The ‘Big Push’: Montauban 1 July 1916

Liverpool Pals at the Somme

In late 1915 the Liverpool Pals battalions were sent to training camps on the River Somme, in preparation for the ‘Big Push’ planned for the summer of 1916. By this time the four original Pals battalions had been merged into the 89th Regiment of the ‘New Army’, the name given to soldiers who had enlisted since the start of the First World War.

On the morning of 1 July 1916, the Liverpool Pals battalions were on the front line as the British and French went ‘over the top’ into No Man’s Land (the area between German and British trenches). In total, almost 200 Liverpool Pals were killed on that day, with over 300 more wounded, missing or captured. One Military Cross and two Military Medals were handed out to Pals soldiers for bravery during the Battle of the Somme. Because of the confusion of battle and the difficult task of locating and burying dead soldiers, most of the Liverpool Pals who died on the first day of the Battle of the Somme did not have individual marked graves. These soldiers are commemorated on the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, at Thiepval in France.