Passchendaele - 100 years on.

[Jacko51]

Dr John Bourne, a senior lecturer at Birmingham University, is an expert on WW1 and the Western Front. He is also a lifelong Vale fan!

[Jacko51]

One of the saddest stories of WW1 is that of the "pals" regiments. When Kitchener was recruiting his volunteer army he promised that those who joined together would serve together. This meant that certain regiments of the new army were made of men all from the same locality. Whilst the promise to serve together was attractive, it meant that not only did the volunteers serve together, they also died together.

 

One of the most well known "pals" regiment was a battalion of the East Lancs Regiment which was known as the Accrington Pals. The battalion of 700 men took part in the first day of the Battle of the Somme on 1st July 1916. Within the first half hour of the battle almost 600 of them had been killed or wounded. It is almost impossible to imagine what effect this had on the town when news reached Accrington.

[Howjy04]

Britain's Great War having a re-run on BBC2 this week.

[RailwayRowdy]

One of the saddest stories of WW1 is that of the "pals" regiments. When Kitchener was recruiting his volunteer army he promised that those who joined together would serve together. This meant that certain regiments of the new army were made of men all from the same locality. Whilst the promise to serve together was attractive, it meant that not only did the volunteers serve together, they also died together.

 

One of the most well known "pals" regiment was a battalion of the East Lancs Regiment which was known as the Accrington Pals. The battalion of 700 men took part in the first day of the Battle of the Somme on 1st July 1916. Within the first half hour of the battle almost 600 of them had been killed or wounded. It is almost impossible to imagine what effect this had on the town when news reached Accrington.

Wasn't the story sold to all would be conscripts that they "would be back by Christmas" ? If this comment was sold to them by Kitchener and his government as a deliberate ploy to get young boys ( I use the term boys deliberately who saw this as an opportunity to see the world ) to "sign up", it must be the most callous advertising campaign in history.

 

Sent from my GT-I9195I using the onevalefan mobile app

[SourceOfTheTrent]

One of the saddest stories of WW1 is that of the "pals" regiments. When Kitchener was recruiting his volunteer army he promised that those who joined together would serve together. This meant that certain regiments of the new army were made of men all from the same locality. Whilst the promise to serve together was attractive, it meant that not only did the volunteers serve together, they also died together.

 

One of the most well known "pals" regiment was a battalion of the East Lancs Regiment which was known as the Accrington Pals. The battalion of 700 men took part in the first day of the Battle of the Somme on 1st July 1916. Within the first half hour of the battle almost 600 of them had been killed or wounded. It is almost impossible to imagine what effect this had on the town when news reached Accrington.

 

Talking of the tragedy of Pals battalions, one of my grandads was 11 in 1914 and started work at Chatterley Whitfield pit in 1916 aged 13, he told me that when he was young people locally used to say 'if you want a woman go to Fegg Hayes' because after the Somme in 1916 almost all the young men from the village had been wiped out. It was a true village then as well, only the few terraced streets and none of the sprawling council estate of today. How awful and how devastating.