Somme Battle Stories: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Somme Battle Stories, credited to Alec John Dawson, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Somme Battle Stories by Alec John Dawson. Read in English by David Wales Stories of World War I warfare, published in 1916 in the midst of the war. (That's why names of persons and units are literally "blanked" out.) Alec John Dawson (1872 - 1951), generally known as A. J. Dawson (pseudonyms Major Dawson, Howard Kerr, Nicholas Freydon) was an English author, traveller and novelist. During World War I he attained the rank of Major, and was awarded the MBE and Croix de Guerre in recognition of his work as a military propagandist, a work the listener may want to keep in mind. (Terminology note: "Boche" means the Germans, singular or plural; "Blighty" means hospitalization in England; "The Push" means fighting in the Somme offensive.) The Battle of the Somme (French: Bataille de la Somme, German: Schlacht an der Somme), also known as the Somme Offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British and French empires against the German Empire. It took place between 1 July and 18 November 1916 on either side of the River Somme in France. The battle was one of the largest of World War I, in which more than 1,000,000 men were wounded or killed, making it one of humanity's bloodiest battles.... 1 July 1916 was also the worst day in the history of British Army, which had c. 60,000 casualties,... The British Army on the Somme was a mixture of the remains of the pre-war regular army, Territorial Force and the Kitchener Army which was composed of Pals battalions, recruited from the same places and occupations, whose losses had a profound social impact in Britain.... The Battle of the Somme has been called the beginning of modern all-arms warfare, during which Kitchener's Army learned to fight the mass-industrial war, which the continental armies had been engaged in for two years. This view sees the British contribution to the battle as part of a coalition war and part of a process, which took the strategic initiative from the German Army and caused it irreparable damage, leading to its collapse in late 1918. (Wikipedia, Battle Of The Somme) ( Wikipedia and david wales)

Recording facts

• Recording title: Somme Battle Stories
• Author credits: Alec John Dawson
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 20
• Listed recording duration: 3:15:10

Catalogue topics

• World War I
• Europe
• France
• battle
• warfare
• somme

Track guide

1. 01 - Chapter 1 What It's Like In The Push — 15:50
2. 02 - Chapter 2 The Spirit Of The British Soldier — 11:15
3. 03 - Chapter 3 The Moral Of The Boche — 11:34
4. 04 - Chapter 4 An Irish Officer Describes The Indescribable — 9:52
5. 05 - Chapter 5 Close Quarters — 9:07
6. 06 - Chapter 6 The Devil's Wood — 10:24
7. 07 - Chapter 7 The Cockney Fighter — 9:10
8. 08 - Chapter 8 We Don't Count Wounds In My Regiment — 8:16
9. 09 - Chapter 9 A Reverend Corporal — 10:08
10. 10 - Chapter 10 Brothers Of The Parsonage — 10:18
11. 11 - Chapter 11 The Australian As A Fighter — 7:51
12. 12 - Chapter 12 News For The O.C. Company At Home — 9:31
13. 13 - Chapter 13 Stickfast And His Officer — 9:29
14. 14 - Chapter 14 A Cool Canadian — 9:56
15. 15 - Chapter 15 The Hospital Mail-bags — 10:42
16. 16 - Chapter 16 The Difference — 8:35
17. 17 - Chapter 17 What Every M.O. Knows — 9:06
18. 18 - Chapt er 18 The South African — 6:42
19. 19 - Chapter 19 It's A Great Do — 8:36
20. 20 - Chapter 20 On The Way To London — 8:48

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Source and rights

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