The Battle of the Somme is fixed in the country's collective memory as the most offensives launched during the Great War. Over five months of bitter fighting in 1916 the Commonwealth forces wrestled with the superior German army for control of an innocuous length of French countryside. By the time the fighting had petered out to a muddy stalemate in November, the list of casualties had reached almost a million men. On the eve of the 90th anniversary of the battle, it is timely for this notorious episode in British military history to be reassessed. Previously unpublished eyewitness accounts are used to provide a unique first-hand view of fighting in the Somme battles. As Martin Pegler shows, there is ample evidence for a revision of the traditional assumption that Haig's battle achieved little more than the wholesale destruction of the finest citizen army ever raised. Much attention is given to the use of improved tactics and weaponry pioneered in the campaign, in particular the introduction of the tank and the effects of tis first ever use in battle. -- From the book jacket.