Bravery of 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment told in moving Great War history

Arras To The Armistace completes a two-book history of about 1,000 men from the county who endured the worst of trench warfare.

Author Steven Fuller began their story in his first book, Mons To The Somme, which detailed the battalion’s fight among the slag heaps of Mons through to the Battle of The Somme.

This second volume tells of the last two years of the war which saw the men engaged in some of the most gruelling combat including the Battle of Arras, the capture of Oppy Wood and Passchendale, through to the final days of battle in 1917.

Mr Fuller was inspired to write the battalion’s history as his great grandfather served in the Bedfordshire Regiment.

He said: “I devote my research mainly to his memory.

“However, in doing so I also remember the many other family members who served, his comrades within the regiment who shared in the dreadful experience of the war and the millions of other men and women who gave us their lives during the conflict.”

The book contains in its foreward a quote from the battalion colonel who, when asked if his men would stand firm during battle replied: “I am a Bedfordshire man; I know the men of the County and I know they will not betray the trust you have placed in them. I am going to tell them what is expected of them and, though many of them will not have been under fire before, I vouch for them ... they will hold the line.”

The book’s release comes as people prepare to mark 100 years since the start of the First World War next year.