The Somme: Through The Eyes Of A Foot Soldier Who Survived The Battlefield May-September 1916

Excerpted from Lance Corporal Signaller Sam Sutcliffe's Memoir of WW1, this is his account of his experience on the front line at The Battle Of The Somme. A poor north London boy, after enlisting under-age – at 16 – as a Royal Fusilier in September, 1914, he fought at Gallipoli. Via some respite in Egypt, he moved to France and the Western Front. There he survived a second misbegotten campaign, "an inferno of explosions and bullets" which killed tens of thousands on both sides. "Nothing was gained," says Sam. With his formidable, near-total-recall memory – writing in his seventies – Sam relives the horror, futility and the stench of trench warfare.