We at Casemate were very pleased to hear about the ‘Durham Remembers’ events commemorating 100 years since the Battle of the Somme. One of the highlights is the interactive experience 1916: No Turning Back which allows visitors to follow a new recruit on his way to the front. You witness the recruit begin training where he will be prepared and equipped for life on the front line, before enduring the trenches and attacking enemy lines.
Every area of the United Kingdom has a connection with World War One, often with the Somme. It is difficult to imagine today that a million or so young men simply never came home. A generation wiped out.
1916: No Turning Back is a brilliant tribute to this generation, and especially those from Durham. A visit to the Durham Remembers website is a poignant experience with all the pictures of the unknown soldiers they are trying to identify. Their mission is to humanise these men; to make sure they are not just a statistic or a relic of the past, but a living, breathing soldier who had friends and family, and whose loss was felt by those around them.
No Turning Back is one of many commemorative events for the area. From Durham to the Western Front will run until 2nd October at the Palace Green Library, and will explore the reality of the Battle of the Somme through the eyes of the North East people who were there. Durham Cathedral will also, for only the second time since they left France, bring together the three wooden crosses which were erected on Butte de Warlencourt, in the midst of the Somme battlefield, in memory of the soldiers of the 6th, 8th and 9th Battalions of the Durham Light Infantry. All three crosses will be placed in front of the DLI Chapel for summer 2016 and will remain until after Remembrance Sunday.
Lastly, for those not from Durham, remember that there will be remembrance events in your region too. As we are now in the middle of the Great War’s centenary, there is no better time to learn more about this conflict. There is an inexhaustible wealth of stories to be found about every soldier who fought. Keeping their memory alive through theatre, books, documentaries and songs is a tribute to our lost generation to whom we owe so much.
As a military history publisher and book distributor, Casemate has a vast collection of WWI books. It’s amazing to think that in this centenary anniversary year of the Somme there are still so many undiscovered stories to tell about this monumental battle. Helion & Company’s An Accrington Pal has been made up of previously unseen diaries written by one of the very, very few to survive the 1st of July in his ‘Pals’ regiment. Our Classic War Fiction series is made up of novels written by the soldiers who fought in the trenches. For the author of The Somme also including The Coward, A.D. Gristwood, the memories of war were so haunting that he took his own life in 1933. It is important to remember that even those who were lucky enough to make it home, returned as changed men.
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