On 1 July 1916, men from across Bradford climbed from their trenches and walked into machine-gun fire at Serre-lès-Puisieux. By nightfall, 1,060 of the 1,394 Bradford Pals who attacked were killed or wounded.
Formation of the Pals
The Bradford Pals were three Kitchener's Army battalions raised in Bradford during late August and September 1914, following Lord Kitchener's call for volunteers. Officially designated the 16th (1st Bradford), 18th (2nd Bradford) and 20th (Reserve) Battalions of the Prince of Wales's Own (West Yorkshire Regiment), they drew recruits from across the city and its surrounding districts.
Men from Manningham, Bowling, Great Horton, Little Horton, Eccleshill, Bradford Moor and Laisterdyke enlisted alongside friends, neighbours and workmates. The pals battalion concept meant that entire streets, workplaces and social clubs were represented within the same units. This local recruitment proved a powerful incentive to volunteer, though it would later concentrate loss upon individual communities.
The battalions trained initially at South Camp, Ripon, from late May 1915, then moved to Hurdcott Camp at Fovant in September 1915. They were taken over by the War Office on 10 August 1915 and assigned to the 93rd Brigade of the 31st Division, a formation composed entirely of pals battalions from Yorkshire and Lancashire.
Deployment to France
In December 1915, the division sailed for Egypt, arriving at Port Said between 24 December 1915 and 23 January 1916. This deployment proved brief. By March 1916, the battalions were redeployed to France, unloading at Marseille between 6 and 16 March.
The 31st Division concentrated in the Somme sector, where the Bradford Pals were introduced to trench warfare along the front line near Beaumont-Hamel and Y Ravine. They held these positions through the spring of 1916 as Allied commanders prepared for what would become the largest offensive of the war.
The Attack on Serre
Zero hour was set for 07:30 on 1 July 1916. Ten minutes earlier, at 07:20, the 252nd Tunnelling Company of the Royal Engineers detonated a mine containing 40,000 pounds of ammonal beneath the Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt, a German strongpoint west of Beaumont-Hamel. The massive explosion was intended to destroy enemy positions and create cover for the advancing troops.
The men of the 16th and 18th Battalions went over the top at 07:30, part of the 93rd Brigade attacking the village of Serre-lès-Puisieux. This was the northernmost point of the Anglo-French assault. No Man's Land in this sector measured approximately 500 yards across.
German defenders, though shaken by the mine explosion, had survived in deep dugouts and emerged to man their machine guns. The advancing Bradford Pals were met with concentrated fire. The advanced lines were almost annihilated by German machine guns and shellfire. Only small parties reached the enemy front line, where they remained pinned down for hours. The division was unable to get reinforcements across the fire-swept ground for the remainder of the day.
The Casualties
The 31st Division suffered 3,600 casualties on the first day of the Somme. Within the Bradford battalions, the losses were devastating: of 1,394 men from Bradford and District in the two attacking battalions, 1,060 were killed or wounded. This represents a casualty rate of approximately 76 per cent.
The division failed to reach any of its objectives. It was pulled from the line on 2 July and sent north to a quiet sector for rest and refit.
Impact on Bradford
The pals battalion system meant that loss was concentrated geographically. When heavy casualties were sustained, the impact on individual towns was immediate and devastating. Entire streets in Bradford lost multiple men. Workplaces saw their workforce decimated. The social fabric of entire neighbourhoods was torn apart in a single morning.
The 16th and 18th Battalions were eventually disbanded in February 1918, casualties having reduced them below operational strength. The 31st Division's total casualties for the war reached 30,091 killed, wounded and missing.
Memorials
Bradford's Victoria Square War Memorial was unveiled on 1 July 1922, the sixth anniversary of the first day of the Somme. The cenotaph, designed by City Architect Walter Williamson and quarried from Bolton Woods, carries bronze figures of a soldier and sailor lunging forward. A bronze plaque bears an inscription honouring the men and women of Bradford who served in both world wars and subsequent conflicts. The base carries the phrase "Their Name Liveth For Evermore."
On the former battlefield, the Sheffield Memorial Park commemorates the pals battalions near Serre. Multiple cemeteries in the area contain Bradford men: Serre Road Cemeteries Nos. 1, 2 and 3; Queens Cemetery at Puisieux; Luke Copse British Cemetery; and Ten Tree Alley Cemetery. Those with no known grave are commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme.
The Bradford Pals remain central to the city's First World War memory. Their sacrifice on 1 July 1916 represents not only individual bravery but the concentrated loss that pals battalions brought to the communities that raised them.
