Gary Sheffield for Cassell Sheffield is positioned somewhere between the Terrainistas and the bleating classes though probably more at the revisionist end of the continuum. This book takes the story of the Somme campaign from planning through to October. Although the section on 1st July 1916 is longer than the time might merit it is in line with the casualties. Each of the follow up attacks or phases or crumbling are then recounted. This is not, however, an account full of slaughter and heroism. This book operates one level further up approaching, at times, an analytical chronology. Sheffield believes (I think) that the Somme accomplished much: the German losses (depending on the estimates of course) the switching of German divisions and the important blooding of the New army. He also criticises the failure to push through on the successful southern sector. Equally telling is the point that the later bite and hold attacks took much the same ground as on 1st July but at over 80,000 casualties. The real slaughter was in penny-packets. Sheffield thinks little of the tank attacks and has some interesting views on the use of cavalry. The weakness of the artillery on the first day and the inability of the successful attacks to push into unguarded territory all defeated the Somme as a breakthrough. Once the Germans had arrived in strength the odds of any other than grignotage were low. It is clear that what are now seen as the correct tactics were not so easily appreciated then. Generals therefore kept attacking without enough artillery and in the wrong way. The benefit of the Somme to tactics and command was perceived after the campaign (during for a few hardy souls). This is a good, though unemotional account of the Somme for those who want to see it as a whole. Useful maps assist in understanding the numerous phases. Old Duffer's Book Corner Book Reviews The First Armies Verdun 1916 Russia's Civil War Luetzen 1632 Philip V of Spain The End of Chivalry Le Roi De Guerre Warships of the Napoleonic Era Cannae The Death of Anglo-Saxon England Ancient Siege Warfare War and Society in Revolutionary Europe 1770-1870 Forgotten Victory The Remaking of the English Navy Cassino: The Hollow Victory Raising Churchill's Army The Imperial War Museum Book of the War in Italy The Irish And British Wars 1637-1654 Cavaliers: The Royalist Army At War 1642-1646 Alamein Normandy 1944 Hill 112 Breaking The Panzers Béveziers (1690) Paths of Glory: The French Army 1914-18 Caesar’s Legion Operation Bluecoat Operation Epsom Marching to the Sound of Gunfire The Franco-Prussian War Robert the Bruce’s Irish Wars When Titans Clashed The Wars of Edward III Monte Cassino Under Fire The Somme Roads to Falaise Mud, Blood And Poppycock All The Kaiser’s Men Iron Hulls Iron Hearts A Noble Crusade The Pendulum of Battle: Operation Goodwood The English Resistance The Battle of Koniggrätz Pallas Armata Back to Perfidious Albion #104 Table of Contents Back to Perfidious Albion List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by Charles and Teresa Vasey. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com