Following in the footsteps of heroes 104 years after Bolton PoWs made an epic journey back home

The war was over. But for 928 soldiers from Bolton they faced a long march to freedom. When the guns finally fell silent at the end of the First World War they were left stranded in PoW camps near the German city of Munster.

The gates of the camps were unlocked and the guards had gone. So they set off on an 850-mile journey, making their own way home to Lancashire. Now the descendants of the town's "forgotten" prisoners of war who made that epic trek are being sort.

The appeal comes as four Bolton ex-servicemen are to recreate the journey they made through the then war-ravaged Western Europe. The original Tommies travelled by train, ship, farmer's carts, bus and on foot to get home.

In June Dave Carter, a Gunner in the Royal Artillery, RAF Junior Technician Stephen Kenworthy, Paul Burgess, a Lance-Corporal in the Royal Tank Regiment, and Warrant Officer Simon Cass, Royal Army Physical Training Corps, will set off for Germany, and then follow in the footsteps of those who made the 1919 trip back to Blighty. Two of them will be repeating the same journey made by their great granfathers who were amongst the 928.

The four, all members of Moving Forces: Bolton, will fly out to Germany on June 11 and aim to return to Manchester on June 23 before walking from Manchester to Bolton on June 24 for the town’s Armed Forces Day Celebrations.

Dave, who now works as a Physician Associate at the Unsworth Group Practice in Westhoughton, said: “My great-grandad, James Carter, made the same journey in 1919 along with Paul’s great-grandad and over 920 Bolton men and we’re aiming to recreate that.

“Back then the German trains were still running on the Hindenburg Line, so we’ll travel by rail up to the Belgian border, but after that it’s a