- The Old Front Line
"The Old Front Line" (ISBN 0-85052-936-0) is a
military history book by Englishpoet John Masefield , first published in 1917. The book is a description of the battlefield front-line from which theBritish Army attacked on thefirst day on the Somme ,1 July ,1916 , and as such is perhaps the first battlefield guide of theFirst World War . Masefield had originally been asked to write a full account of the Battle of the Somme (in 1916 he had written a successful book on theBattle of Gallipoli ) but the project fell through when he was refused access to official army documents. All he was able to produce was his description of the battlefield as seen in 1917 following the German withdrawal to theHindenburg Line . Nevertheless, "The Old Front Line" is still frequently referenced today as an eye-witness description of the Somme terrain and it is written with lyrical prose that is rare in books on military history.Masefield's "The Old Front Line" is relatively short at about 80 pages. It was reprinted in 1972 with a 70-page summary of the battle, contributed by Colonel Howard Green, MC. The 1972 version included photos of the battlefield taken in 1971, including the
Lochnager mine crater,Delville Wood and theButte de Warlencourt . A third revision was published in 2003 byPen & Sword with a preface byMartin Middlebrook .In 1919 Masefield succeeded in publishing a complete account of the battle as "The Battle of the Somme".
External links
* John Masefield, [http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/?product_id=1214 "The Old Front Line"] , Pen and Sword Books Ltd (Barnsley), 2003, ISBN 1844154459
* [http://leoklein.com/itp/somme/texts/masefield_1917.html Text of "The Old Front Line"]
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