Read most of Martin Middlebrook's The First Day on the Somme today. It remains as horrifying and deeply sad as when I first read it. But it's also quietly inspiring in its own way, simply due to the amazing courage of so many of the participants in the awful carnage of 1 July 1916, of all nations.
Most of all, Middlebrook lets the voices of the old soldiers - of course, many unbearably young soldiers in 1916 - speak with moving simplicity and directness. You can even hear them in the absurd names of their battalions. The Grimsby Chums! The Accrington Pals! There can never be such innocence again.
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