The 1 July 1916 is remembered as the day when the British offensive on the Somme was launched after months of planning and a week-long bombardment of the German trenches. It is also remembered as the most expensive day in history for the British army in terms of casualties: the official figures show that there were 57,470 casualties suffered on that day, of which 19,240 had been killed.
As you walk the Somme battlefield today, you cannot miss the dozens of memorials to those who gave their lives in 1916 — many of them on that first day of the offensive. Near the northern end of the sector, the Sheffield Memorial Park commemorates the ‘Pals Battalions’ from several northern towns and cities (Accrington, Barnsley, Chorley and Sheffield). They had joined up together as a result of a government recruitment drive, exploiting communities’ sense of civic pride to persuade more men to join up with the promise that they would serve together.
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