Tony Kearney tells what the Durham Pals - volunteer soldiers from across the region - were doing 100 years ago, in the build-up to their date with destiny: July 1, 1916, and the Battle of the Somme

When whistles blew there was no turning back
June 30 - July 1, 1916

‘You can do nothing but shiver and shrink’
June 15 - 30, 1916

Pals under shellfire day and night
June 4 - 14, 1916

Pals train for Big Push
May 29 - June 21, 1916

Battlefield grave for fallen
May 23, 1916

Under constant fire
May 14 - 20, 1916

Pigeons keep the Pals in touch
May 14, 1916

Licking their wounds
April 28 - May 6, 1916

A watery grave
April 24 - 28, 1916

The woes of trench warfare
April 20 - 23, 1916

Out of the trenches
April 3 - April 20, 2016

Basking at ‘Ocean Villas’ dodging sniper bullets
March 29 - April 3, 1916

Durham Pals suffer first casualty on foreign soil
March 25 - March 30, 1916

From sand to snow for Durham Pals
March 14 - 25, 1916

To Somme by cattle truck
March 12 - 14, 1916

Exodus from Egypt
March 2 - 11, 1916