The Somme - the longest, biggest and most costly land battle in British history - still haunts our collective memory of the First World War.  The unsurpassed collections of the Imperial War Museum provide a unique resource for anyone wanting to study this important event.  Letters, diaries, maps, photographs: this is the stuff of history, painstakingly conserved, and catalogued.  These contemporary items give a voice to those who took part in the Somme or had to live with its consequences.

Professor Richard Holmes