Official History of The Great War: Military Operations France & Belgium 1916: Volume 1

The Official History of the Great War was the grandest official history ever produced in Britain. Its purpose was to provide "within reasonable compass an authoritative account, suitable for general readers and for students at military schools." Due to the number of full-colour maps bound in each volume previous attempts to reprint this valuable reference ether floundered, or were produced with the maps in monochrome. At last the acclaimed work of the official cartographers who had ninety thousand maps at their command can be examined as they intended in full colour. This is part of a multi-volume work. 1916 is covered by two volumes plus two volumes of appendices.

This volume covers the first six and a half months of Haig’s command of the BEF, culminating with the opening day of the Somme. Prior to that it gives a comprehensive account of the expansion and reorganization of the BEF from August 1914 to July 1916 as well as details of the bitter fighting on the British front from 19 December 1915 to 13 June 1916. The description of each action is followed by the German account. After discussion of the plans and preparations for the offensive the history devotes the remaining 180 plus pages to the 1st July, a corps by corps, division by division account of that first day beginning on the right with XIII Corps which achieved the only British success on that fearful day. German accounts are given and appendices provide order of battle details.