We shall remember the Sunderland and South Tyneside men who never returned from The Somme
On the first day alone 20,000 British soldiers lay dead, including 188 from South Tyneside and 107 from Sunderland
It lasted for 141 days and by the end of it, more than a million people were dead.
Today marks the 110th anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Somme which ultimately cost 516 South Tyneside men and hundreds from Wearside their lives.
The aim of the conflict was to try and speed up a victory for the Allies and more than 3 million men fought in it. But the results were disastrous.
Before the offensive began, a week of artillery bombardment was carried out to try and destroy the German front line defences.
It failed, and tragedy awaited when British troops went "over the top" at 7:30am.
Instead of depleted front lines on the German side, the advancing troops were met with devastating machine-gun and artillery fire.
On the first day alone 20,000 British soldiers lay dead, including 188 from South Tyneside and 107 from Sunderland.
July 1, 1916 was the bloodiest in the history of the British Army. A controversial decision to order British troops to walk slowly towards the German trenches left 20,000 dead and 60,000 injured.
It took just 15 minutes for some regiments to lose three quarters of their men.
By the end of the four-month battle in northern France, more than a million soldiers had been killed and wounded on both sides of the fighting.
Despite that catastrophic first day of the first Battle of the Somme, Allied commanders decided to continue the offensive for another 140 days.
The eventual result was that the Allied gained about six miles of terrain and the First World War would drag on for another two years.
Today, we remember those from South Tyneside and Sunderland who paid with their lives.