I
am not sure whether "Somme 1st July 1916" is the
first entry made by book publisher Pen & Sword into
the digital world, but my exploration of the
product suggested that they are early on the learning
curve. That is perhaps appropriate, for this presentation
of the British army's worst day in history as far
as casualties are concerned very much follows the
revisionist trend. No "lions led by donkeys" here.
The product is presented as a two-disc
DVD set. It worked well for me through Microsoft XP
and Windows Media Player on a PC and I assume it would
play equally well through a DVD player and TV set.
I can not tell whether it works on non-UK format DVD
players, for neither the packaging or "readme" file
I found on the disc gives me a clue.
The first component of the content
is titled as "Footage", broken
into "Topography", "Cemeteries" and the "Academic Point
of View" .
"Topography" breaks
down into, for example, a sub-menu listing "Gommecourt",
"46th Division assault", "56th Division assault", "VII
Corps casualties" and "The main assault". It turned
out when I viewed the various episodes that make up
the content that topography was not only a description
of the ground but of the battle itself. The sub-menu
was not well presented on my screen in that the text
on each button was larger than the button itself, so
I could only read the middle of the phrase. I chose
to start with "... ommecour ...".
Clicking on a selection
starts an animated episode, being a narrated movie
consisting of a slideshow of contemporary and modern
photographs, video clips and maps. The episodes in
themselves are interesting and accurately told but
as the subject of 1st July has received so much coverage
it is all rather well-worn stuff. It may be of interest
to those new to the subject or the mildly interested,
but anyone who has studied the Somme in reasonable
detail would not find too much that was new. I felt
the delivery was without tempo and the narration rather
monotone: in fact, my son (16) said he enjoyed the
episodes more with the sound off. Maybe it was me,
but I could find no way to leave a film in progress
and return to the main menu.
"Cemeteries" is a narrated slide show
of photographs and videos of some of the cemeteries
and memorials between Gommecourt and La Boisselle.
You have to change to Disc Two to
view the "Academic Point of View", which
turned out to be a film of a discussion between the
redoubtable John Bourne, Gary Sheffield and Peter Simkins
of the University of Birmingham Centre for First World
War Studies. This can be viewed straight through or
in episodes. This time there is a considerable switch.
If you had not studied the war or the Somme then the
opening episode, on Haig's relationship with Rawlinson,
might be rather perplexing. Indeed it was while watching
this that I began to feel there was a context or scene
setting missing
from the DVD: there was no overview, placing 1st July
or the Somme in its proper place. It was presumably
assumed, which begs the question "who exactly is this
aimed at?".
The second component is a selection
of printable maps and cemetery
photographs, all contained
in one 22Mb Adobe Acrobat PDF file. This is not accessible
at all through the main menu: the user has to go into
the DVD itself using "My Computer" or Explorer. To
find a particular map or photograph, I found simply
scrolling through the pages or using the vertical slider
easier than navigating using the menu embedded in the
PDF. The
selection of maps is principally based on those presented
in the British Official History and the cemetery photographs
are modern day. The
PDF file can be found on Disc One.
If I have one criticism of the product
it is useability. Navigation is weak and on-screen
controls for PC users largely absent. Switching between
two discs is a nuisance (if inevitable) and having
an entire feature inaccessible from the main menu is
very strange. Pen & Sword will need to work on this
for future titles, which, if they follow the pattern
set by the company's Battleground Europe book series,
will presumbly be produced in great profusion.
At a cover price
of £20 it represents reasonable value for the
content, but overall I came away with a feeling
that this was a nicely-produced home video rather than
a professional package.
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