by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, In Your Town, Latest, Newton Aycliffe
YOUNGSTERS from the region will be among a national schools delegation travelling to France next month to commemorate the centenary of the Battle of the Somme. A special service held on Friday, July 1 will include members of the Royal family, veterans, military and...
by Chris Lloyd | DLI Somme Diary, Durham, In Your Town, War Stories
IN the middle of June 1916, as the final preparations took place for the Big Push, the weather in France became miserable. Day after day it rained, filling the trenches with standing water and turning the battlefield to mud. Dug into their trenches outside the small...
by Chris Lloyd | DLI Somme Diary, Durham, In Your Town, War Stories
HISTORY books say that the Battle of the Somme began on July 1, 1916, but that was not the reality experienced by soldiers in the trenches. Every soldier on the Western Front, German and Allied, knew battle was coming: perhaps not where or when, but they knew the Big...
by Chris Lloyd | DLI Somme Diary, Durham, In Your Town, War Stories
AT the end of May, the Durham Pals were pulled back from the Somme’s frontline trenches and placed out of harm’s way in a camp at Warnimont Wood. Here, day after day, they practised attack on enemy held positions, unaware that the fateful first day of battle was now...
by Chris Lloyd | Bishop Auckland, Centenary, In Your Town, Latest
THE village of Evenwood was on tenterhooks 100 years ago. The whole country had been waiting for nearly two years for the Royal Navy – the pride of the nation – to join the war, and on May 31, 1916, at last it did. It was the largest naval battle in history: 100,000...
