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
![ATTACK: British soldiers go over the top during the Battle of the Somme](http://www.thenortheastatwar.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/imgID72234009-220x162.jpg)
When whistles blew there was no turning back
June 30 - July 1, 1916
![MISERABLE: In the second half of June, the Durham Pals endured relentless rain and mud as the preparations for the Battle of the Somme continued](http://www.thenortheastatwar.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/imgID69905449.jpg.gallery-220x162.jpg)
‘You can do nothing but shiver and shrink’
June 15 - 30, 1916
![The famous badge of the Durham Light Infantry.](http://www.thenortheastatwar.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/badge-220x162.jpg)
Pals under shellfire day and night
June 4 - 14, 1916
![WELL DRILLED: Australian soldiers take part in bayonet practice during the First World War](http://www.thenortheastatwar.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/19739184-220x162.jpg)
Pals train for Big Push
May 29 - June 21, 1916
![WALK OF THE BRAVE: Soldiers from the Wiltshire Regiment advance through the barbed wire during the Battle of the Somme](http://www.thenortheastatwar.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/19478542-220x162.jpg)
Battlefield grave for fallen
May 23, 1916
![TARGET: A Canadian field kitchen from September 1917. During the Durham Pals’ stay at Colincamps, German artillery scored a direct hit on D Company’s field kitchen, killing four horses and destroying the equipment](http://www.thenortheastatwar.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/19211950-220x162.jpg)
Under constant fire
May 14 - 20, 1916
![The 18th Battalion trained in the use of carrier pigeons](http://www.thenortheastatwar.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/18323542-220x162.jpg)
Pigeons keep the Pals in touch
May 14, 1916
![DEPRESSING: A New Zealand field hospital in the woods at Bus Les Artois, where the Durham Pals were billeted after their first taste of life in the trenches](http://www.thenortheastatwar.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/178603191-220x162.jpg)
Licking their wounds
April 28 - May 6, 1916
![](http://www.thenortheastatwar.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/18404839-wide-220x162.jpg)
A watery grave
April 24 - 28, 1916
![FEARSOME: The explosion of the mine at Hawthorn Ridge on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. The Durham Pals were stationed at Auchonvillers while the tunnels were being dug beneath Hawthorn Ridge](http://www.thenortheastatwar.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/18135016-220x162.jpg)
The woes of trench warfare
April 20 - 23, 1916
![DEPRESSING: A New Zealand field hospital in the woods at Bus Les Artois, where the Durham Pals were billeted after their first taste of life in the trenches](http://www.thenortheastatwar.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/178603191-220x162.jpg)
Out of the trenches
April 3 - April 20, 2016
![RESPITE: Soldiers get refreshments from a mobile stall at Auchonvillers during the Battle of the Somme](http://www.thenortheastatwar.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/17597012-220x162.jpg)
Basking at ‘Ocean Villas’ dodging sniper bullets
March 29 - April 3, 1916
![ON THE FRONTLINE: Men of the New Zealand army manning an artillery position in Beaussart in 1918. During a German bombing raid on British artillery in the same village two years earlier, Private Arthur Armstrong of Crook became 18DLI’s first casualty on foreign soil](http://www.thenortheastatwar.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/17333914a-220x162.jpg)
Durham Pals suffer first casualty on foreign soil
March 25 - March 30, 1916
![AT EASE: Soldiers from the Royal Warwickshire Regiment resting up during the Battle of the Somme](http://www.thenortheastatwar.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/170816561-220x162.jpg)
From sand to snow for Durham Pals
March 14 - 25, 1916
![The 18th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry arrived in Port Remy on the banks of the River Somme in the early hours of March 14, 1916 on a bitterly cold night before marching through the town to their billets](http://www.thenortheastatwar.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/16813918-220x162.jpg)
To Somme by cattle truck
March 12 - 14, 1916
![The SS Ivernia, which carried the Durham Pals from Egypt to France](http://www.thenortheastatwar.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/16564412-220x162.jpg)
Exodus from Egypt
March 2 - 11, 1916