05/10/2026
Birmingham Pals at the Battle of the Somme 1916 (from our Historian in residence Andrew Reekes).
110 years ago this month the Battle of the Somme raged in Picardy, the biggest and most costly battle in British history. The Generals’ extravagant hopes of a breakthrough on the Western Front on the Somme River on July 1st instead saw unprecedented casualties, 57,000 British killed or injured on one day alone. By September bitter fighting to advance beyond two heavily contested woods - Delville and High Wood a few miles from that start line in July saw Birmingham Pals deeply involved. These three Pals battalions of 1000 men each - Birmingham workmates, family friends, neighbours and sports teammates - responded to the Lord Mayor’s appeal to join up with Kitchener’s army in the first months of the War in Autumn 1914. The intention behind the Pals battalions - from numerous towns in Britain - from Accrington, Whitby, Leeds, Bradford etc. - was to build on the strength of comradeship, fighting shoulder to shoulder with pals - but its corollary was that swathes of industrial streets were simultaneously blighted by the carnage inflicted at the Somme. Birmingham’s Pals suffered terribly at two actions in September 1916, at Falfemont Farm (part of the Battle of Guillemont, ‘an industrial mincing machine’ to one historian’) and a few weeks later at the Battle of Morval in an attempt to get to the target objective of Peronne. Both actions were victorious though Peronne remained in German hands. The Birmingham Pals however lost 800 out of their total complement of 3000. Historians still argue over the value of this great Battle of the Somme which died away in November 1916: to some it so wore down German manpower that it paved the way for victory in 1918; others look at the terrible cost to Britain and the Commonwealth of 420,000 casualties, and the underwhelming gains in territory gained, and term it Britain’s greatest defeat in battle.
