The Pals battalions mourned at home

The British press had been placing a positive spin on the start of the "Big Push", the casualty lists told a different story.

Around the second week of July 1916, the lists of dead and wounded started to appear in the newspapers. The Pals battalions were hit the hardest. 720 men in the Accrington Pals went over the top, 584 of them became casualties. People at home wore black arm bands to commemorate those who had lost their lives.