Martin Middlebrook is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 military historian and Fellow

Fellow

A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...

 of the Royal Historical Society

Royal Historical Society

The Royal Historical Society was founded in 1868. The premier society in the United Kingdom which promotes and defends the scholarly study of the past, it is based at University College London...

. He was appointed as a Knight of the Order of the Belgian Crown

Order of the Crown (Belgium)

The Order of the Crown is an Order of Belgium which was created on 15 October 1897 by King Leopold II in his capacity as ruler of the Congo Free State. The order was first intended to recognize heroic deeds and distinguished service achieved from service in the Congo Free State - many of which acts...

 in 2004.

Education and military service

Middlebrook was educated at various schools, including Ratcliffe College

Ratcliffe College

Ratcliffe College is an independent Catholic boarding and day school in Leicestershire, England. The College, situated in of parkland on the Fosse Way about six miles north of Leicester, was founded on the instructions of Blessed Father Antonio Rosmini-Serbati in 1845 as a seminary. In 1847, the...

, Leicester

Leicester

Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...

. He entered National Service in 1950. He was commissioned in the Royal Army Service Corps

Royal Army Service Corps

The Royal Army Service Corps was a corps of the British Army. It was responsible for land, coastal and lake transport; air despatch; supply of food, water, fuel, and general domestic stores such as clothing, furniture and stationery ; administration of...

 (RASC), and served as a Motor Transport Officer in the Suez Canal Zone

Suez Canal

The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...

 and Aquaba

Aqaba

Aqaba is a coastal city in the far south of Jordan, the capital of Aqaba Governorate at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba. Aqaba is strategically important to Jordan as it is the country's only seaport. Aqaba is best known today as a diving and beach resort, but industrial activity remains important...

, Jordan. Middlebrook subsequently spent three years in Territorial Army service.

Middlebrook wrote his first book The First Day on the Somme

The First Day on the Somme (book)

The First Day on the Somme is a First World War military history book by Martin Middlebrook, published in 1971. Martin Middlebrook covers in detail the events leading up to and during 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme...

(1971) following a visit to the First World War battlefields of France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 and Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 in 1967. This is a detailed study of the single worst day for the British Army

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

. Middlebrook gave the same single-day treatment to 21 March 1918, the opening of the German Spring Offensive

Spring Offensive

The 1918 Spring Offensive or Kaiserschlacht , also known as the Ludendorff Offensive, was a series of German attacks along the Western Front during World War I, beginning on 21 March 1918, which marked the deepest advances by either side since 1914...

, in The Kaiser's Battle. Middlebrook's Second World War books concentrate on the air war

Air War

"Air War" is a single by Crystal Castles. It was released on 17 December 2007 on London UK's Trouble Records as 7" vinyl. An earlier version of the song was released in July 2006 as the B-Side to "Alice Practice" on London UK's Merok Records. The lyrics are from the James Joyce book Ulysses...

. A number of them again deal with a single day of action (The Nuremberg Raid

The Nuremberg Raid (book)

The Nuremberg Raid is a book by the British military historian Martin Middlebrook describing the RAF Bomber Command attack on the German city of Nuremberg on the night of 30–31 March 1944....

, The Schweinfurt-Regensburg Mission and The Peenemünde Raid) while others cover longer air battles (The Battle of Hamburg

The Battle of Hamburg (book)

The Battle of Hamburg is a book by the British military historian Martin Middlebrook describing the combined RAF Bomber Command and USAAF 8th Air Force attacks on the German city of Hamburg in the Summer of 1943....

and The Berlin Raids

The Berlin Raids (book)

The Berlin Raids is a book by the British military historian Martin Middlebrook describing the RAF Bomber Command attacks on the German city of Berlin in the Winter of 1943-1944....

). Middlebrook also wrote two books on the Falklands War

Falklands War

The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...

, one from the British and Falkland Islanders' perspective and one from the Argentinian

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 perspective.

Books

• The First Day on the Somme
  The First Day on the Somme (book)
  The First Day on the Somme is a First World War military history book by Martin Middlebrook, published in 1971. Martin Middlebrook covers in detail the events leading up to and during 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme...
  
  with much co-operation from John Howlett. (1971)
• The Nuremberg Raid
  The Nuremberg Raid (book)
  The Nuremberg Raid is a book by the British military historian Martin Middlebrook describing the RAF Bomber Command attack on the German city of Nuremberg on the night of 30–31 March 1944....
  
  (1973)
• The Kaiser's Battle with much co-operation from Neville Mackinder.(1978)
• The Battle of Hamburg
  The Battle of Hamburg (book)
  The Battle of Hamburg is a book by the British military historian Martin Middlebrook describing the combined RAF Bomber Command and USAAF 8th Air Force attacks on the German city of Hamburg in the Summer of 1943....
  
  (1980)
• The Peenemünde Raid (1982)
• The Schweinfurt-Regensburg Mission (1983)
• The Falklands War, 1982 (1985) first published as Operation Corporate
• The Berlin Raids
  The Berlin Raids (book)
  The Berlin Raids is a book by the British military historian Martin Middlebrook describing the RAF Bomber Command attacks on the German city of Berlin in the Winter of 1943-1944....
  
  (1988)
• Convoy
• Battleship (with Patrick Mahoney)
• The Bomber Command Diaries (with the late Chris Everitt)
• The Somme Battlefields (with Mary Middlebrook)
• Arnhem 1944
• Your Country Needs You
• The Fight for the Malvinas
• The North Midlands Territorials Go To War/Captain Staniland's Journey

External links

• A letter from Middlebrook describing the writing of The First Day on the Somme