1. Middleton's unassuming war hero

Middleton Guardian, Thursday 29 May 2008
"IMAGINE no-man’s land, shells falling to left, to right, in front and at back. Our Middleton hero goes out ten times and brings back nine wounded men. And, after all that he takes the trouble to go a mile-and-a-half to get water for the wounded."

2. Soil soaked in the blood of Middleton men

Middleton Guardian, Thursday 4 October 2007
"MEN stumbled forward through mud and slime. At every step they sank over the boot-tops in sodden soil; not a few sank waist-deep in the yawning, water-filled shell holes - but they staggered on with the grim persistency which is the outstanding attribute of the average Englishman and the source of wonder to foreign nations." This appalling, but chest-swelling, scene is painted by Major Chesnutt-Chesney, officer commanding the Middleton company of the 2/6th Lancashire Fusiliers who attacked the infamous Passchendaele Ridge on the morning of October 9, 1917.

3. Mud, blood and hopeless bravery

Middleton Guardian, Thursday 6 September 2007
"I AM very sorry to be the one to write to you on the subject I have to do, but in this case I think it is my duty. Your Tom was killed in the advance. He was very well liked and cheerful as anyone." 'Tom' was Private Thomas Worsley, of Oldham Road, killed in action with the Middleton territorials on September 6, 1917 - 90 years to this very day.

4. Over the top, boys!

Middleton Guardian, Thursday 29 June 2006
SATURDAY is the 90th anniversary of what historians still refer to as "the blackest day" in British military history - the start of the Battle of the Somme. As part of our ongoing series about Middleton and the First World War, we look at what happened on that infamous first day of July in 1916 …

5. The 'Pals' prepare to face the foe

Middleton Guardian, Thursday 22 June 2006
REMEMBER the Battle of Flodden! This was the rallying cry of the Mayor of Middleton at a recruitment meeting in November 1914.

6. Christmas in the trenches

Middleton Guardian, Thursday 22 December 2005
CHRISTMAS, a season of goodwill to all men - except Germans!

7. Gallipoli: 'We will keep the flags flying'

Middleton Guardian, Thursday 26 May 2005
IN OUR ongoing series to mark the 90th anniversary of Gallipoli, we follow our local territorial soldiers into the horrors of battle ...

8. Gallipoli: Town's brave sons under a hostile Eastern sky

Middleton Guardian, Thursday 26 May 2005
AS MIDDLETON prepares to mark the 60th anniversary of VE Day and the end of WWII in Europe, two local men say that townsfolk should also remember a period 30-years before in WWI ...

9. Gallipoli: 'We long for the old town'

Middleton Guardian, Thursday 26 May 2005
IN THE final part of this series, Middleton's amateur soldiers count their awful losses as they are evacuated ...