A BOOK detailing the horrors of the Battle of the Somme through the eyes of Wiltshire soldiers has been released by a local historian.

Richard Broadhead has written The Great War, Wiltshire Soldiers: The Somme 1916 which includes stories and accounts from more than 850 soldiers from across the county who died in the battle.

The Battle of the Somme marks its 100th anniversary this year having run from July 1-November 18, 1916, and is regarded as one of the bloodiest battles in history after more than 1million soldiers died.

“There are over 850 stories in the book of guys who died and you see how the battle unfolds,” said Mr Broadhead, who has worked as a historian for 20 years and has previously released five books.

“I’ve done soldiers from towns before but this was the first time I looked at a battle and all the people who died in that battle.

“It’s written completely differently, before you could look at an area geographically and draw a circle around the town.

“This one is for the whole of Wiltshire and what you have to do first is find those guys who died in that timespan.

“They are either buried at the Somme, or at the hospital nearby or they’re still missing and over 400 people in the book have no marked graves.”

The book was launched at Chippenham Museum and Heritage Centre last week and a display detailing sections of the book will be at venues across the county later this year.

“When you go to the Somme for the first time you’re overwhelmed by the number of names and the size of the memorials,” added Mr Broadhead, 51, who lives in Hilmarton.

“What this book enables you to do is look for those people on the memorial and it starts to put together a person and not just a name.”