IN the year that marks the 89th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, Peter Weston, a Great War enthusiast, has published the fruits of three years' research - an account of the part played by Herefordshire men in the main Allied attack on the Western Front.

Peter has been researching Herefordshire's part in the First World War for many years, fascinated by the stories of local men who fought in what, following the Armistice, was fervently hoped to have been "the war to end all wars".

His interest was sparked as a small boy and on moving to Hereford 15 years ago, he began researching the Herefordshire Regiment.

It was on one of his regular visits to France that he discovered the regiment's involvement in the Somme.

"I was on a trip to the battlefield cemetery at Waggon Road when I saw the name of a Hereford man, then another and another.

"Until then, I had no idea the Herefords were involved."

On July 1, the first day of the battle, 58,000 British troops were lost, a third of them killed.

A further 40,000 fell the next day. To make good the losses thousands of reserves, among them some 300 men of the 31st Herefordshire Regiment, were rushed to France to join the regiments and battalions still engaged in the bitter fight to break through German defences.

The men, who had until that autumn only seen short periods of trench warfare, were to take part in the final attempt on the enemy's defences on Redan Ridge.

Snow finally brought the Somme offensive to a halt on November 18, a day on which the Herefordshire Regiment is known to have lost 54 men, with many others wounded or taken prisoner.

Peter Weston's book, Redan Ridge: The Last Stand - The account of men formerly of The Herefordshire Regiment and their part in The Battle of the Somme, is priced £8 (plus £1.25 p&p), and is available from the author on 01544 327008.