The Battle of the Somme: The First and Second Phase

The Battle of the Somme #1-2

by John Buchan

On the 1 July, 1916, 20,000 British troops lost their lives during the first day of the Somme. Artillery had barraged the German lines for seven days, but the Germans were heavily dug in and many shells failed to explode due to the wet ground. The bombardment signalled to the Germans that the British were coming, so once it had finished they emerged from their fortifications ready to face, and destroy, the enemy offensive. But the Battle of the Somme was far more than just the 1 July 1916. The four and a half month battle raged on until November 1916 and saw the introduction of the Tank, the creeping barrage and the development of air power. Published as a short work just a year after the battle, John Buchan’s account of the first two phases of the Battle of the Somme, one of bloodiest battles of the Great War, leap off the page a century on. Buchan goes beyond the first day of the Somme to provide a valuable account of the extended battle and the strategy used. He describes the manoeuvres and the generals who led thousands of troops, and also deliberates on the nature of war and the state of mind needed by the men facing such a terrible battle. As a war correspondent in France for The Times from 1915 Buchan was well placed to comment on such events. The Battle of the Somme is a classic contemporary account of the one of the key battles of the First World War by one of the finest writers of the era. John Buchan, first Baron Tweedsmuir of Elsfield, was born in Perth, Scotland in 1875. In 1900, Buchan moved to London, and two years later accepted a civil service post in South Africa. In the years leading up to World War I, he worked at a publishers, and also wrote Prester John (1910) — which later became a school reader, translated into many languages — as well as a number of biographies. In 1915 he published his most well-known book, the thriller The Thirty-Nine Steps. After the war he became a director of the news agency Reuters. Buchan would eventually publish some one hundred books, forty or so of which were novels, mostly wartime thrillers. In the latter part of his life he worked in politics, serving as Conservative MP for the Scottish universities and Lord High Commissioner of the Church of Scotland (1933-34). In 1935, Buchan moved to Canada, where he became the thirty-fifth Governor General of Canada. He died in 1940, aged 64.

185 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1917

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

John Buchan was a Scottish novelist, historian, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation.
As a youth, Buchan began writing poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction, publishing his first novel in 1895 and ultimately writing over a hundred books of which the best known is The Thirty-Nine Steps. After attending Glasgow and Oxford universities, he practised as a barrister. In 1901, he served as a private secretary to Lord Milner in southern Africa towards the end of the Boer War. He returned to England in 1903, continued as a barrister and journalist. He left the Bar when he joined Thomas Nelson and Sons publishers in 1907. During the First World War, he was, among other activities, Director of Information in 1917 and later Head of Intelligence at the newly-formed Ministry of Information. He was elected Member of Parliament for the Combined Scottish Universities in 1927.
In 1935, King George V, on the advice of Canadian Prime Minister R. B. Bennett, appointed Buchan to succeed the Earl of Bessborough as Governor General of Canada and two months later raised him to the peerage as 1st Baron Tweedsmuir. He occupied the post until his death in 1940. Buchan promoted Canadian unity and helped strengthen the sovereignty of Canada constitutionally and culturally. He received a state funeral in Canada before his ashes were returned to the United Kingdom.

Reviews

[Adam Collis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly I had to give up on this book after 70 pages. Buchan gives a compelling account for the first 30-40 pages, until he reaches the first day of the Battle of the Somme where the book falls apart.
This book, published in 1917, is entirely propaganda and quite frankly painful to read knowing the truth of what happened. Whilst Buchan acknowledges the losses of the first day, he leaves it at that; an acknowledgement.
20,000 men killed, the largest single day loss for the British Army ever, without any breakthrough to show for it, but don’t worry because that was all in the North and actually we were very successful in the South and achieved a massive victory and so on…
Then begins the bombardment of propaganda, to the point it becomes impossible to read. ‘Victory here and then victory here and then victory here, and here we took a thousand prisoners’ goes on for the next 40 pages and personally I couldn’t stand it. No word to the loss of life on our side, simply allusions to ‘hard fighting’ followed by the number of prisoners we supposedly took.
Maybe Buchan goes on to talk about the stalemate, but the propaganda is so dense I doubt it. I’m not someone who discards all wartime propaganda as useless (take The People Immortal for example, which is still propaganda but also a great read ), but this book, in the modern age, does a total disservice to those who lost their lives on the fields of Picardie.
If you’re looking for an account of the Battle of the Somme, you probably couldn’t go much worse than this book.

[Martin Pilkington · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not read the Kindle version, I read a paperback published by Endeavour Press. At times the author at least implies that there are maps associated with the book. No, there isn’t one map, there isn’t a single illustration in the book. There may be in some editions but not in the one I read.

The book was written and first published in 1917 when the author, yes that John Buchan, was working in Intelligence on the Western Front. Is it any surprise, then, that the tone taken is very positive and either skirts over or doesn’t mention too much of the negativity that later books will discuss. It is perhaps understandable, given who wrote it and when, that it doesn’t mention the nearly 20,000 British soldiers who were killed on the first day, but does tell you about, for example then Uber of German prisoners taken over the 4 moth campaign.

Well written but by no means a complete and unbiased account of the events on the Somme.

[Nicco · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was expecting some sort of propaganda book, but frankly, once the decent and quite accurate account of the first pages, from the start of the "action" onwards, is just purely propaganda. It is frankly quite painful, especially if compared to other less biased accounts of that battle.

I finished just because of my ocd but frankly, past the time it was published, this book is quite a burden to read given the full on propaganda it aims to

[Maarten Mathijssen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in 1916, the year of the battle by John Buchan who was a Press officer in the British Army. Written to ease tension at the home front. Pure propaganda , but from that point of view very interesting.

[Roger King · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a glorious account of the battle from the British viewpoint. Who knows how many thousands of men died per square mile of battlefield, but the Germans ran out of troops before the Allies and lost the war. Bottom line: generals are stupid and the soldiers courageous.

[Kevin O'Hara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very Jingoistic with no real analysis of the detail of the battles, or criticism of direction and decisions made by both sides.