by David Hargreaves and Margaret-Louise O’Keeffe (Whitefox £100, 2,288 pp)
We were two years in the making and ten minutes in the destroying,’ wrote Private Pearson of the Leeds Pals, a World War I battalion recruited from the Yorkshire city. He was referring to the horrors of July 1, 1916, the first day on the Somme.
‘For some reason nothing seemed to happen to us at first,’ recalled Private Slater from another ‘Pals’ battalion, the 2nd Bradford. ‘We strolled along as though walking in a park.
‘Then, suddenly, we were in the midst of a storm of machine-gun bullets and I saw men beginning to twirl round and fall in all kinds of curious ways as they were hit.’