Situated in Montauban Village on the main road stands the memorial to the Liverpool and Manchester pals. It is a stone obelisk, one face has inscribed the Kings Liverpool cap badge and listed the Pals Battalions, and another face of the memorial has the Manchester's cap badge and lists their Pals Battalions all the Battalions belonged to the 30th Division. The Division successfully captured Montauban on the 1st July 1916, suffering 3,011 casualties; the Division then remained in the area fighting at Trones Wood and Guillemont up until the end of July where many more men from Lancashire became casualties.
Montauban was the first of only a few villages taken on the first day of the Somme. Elsewhere the advance had generally been disastrous. The position of Triangle Point, north of the village, marked the furthest point of advance that was sustained by the British Army that day. If anybody knows any information about the troops at Triangle Point, I'd be delighted to hear it. Tim
