Twelve Days on the Somme: A Memoir of the Trenches, 1916 - Hardcover

Sidney Rogerson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1853676802 ISBN 13: 9781853676802

Publisher: Greenhill Books, 2006

Synopsis

Twelve Days on the Somme: A Memoir of the Trenches November 1916

About this title

Review:

Sidney Rogerson has put down, plainly and simply, the experiences of his battalion. There is no attempt to compass drama by any device of selection or exaggeration --The Observer

A more genuine and unbiased account of trench warfare would be hard to find --The Sunday Times

Memoirs of a British subaltern first published in 1933; vivid descriptions without embellishment of life on the front lines written by a survivor of the 1916 Somme offensive. Unabashedly intended as an antidote to the usual downbeat 1930's war memoir. --Western Front Association

Synopsis:

'Dawn of the 11th found us all feeling the effects of our labours and the lack of sleep. Legs were attacked by acute shooting pains due to the strain of constant movement in the mud. Eyes smarted with tiredness. Faces and fingernails were caked with mud.' A joint operation between Britain and France in 1916, the battle of the Somme was an attempt to gain territory and dent Germany's military strength. By the end of the action, very little ground had been won: the Allied Forces had made just twelve kilometres. For this slight gain, a more than a million lives were lost. More than 400,000 British, 200,000 French, and 500,000 German soldiers were killed during the fighting. "Twelve Days" is a narrative of the last spell of front-line duty performed by the 2/West Yorkshires. Written by Sidney Rogerson, a young officer in 'B' Company, it gives an extraordinarily honest account of twelve days during the battle of the Somme. From the terrible panic of crossing no-man's-land, to the squalid drudgery of trench life, Rogerson creates a full and evocative picture of this horrific conflict.

About this edition

• Publisher: Greenhill Books
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1853676802
• ISBN 13: 9781853676802
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 216