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Two battles in 1915 left a lasting and bereft impact on Northamptonshire.

Neuve Chapelle in March, and Aubers Ridge in May, saw thousands of men - many from Northampton - make advances on the German position, in an attempt to capture the French city of Lille.

They were cut down in their hundreds, suffering terrible casualties and losses. Almost 1,500 men from Northampton and its surrounding villages were killed or wounded in the space of two months.

But the newspapers at the time told a different story.

The Northampton Mercury on 19 March 1915 reported: "The Great Victory at Neuve Chapelle". And the Northampton Echo, on 15 May 1915, in an article entitled: "All Going Well: cheerful news from the West", reports: "We are....immune so far from any terrible cataclysm the Germans have been promising us."

Dr John Jewell, from Cardiff University's School of Journalism says this was down to press controls and censorship, designed to keep the morale of the British people high, and in support of the government.

Location: Northampton, Northamptonshire NN1
Image: The Northampton Mercury, courtesy of The British Newspaper Archive

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