Battle of the Somme 100 year anniversary

This week marks 100 years since the start of one of the bloodiest battles of World War One, the Battle of the Somme.

The first day, July 1st 1916, remains the costliest in British history, with almost 20 thousand men killed and 40 thousand wounded. All this week ITV Border is looking at the stories of some of the soldiers from this region who took part in the battle.

It was fought along a 15 mile section of the western front in Northern France, close to the town of Albert, as an attempt to bring about a breakthrough in the two-year conflict, which had become bogged down in trench warfare.

For almost a week before the attack the British artillery shelled the German trenches, trying to weaken their defences. But most of the Germans survived by hiding in underground bunkers. So when the attack started at 7.30 that morning the British soldiers going over the top from the trenches were walking straight into the German machine guns and rifles.

Among them were men from the Border Regiment, which recruited heavily from the old counties of Cumberland and Westmorland.

Stuart Eastwood, Curator of Cumbria's Museum of Military Life, says the 1st Battalion suffered huge losses on the first day of the battle.

"They were met with a hail of machine gun fire and within half an hour they lost 20 officers and 619 other ranks out of the 800 odd that took part."

Across the battlefield the Somme was to become synonymous with slaughter on a huge scale.

Among those who fought and died in large numbers were men from the so-called Pals battalions, often friends who joined up together from the same towns and villages. One was the Lonsdale Battalion of the Border Regiment.

Of the 800 men from the Lonsdale Battalion who went into battle on the 1st July more than 500 were killed or wounded. Many are buried here in the Lonsdale Cemetery, close to where the fighting took place.

One of them was David Johnston from Granville Road in Carlisle.

"He was a painter and decorator," says Mr. Eastwood. "A couple of kids, looked after his mum and dad, no reason to join up really but he did. He died on the 10th of July from the wounds he received on the 1st."

Fighting alongside the Border Regiment were men from the Kings Own Scottish Borderers, the local regiment for the south of Scotland. Its first battalion had about 550 casualties within the first hour due to the heavy German machine gun fire. Many of them came from the south of Scotland, where the local communities were hit badly by the loss of life.

Although much of the focus about the battle surrounds the terrible loss of life on the first day, it actually continued until November. One of the area's of heavy fighting later in July was known by the British as High Wood, where the Kings Own Scottish Borderers were again in the thick of the action.

It was here that Major Gibb's uncle, Captain Alick Young-Herries, who lived near Castle Douglas, was killed.

"They were ordered to come forward and from these trenches launch an attack against the enemy, but there were so many when the battalion came forward to this trench that the commanding officer said get back because they couldn't get forward because of the machine gun fire. At that point my uncle went along, collected his men, and while he was doing that he was killed by an artillery shell."

Captain Young-Herries, who lived near Castle Douglas, is buried in a nearby cemetery.

By the end of the battle small gains had been made but more than a million men on both sides were dead or wounded and the Somme would forever be a byword for the huge cost of war.

Maj. Gibbs says, "It's so important that we never forget and we always remember what they did for us."