The first day of the Battle of the Somme – on 1 July 1916 – occupies a unique place in the national imagination, as the single bloodiest day in the history of the British Army, and as a byword for the full, mechanised horror of 20th-century warfare. 

In the first half of a two-part special feature in this issue to mark the battle’s 110th anniversary, Stephen Roberts examines a tragic 24 hours, memorably described as ‘the glory and the graveyard’ of Lord Kitchener’s young and inexperienced New Army, while in the second half, he looks in more detail at the preceding Battle of the Boar’s Head, which laid down a marker for the carnage to come.

Elsewhere, MHM is marking another significant date: the 150th anniversary of the Little Bighorn, regarded by many as the greatest victory of the Native Americans over the US military, when George Armstrong Custer led his 7th Cavalry into its disastrous final encounter with the combined forces of the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes. Though relatively small in scale, the brutal events of 25 June 1876 have had an outsized effect on the popular imagination, taking centre stage in thousands of books, papers, movies, and novels. On p.32, Fred Chiaventone tackles some of the misunderstandings to have arisen, as he identifies five common myths about Custer’s Last Stand.

Also in this issue, Taylor Downing concludes his study of the coming of the Cold War with the struggle for nuclear domination; Nicholas Saunders reveals how the 1916-1918 Arab Revolt helped bring down the Ottoman Empire; and Nigel Jones looks back at the Siege of the Toledo Alcázar, one of the key flashpoints of the Spanish Civil War.

And, finally, the time has come once again for us to unveil the titles shortlisted for the MHM Book Awards. On p.54, we unveil the 12 books we think have made the greatest impact over the past 12 months – but with gold, silver, and bronze prizes all up for grabs, we now need your help to choose the winners…

We hope you enjoy the issue!

LAURENCE EARLE