• Title: DK Eyewitness World War I
• Author: DK Books
• Genre/Subject: WWI History
• Publisher: DK Books
• Publication Date: 2001
• Start date: 7/30/24
• Finish date: 8/1/24

Review:

DK Books are so good, so, so good and this was no exception. If you’re not familiar with the DK Eyewitness series they are a series of books designed as they say, “for young curious minds”. Lavishly illustrated with photographs, charts and artwork they give you a deep insight into the subject in an enjoyable and engaging manner. They don’t talk down but neither are they too scholarly and technical. So where a textbook will explain the movements, strategy and tactics of the Battle of the Somme a DK book will briefly explain what happened, when it happened and accompany it with powerful illustrrations. What do I always say? The best way to learn about anything is to read a book for younger readers.

So as those who have followed this blog for any length of time you will know that WWI is one of my main historical interests. I’ve read a lot and listened to a lot, and watched a lot about the Great War. So what can I say about this book that differs from any of the other book reviews?

I can say with complete candor and honesty that no matter how many of these books I read they still get to me every single time. I mean get to me as in eliciting an emotional response, not simply an intellectual one. I used to think that this was a weakness and didn’t admit it, but as one of my retired soldier friends pointed out, this just means I’m human.

Let me give you an example. The Battle of the Somme say. July 1, 1916 to around November 18 of the same year. But for now, let’s focus on just the first day, July 1, Canada Day as it happens. On July 1, 1916 (I keep repating that date because it is important for everyone to remember it) the British army marched forward towards the German lines which they believed to have been opened up by the preceeding artillery barrage. They had not been damaged and the soldiers marched into hell. Now here’s a number to remember, 19,240. That was the number of British soldiers killed that day. That one day. Not the 5 months of the battle, the first fucking day. I struggle to visualize that. That’s about the population of a small city, imagine every single person in Spruce Grove or Glace Bay killed, dead, mowed down or drowned in mud. That was the number killed. 57,470 were the total casualties recorded. Nearly 60,000. And casualty is a calm word, a statistics word like collateral damage or other losses. But it means limbs and faces blown off and lives destroyed forever. It means that most of those who reached the casualty clearing stations would die of infections or simply from trauma in the days and weeks following. One day, remember that.

Numbers are easy to say, but dig down and think what they represent. 19,240 young men that never got a chance to go home, or to play football, or to get a puppy, or to have children, or get their degrees, or to get a tattoo, lie on a beach, sleep in on a Sunday.

The official record of the Battle of the Somme lists the result as inconclusive. You kill or maim 60 thousand men in one day, and millions after that, I’d say that’s pretty fucking conclusive. See what I mean? It gets to me, it should get to everyone. And yet here we are in 2024 with far more advanced methods and machinery to kill each other and we’re still doing it. Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, there’s a civil war raging in Sudan, Somalia is still a battleground.

I can’t stop wars, but I can encourage everyone to read and listen to and learn about the past. Study it, internalize it and maybe one or two people will start to say, look this has to stop. I don’t have the answers but I do have the history and it’s unbelievably awful to read, and unbelievably important to know.