‘We never owned a conscious. But we know what is right.’
THE CITY WAS agog with rumours: any day now there would be an enormous Allied attack in the west, which would drive back the Germans and bring the war to a speedy end. After the disaster of Gallipoli in 1915, when hundreds of Manchester men lost their lives in a campaign that ended in an ignominious withdrawal, the city was desperate for some good news. As 1916 unfolded and one mishap was heaped upon another – the Easter Rising in Ireland, the losses at Jutland and Kitchener’s death – people invested more and more hope in the ‘big push’, which was to break German resistance and secure victory.
In January 1916 the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Manchester Pals took up their positions north of the Somme. During February, the 5, 6 and 7 Battalions joined them. From May, local newspapers were full of reports of enormous German losses at Verdun and accounts of starving German soldiers, the Kaiser going mad and the imminent collapse of the enemy front. In the city it seemed certain that the next big attack, expected at any moment, would bring victory.