Martin Middlebrook


Martin Middlebrook was an English military historian and author.

Education and military service

Middlebrook was educated at various schools, including Ratcliffe College, Leicester. He entered National Service in 1950, was commissioned in the Royal Army Service Corps, and served as a Motor Transport Officer in the Suez Canal Zone and Aqaba, Jordan. Middlebrook subsequently spent three years in Territorial Army service.

Career

Middlebrook wrote his first book The [First Day on the Somme (book)|The First Day on the Somme] following a visit to the First World War battlefields of France and Belgium in 1967. The book is a detailed study of the single worst day for the British Army. Middlebrook gave the same single-day treatment to 21 March 1918, the opening of the German spring offensive, in The Kaiser's Battle. Middlebrook's Second World War books concentrate on the air war. A number of them again deal with a single day of action while others cover longer air battles. Middlebrook also wrote two books on the Falklands War, one from the British and Falkland Islanders' perspective and one from the Argentinian perspective.

Death

Middlebrook died in Cheltenham on 19 January 2024, at the age of 91.

Honours

Middlebrook was a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He was appointed Knight of the Order of [the Crown (Belgium)|Order of the Belgian Crown] in 2004.

Books