Whistles at Dawn

THE SOMME. 141 DAYS. MORE THAN A MILLION CASUALTIES.

1 July 1916, 7:30 a.m. Along a river in northern France, tens of thousands of British soldiers climb out of their trenches - at a walking pace, shoulder to shoulder, as ordered. By the evening of that first day the British Army has counted 57,470 casualties. It is the bloodiest day in its history. And it is only the beginning.

The Somme - The Endless Front tells the battle as it was: without heroes, without pathos, without victors. In documentary black-and-white drawings and spare captions in the style of field-post dispatches, Volume 1 follows the battle from the blowing of the first mines to the offensive freezing to death in the November mud.

Inside

• 1 July 1916 - the bloodiest day in British military history
• Beaumont-Hamel and the Newfoundland Regiment: 801 men go forward, 68 come through unhurt
• Delville Wood - six days that turned it into "Devil's Wood"
• Pozières, Thiepval and the daily grind of trench warfare on both sides
• 15 September 1916: Flers-Courcelette - the first tank attack in history
• Mud, trench foot and the end on 18 November 1916

Historically researched, grounded in places, dates and figures. A graphic novel about the first industrialised war - and about the men on both sides of the wire whose names are carved in stone today.

Volume 1 of the graphic-novel series on the First World War. Fully illustrated, black-and-white, large format (21.6 × 27.9 cm). For adults only - contains graphic violence. For readers aged 18 and over.