A very good book about the failure of the British Imperial generals to adapt to WWI trench warfare and the enormous loss of life that this entailed.

One of the nicest researches on WW I: Middlebrook put an advert in a paper and started to correspond with survivors. This eventually lead to a classic work in military history.

The Western Front got into a deadlock from 1914. The British thought that a very heavy bombardment could force a breach in the German line, through which the infantry would simply walk through. After days of shelling, the Tommies got up from their trenches and marched, heavily packed towards the German lines. There, the Germans had sheltered through the artillery bombardment and now manned their machine-guns. The result was a massacre as the British Army had it blackest day.

The perpectives range from soldier-level to the main picture. The feelings of hopelessness, duty and courage are compelling. And so is the description of the genius behind this useless operation, Field Marshall Haig.