The Carmarthen Pals
The Carmarthen Pals by Steven John
English | 17 Sept. 2009 | ISBN: 1848840772 | 272 Pages | EPUB (True) | 171.7 MB
English | 17 Sept. 2009 | ISBN: 1848840772 | 272 Pages | EPUB (True) | 171.7 MB
As a leading member of the Government on the outbreak of the Great War, David Lloyd George was anxious that his native land should play its part in the struggle. He initiated a recruitment drive for a specifically Welsh fighting force, of which the Carmarthen Pals were a component part. Trained at Rhyl on the North Wales coast, in April 1915 the Pals joined 114 Brigade of the 38th (Welsh) Division and crossed to France in December. The Pals went into the trenches at Givenchy, moving to the Somme in May 1916 in preparation for the Big Push . The battalion was part of the Welsh attack on Mametz Wood when the battle of the Somme opened in July, and later moved to the Ypres salient where in July 1917 it attacked Pilckem ridge as part of the Passchendaele battle. Later in the war, the Pals fought at Armentieres and the Albert sectors. In the closing months of the war the battalion suffered grevious casualties - losing 40 officers and 900 other ranks as it took part in the victorious counter-offensive that drove the Germans across the Ancre on the Somme to the Canal du Nord.