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These
Bradford men formed the 16th and 18th battalions of the West Yorkshire
Regiment, the Bradford Pals.
The
objective of their attack was the village of Serre where they had
been told there would be little resistance. Instead they were met
by fire from German machine guns. By the end of the first hour of
the battle, 1770 men from Bradford were casualties and no ground
had been gained.
In
common with other Northern towns, when war broke out in 1914, friends
and work mates in Bradford had rushed to enlist together to form
Pals battalions.
July
1st 1916 is still the most disastrous single day ever experienced
by the British army. The full extent of the tragedy was brought
home to Bradford in the following days as the lists of casualties,
accompanied by passport-style photographs of the dead, appeared
in local newspapers.
In
1974 a BBC North crew accompanied some of the surviving Bradford
Pals on what was to be their last trip back to the Somme. Click
on the 'more' button below to see some of their
memories.
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