Steel of the DLI

The 2nd Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry was one of only two battalions of the regiment that did not have its history published in some form after the Great War, the other was the 1/7th (Territorial) Battalion. As the regular Home Service battalion of the regiment it was brought up to strength with Regular Reservists and men from the Special Reserve and went out to France in September 1914, where it fought at the Battle of the Aisne, before moving north to Flanders. The battalion was in action immediately that war was declared on 4th August 1914, when a detachment based at South Shields boarded a German Steamer on the River Tyne and took the crew prisoner and marched them through the town to the Police Station.

The book includes material from unpublished letters and diaries of both officers and men and has lots of photographs from the Regimental Archives, a number of which show named officers and men in the trenches around Armentierres in 1915. Also included is a roll of all the officers that served with the battalion with date of joining and leaving the battalion. For the other ranks the original 1914 Star men are included in a roll that includes reinforcements that joined up to 1 November 1914. This roll has been crossed referenced against the South Africa Rolls to show those who had seen service in that campaign also. There is also a list of those that received gallantry awards. This must be one of the first histories of a regular battalion that fought in France during the Great War, published since the 1920s.