The Durham Pals

A memorial to 18th (1st County) Battalion, Durham Light Infantry - The Durham Pals, Who are the DLI? , The story of the DLI begins in 1758, as the 68th Regiment of Foot under General John Lambton of County Durham. 50 years later, the 68th was chosen to become a new Light Infantry regiment with better training and equipment and gained battle honours through the nineteenth century in the Peninsular, Crimean, Anglo-Persian and New Zealand Wars. In 1881 it was renamed the Durham Light Infantry seeing action in Egypt and South Africa., During the First World War thousands of men from the mines, shipyards, farms, shops, schools, offices and industries of County Durham joined the DLI. By 1918, the DLI had raised 43 battalions with 22 seeing active service on the Western Front in Italy, Egypt, Salonika and India., Who were the 18th Battalion? , 18 DLI was a Pals Battalion, an idea started at the beginning of the war to encourage men from the area to join the Army. The 18th Battalion guaranteed that men would serve with their friends for the length of the war. Men of the Pals Battalions often ... school together...basic training...was caught in the heavy fighting near ... on one town or village could become casualties on a single day. Such would be the fate with 18 DLI., What happened to them on the Somme? , The Battle of the Somme began on 1 July 1916. At 7.30 a.m. on a 14 mile front running north of the River Somme in France, 60,000 British soldiers climbed out of their trenches and began to move across No Man's Land. Within 1 hour over half of these men were dead or wounded. Among them were the friends, neighbours and colleagues of 18 DLI, the Durham Pals, who in 24 hours lost 75 men and had 250 wounded. It remains the greatest loss in a single day for Britain.