Peter Liddle est un historien et auteur spécialisé dans l'étude de la Première et de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Il a commencé à collectionner des expériences personnelles et des souvenirs de la Première Guerre mondiale afin d'insuffler vie à l'histoire pour ses étudiants. Cette collection, désormais abritée de façon permanente à l'Université de Leeds, témoigne d'un engagement profond à rendre le passé vivant grâce à des récits authentiques.
"This book attempts to set out the contemporary evidence of participants in order to reveal that there was something unique about their service, perceived at the times as especial, and which in its separate elements has been recalled by many of them years later with something not far short of relish"--Page ix
Peter Liddle's latest book draws extensively upon diaries, letters, reports, photographs and drawing from the magnificent Liddle Collection of 1914-1918 personal experience material. It also sets out to examine the concept and planning the the Battle of the Somme and then its conduct over the whole four and a half months