Historians can give us a big-picture view of major battles, but big-picture views don't necessarily reveal what that battle was really like for those on the battlefield. For that you need to hear from the soldiers themselves. And that is what makes Richard Van Emden's “The Somme: The Epic Battle in the Soldiers' Own Words and Photographs” (2016) something special.

By the time the Somme offensive against the German lines began early in July of 1917 (it continued almost until the end of the year), British soldiers were forbidden to have cameras, probably because the military did not want people back in England to see just how bad conditions were on the front lines. Still a number of soldiers, especially officers, did take cameras with them, and the photographs that survive are often stunning. Van Emden also includes photos taken by German soldiers.

Between the photographs, Van Emden shows us the progress of the battle (not that there was much actual progress) via excerpts from letters, diaries and memoirs written by soldiers on both sides.

British soldiers, being British, enjoyed their tea time even with a battle going on. "Oh, what should we do without our tea here!" one man writes. Officers often refer to their servants, whose service included doing their masters' bidding with bullets flying.

The men write about their chances of surviving the next attack (slim in the case of those ordered to advance against German machine guns), about the terrible wounds inflicted upon their fellows, about the constant noise, about the mud and the rats, and about the stink of decaying bodies (something war movies never seem to mention).

Deadly combat actually seems to have been viewed as fun by a couple of the writers. One of them says, "I say that this feeling of joy and lightheartedness does not come from any pleasure in killing — that's the rotten part — but in the risk of being killed. My days in the trenches were days of utter content; I cannot explain why, even to myself." Yet another soldier writes, "War is indescribably disgusting. Any man who has seen it and praises it is degenerate."

One man tells of being hugged by a German prisoner relieved to still be alive. Another tells of trying to take pictures of some of the men. "The snaps are not very good as I could not ask the troops to stand still and look pleasant!"

In the snaps Van Emden has collected, few of the troops look very pleasant. Still, like the written commentary by the soldiers, they are quite good on the whole, making the book something that should interest anyone with an interest in World War I in general or the battle of Somme in particular. ( )

The Somme -The Epic Battle in the Soldier’s own Words and Photographs.

The bestselling author and expert on World War One has gathered together researched and edited one of the most moving and comprehensive books available for the centenary of the Battle of The Somme. Like those that have researched and studied history over many years, the only time you are really touched is when you read the words of those who were there and those that perished. This book is packed with these feelings and it is brilliant.

In his introduction he quotes the historian AJP Taylor, whose views are today often ignored, ‘Idealism perished on the Somme,’ just about sums up the feeling of the soldiers. Whether we like the sentiment or not, Taylor’s point is just as valid today as when he wrote it, and this book justifies that sentiment. In a picture of 5 officers of the 9th Rifle Brigade 2 were to be wounded and the remaining 3 were killed in action, look exhausted, these men had to lead other exhausted men in to battle.

Across eight chapters the reader is taken on a journey that deals with the harsh reality of battle, and when you are bogged down in mud how cold life, if you were surviving was. None of the chapters glorify in any way the Somme, but the harsh life the men face drips from every page, with their own words and pictures.

With the words of tunnellers who had to carry 50lbs of explosives for the mines which they would blow up to aid the advance of the soldiers on the first day of the battle. Captain Stanley Bullock describes what it is like to be down there, that the job was the least desirable in the army and with the amount of explosives they were using they could blow the Germans back to Berlin.

When you read some of the officers asking for reinforcements that were desperately needed and not getting a reply from headquarters, to the description of Thiepval Wood disappearing under the hail of shrapnel. Watching his men reach the limit of human endurance, or that they received messages from men less than an hour later were dead.

When using the words of the men that were there to describe the toil and strife, it is the pictures that really hammer home the points. When you see the mud, the endless mud or the stumps where trees once stood. One letter sums up the Somme, ‘Darling Moth’, I am so thankful to be alive …’ before listing those friends who are dead.

If you want to be chilled to the bones by the description of The Somme, not by historians, but those that were there then this is the book for you. There has been a great deal of research undertaken, both in documents, letters and diaries but also pictorially and it all brings through the sense of idealism dying on the battlefield or more truthfully the battle mud.

This is an excellent book, well worth reading and keeping as a reminder why war is not always the answer, and that it is our young that are the ones who are expected to surrender their lives for the greater good. ( )