Читать книгу Craven's Part in the Great War - John T. Clayton - Страница 17

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War Record of the ⅙th Battalion Duke of Wellingtons (West Riding) Regiment.

In these few pages it is only possible to give in the barest outline the story of the part played by the Craven Territorials in the great war of 1914–1919. Time must necessarily elapse before any definitive history can be written, when events can be critically studied and full credit be given to all. The present sketch aims simply at recording how men of Skipton and Keighley, of Settle and Bingley, of Haworth, Guiseley and Barnoldswick, from the dales of Ribble, Aire and Wharfe, from the moors of Sedbergh and from the Forest of Bowland, left their peaceful avocations and went to war at their country’s call, as their fore-fathers had done before them. It will tell how their previous military training enabled them to go overseas and bar the road to the Channel while Britain was yet gathering her latent strength; of how they faced the Salient in its darkest hour, and of the parts they played in the great battle of the Somme, in the fighting among the sand-swept dunes of Nieuport, and in the grim tragedy of Passchendaele; and finally how, after foiling the last German onslaught in a quick series of desperate encounters, they took their full share in the swift, relentless attacks that ushered in the crowning victory.

No space can be given to the full list of honours won; they are already written in the official records. And when, here and there, a few names necessarily come into the story, it must be remembered that to every name mentioned a dozen more could easily be added of men who deserved equally well of their country.