Book excerpt: The first detailed chronicle, with photos included, of the four battalions of riflemen who left Leeds for the Western Front. The full wartime story of the “Leeds Pals” has never been told. This volume describes their volunteer origins and how they came to be woven into the social fabric of Leeds from where they drew their enduring esprit de corps, discipline, and resolve. It takes the reader on a journey across the Western Front of the Great War, contrasting the first line battalion’s lot, to stand in the mud of Ypres and endure all without breaking, with the second line battalion’s blooding at Bullecourt and transformation as part of an elite assault division that went on to occupy Germany. It is told, in part, by those who were there and experienced the fear, elation, and sadness of loss, and who took strength from their volunteer ethos and their common origins in Leeds. All the Leeds Rifles’ main battles are described in detail as are the helter-skelter actions of the last one hundred days of mobile warfare and escalating casualties, when the defeated but still defiant German army found itself in full and final retreat. Follow the fortunes of these enfants de Yorkshire, these Leeds Lads, as they speak out from the pages of history with a very familiar accent.