On 1st November 1916, 900 men of the 'Broughtonthwaite Mates' went over the top at Harcourt to attack a German stronghold. They vanished into a gas cloud that cleared to reveal only what became known as the Harcourt Crater, the largest crater on the western front.
The official Government explanation was the detonation of a German mine using experimental explosives, a view generally held until 1926 when canisters of film found by a French farmer allegedly showed silent footage the battalion fighting for their lives on an apparently alien world. To this day the government denies the Lefeuvre footage as a hoax.
With the hundredth anniversary approaching, perhaps the truth behind the fate of the Pennine Fusiliers will finally be revealed.
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