NatWest UK, and it has a large network of over 960 branches and 3,400 cash machines across Great Britain and offers 24-hour "Actionline" telephone and online banking services. Today, it has more than 7.5 million personal customers and 850,000 small business accounts. In Ireland, it operates through its Ulster Bank subsidiary. In 2017, NatWest was awarded Best Banking App in the British Bank Awards. The bank's origins date back to 1658 with the foundation of Smith's Bank of Nottingham. The creation of the modern bank was announced in 1968, and National Westminster Bank Limited commenced trading on 1 January 1970, after
Operations on the Ancre, January–March 1917 Operations on the Ancre, January–March 1917 Operations on the Ancre took place from between the British Fifth Army and the German 1st Army, on the Somme front during the First World War. After the Battle of the Ancre (13–18 November 1916), British attacks on the Somme front stopped for the winter. For the rest of the year and early January 1917, both sides were reduced to surviving the rain, snow, fog, mud fields, waterlogged trenches and shell-holes. As preparations for the offensive at Arras due in the spring of 1917 continued, the British attempted to keep German attention on the