The Battle of the Somme was one of the most tragic battles fought during the First World War. The amount of lives lost on both sides was enormous and historians around the world agree that this battle was one of the bloodiest battles fought. With over a million victims, it is no surprise that the Somme is often referred to as the "bloodbath". Historian Martin Gilbert explores the severity of the battle in his book; The Somme: heroism and horror in the First World War. In his book he tries to pay homage to the soldiers who fought and died in battle. To do this he uses extracts from diaries, letters and poems written by soldiers on the front lines to give the reader a first-hand account of what the soldiers thought and felt as they fought. Gilbert is able to effectively portray the horror of the Somme and reduce the anonymity of the fallen by sharing stories from the soldier's personal writings, however his book would have been more effective if it had a clear and well-structured argument. book, Gilbert explains how: “each book on the Somme contributes in its own way to perpetuating the memory of those who fought and those who fell. This book seeks to make its contribution to that act of memory” (Gilbert, xxi). To do this, start explaining what is happening in the run-up to the battle. It provides some information on the size of the British Army at the start of the war in 1914 and discusses who was eligible to fight and the formation of the battalions. An example of how battalions were founded was when General Sir Henry Rawlinson “suggested that men would be more willing to enlist if they knew they would be serving with those they knew: friends, neighbours… middle of paper… ... considering the number of men who fought and lost their lives, there are very few stories told. In conclusion Gilbert was able to share some of the soldiers' stories effectively, but because he lacked an argument, the strength of his writing was significantly weakened. Bibliography "Beaumont-Hamel Remembered". Toronto Star, July 2, 2013, A6.Gilbert, Martin. The Somme: heroism and horror in the First World War. (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2006) Larocci, Andrew. Review of The Battle of the Somme: The Heroism and Horror of War by Martin Gilbert. The Canadian Historical Review vol.88 (December 2007): 657-658.Terraine, John. “The Structure of the Somme, 1916.” History Today, September 1, 1976: 559-568Willmott, HP World War I. New York: DK Publishing, 2009.Wilson, Trevor, and Robin Prior. “Summing up the Somme”, History Today, November 1, 1991: 37-43.