How One Morning in 1916 Changed a GenerationJonathan Hayes
Listen with Michael Caine™ and 800 other voices
Length57m
About this audiobook
On the morning of July 1st, 1916, thousands of young soldiers climbed out of their trenches along the River Somme and began walking across a shattered landscape. Many believed the enemy ahead had already been destroyed.
They were wrong.
The First Day of the Somme tells the story of the bloodiest day in British military history through vivid, human perspectives—from the thunder of the artillery barrage to the first minute of machine-gun fire, and the quiet streets back home where telegrams began to arrive.
This powerful narrative reveals how a single morning on the Western Front changed the course of the war—and erased a generation.
Jonathan Hayes teaches history for a living, but he tells it the way it actually happened: as a chain of human moments with consequences. He’s built a career out of taking big, messy eras and turning them into stories you can see, hear, and feel… without turning your brain into a timeline. When he’s not in the classroom, he’s hunting down the one detail that makes a whole century click… and trying to convince his bookshelves not to collapse.View all by Jonathan Hayes
