Are you ready? A school

by the right, creek, march.

Left, right, left, right, left, right, right, left.

The two, pouch!

A school playground in the northwest of England. A young man dressed as a

First World War Army officer is teaching military drill to a class of 10 and 11 year olds.

Well, I've said, another chore drums, we're an infantry or two.

Sorted out.

Got to listen to every word I say.

All this marching and melodrama is part of this community's commemoration of the

Battle of the Somme, one of the bloodiest battles of the First World War. A century on, they remember

this war, but there's something else. In this playground children tried to put themselves in the shoes, the boots of people

from their towns who got together with their friends, workmates, neighbors to go to war to fight alongside

their pals.

The Aacrington Pals is our local regimental battalion and they were recruited as pals. They went with their friends, they signed up

with their friends, they served with their friends. It's a local historical fact.

They went from the mill towns, they went from the engineering works and things.

It was a way of looking after their families.

Very good, very good.

I'm Lee's Dousette. I spend a lot of time reporting from front lines in places like Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq. I often see trained soldiers on fields of battle. But I've also seen neighbors, friends, entire communities pick up guns to defend their families to fight for a cause.

For this BBC World Service Program, I've come to Accrington,

a small industrial town in Northern England

...