would drag on for another four deadly months.

As the oral historian at the Imperial War Museum in London, Peter Hart has brought to light new material never before seen or heard. The Somme is an unparalleled evocation of World War I's iconic contest—the definitive account of one of the most harrowing battles of the twentieth century.