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Average Customer Rating:

Poorly researched. There are much better books out there.

Customer Rating:

I was given this book and found it very frustrating and massively disappointing. It is basically a compendium of quotes from the IWM Sound Archive. Those in the know will be aware that the IWM Oral Historian is Peter Hart, author of a superb book on the Somme. Please buy his book or any of Martin Middlebrook, Lyn Macdonald etc. rather than this shoddy example of poor research and lazy publishing. Quite why Levine has felt the need to use the same sources as other Somme books (e.g. Hart) but lacking any of the strategic or tactical understanding is beyond me. The book is a sad example of what publishers will do for a quick buck. I mean no disrespect to the men whose quotes are used. The material is interesting but much of it has been used before and it is hardly `Forgotten'. Often it is misplaced. I feel I ought to give a couple of examples plucked from many. Page 146. Private Basil Farrer 3rd Battalion, Green Howards "We used to say - if it's got you name and address on it, it will find you. So what's the use of worrying." The 3rd Battalion never went overseas. The 3rd (Reserve) Battalion went to West Hartlepool where it remained for the duration of the war!! Furthermore, what is he talking about anyway. The quote is fairly boring but what does he mean? He could be talking about a letter. One has to guess he is talking about a bullet or a bit of shell casing. Furthermore he quotes Frank Lindley page 262 'We used to say, "If your name's on it - you get it." That was the philosophy.' Same issue again, and I can't really see the point of using the same poor quality quote twice. Page 206. Corporal Frederick Francis 11th Border Regiment. His story of going over the top is given as being the 16th July at Authuille on the Somme. Anyone writing and worth their salt knows they went over the top on the 1st July. His story has appeared in other books and TV programmes all stating, like he does, that it was the infamous day. Other soldiers are quoted at times when they were not even in France! Names are simply wrong or not spelt correctly. Lastly this book is not 304 pages as stated but 285 of which at least 63 are blank or taken up with stock IWM images you have seen a thousand times before, take out those and the generous spacing between quotes and you have barely 220 pages. A hugely disappointing effort all round.

Puts a very human face on one of the world's most devastating battles

Customer Rating:

I read and was very deeply moved by the first book in the "Forgotten Voices" series - "Forgotten Voices of the Great War". With a life-long interest in and appreciation for world history, especially that of the First World War, often also referred to as The Great War, this new book, "Forgotten Voices of the Somme" is a most welcome addition to a fine series. It, like the first book on The Great War, does not weigh us down with facts and figures, but tells the story through the recorded words of those people who actually were there and who survived to relive their experiences for us. Men and women, officers and enlisted men, civilians, all from both sides of the conflict share their varied views of a horrific war and battle with us. It is thankfully as close to actually being there in the muddy trenches, fighting the enemy, the weather, the rats and feeling the fear of dying at anytime as we will ever get. A must read and very highly recommended.