The Great War

Lest we forget. On this day in 1916 many soldiers would not know it would be their last, as they prepared to go "over the top" in the morning of July 1st to begin the Battle of The Somme.

First Battle of the Somme | Summary, Location, Outcome, Casualties, Significance, & Facts First Battle of the Somme (July 1–November 13, 1916), costly and largely unsuccessful Allied offensive on the Western Front during World War I. The horrific bloodshed on the first day of the battle became a metaphor for futile and indiscriminate slaughter.

Lest we forget.

Somerset GP's WW1 novel is an unexpected bestseller Dr David John always said he was going to write a novel on retirement, but 'no one ever believed me'.

A few photos sent our way to share. Lest we forget.

Here's something a little different. Lest we forget.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPs0WHtqZgQ

Christmas in the Trenches - Xmas Rations of WWI Use my code TASTINGHISTORY at https://cometeer.com/TASTINGHISTORY to get $40 off your first order. If you've been wanting to try Cometeer, now is the time!Pr...

A lot of people still ask whether or not "The Christmas Truce" actually happened, when in No Man's Land in December 1914 soldiers emerged from the trenches "to sing carols, exchange gifts and play football" - and the answer is yes. But then a question arises as to whether another similar truce was held the following year, and not the typical kind of truce allowing the dead to be retrieved from the battlefield up and down the line. Again, the again is yes. Not many people know about the second in 1915. Lest we forget.
https://stmargarets.london/archives/2014/12/the_other_christmas_truce_1915.html

The Other Christmas Truce - 1915 After nearly a year of remembrance of the 1st World War most of us already know the story of the Christmas Truce of 1914, when British, French and German troops sang carols together across 'No Man's Land' and rose from their trenches to play footb...

Lest we forget.

If it's available locally, watch the latest version of All Quiet On The Western Front. As stated in USA Today, the film, based on the book written by a German WW1 veteran, is possibly one of the most searing and soul-crushing depictions of warfare that has ever muddied the screen. It has the staggering battle sequences of “Saving Private Ryan,” the gruesome trench warfare of “1917” and the exploration of quieter moments in soldiers' lives seen in "Apocalypse Now.”

Netflix's 'All Quiet on the Western Front' important reminder of WW1 - historian Netflix's remake of 'All Quiet on the Western Front' is coming to the streaming platform on Friday 28 October. Military historian and author Rupert Wieloch t...

On this day in 1916, signalling the start of The Somme Offensive, the regiment from Newfoundland, during the battle for Beaumont Hamel, lost all but 68 members of its entire fighting force.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/memorial-day-2022-1.6508332

N.L. remembers its fallen soldiers in Memorial Day service | CBC News Spectators gathered in St. John's Friday for a sombre service to honour the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, which lost many of its members in a First World War battle more than a century ago.

A story from another front...
https://lm.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thevintagenews.com%2F2018%2F10%2F21%2Fbela-lugosi-served-in-ww1%2F&h=AT2rE9iZWVOazUC8VeE1Q5jSjTaqrpgmYEh3SMWwWiHz3o3nWG0ITt2D7AKEfKaAFSPLTTJm--gpXcUDRWhvXJ3gW4coT5FTw7gRU5d3Ux4TMvwGrRXkQEewJ-VIBtuCx-a-KDuoK0iMHymqFw

Dracula in the Trenches: When Bela Lugosi Served in WWI - The Vintage News Famous for baring his fangs as Dracula on the silver screen, few men were more iconic villains than Bela Lugosi during the 1930s. Nicknamed the King of

Among all the women, Romania selected a nurse serving on the frontlines in who made the supreme sacrifice in 1917. Lest we forget.

Romania to feature World War I female officer on banknote Romania's central bank unveiled a new banknote on Friday celebrating World War I lieutenant Ecaterina Teodoroiu, the first named woman to be depicted on Romanian money.

For those serving on the Western Front on November 11, 1918, the war was still raging and soldiers were dying. Although a Canadian, Private George Price, died at two minutes to peace and is considered the last Commonwealth soldier to die in World War 1, one minute after his death, an American, Sgt Henry Gunther, lost his life fighting in Chaumont-devant-Damvillers, France. His is a sad story, as told in the article, and is likely quite representative of the utter confusion felt among the ranks, given the war was known on both sides to be over. On this day in 1918, lest we forget, 9.7 million military personnel had paid the supreme sacrifice during the great war to end all wars.
https://time.com/5444257/last-american-wwi-henry-gunther/

The Mysterious Story of the Last American Soldier to Die in World War I He didn't want to serve. So why did he charge towards the Germans one minute before the armistice?

On November 9, 1918, Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated. On November 10, 1918, the Western Union Cable Office in North Sydney, Nova Scotia receives a top-secret coded message from Europe stating on November 11, 1918 all fighting would cease on land, sea and in the air.

Rudyard Kipling, known for writing The Jungle Book, has a strong attachment to The Great War. Kipling’s son, John, enlisted in 1914 at the age of 17. On his eighteenth birthday he was posted to
France and a few weeks later was involved in the Battle of Loos, called “the Big Push”. John was reported wounded and missing. For years, his father hoped against hope that he was not among the reported 59,000 British casualties, but he did not return. To this day, they continue to find remains from that battle. A grave which may have been his was identified in 1994, long after his father had passed.

Rudyard Kipling started to write stories about the war and authored a two-volume history of the Irish Guards, his son’s regiment. He also devoted himself to the War Graves Commission. This body, now called the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, took on the monumental task of identifying the graves of the fallen, a task
never before attempted on so large a scale. More than a million burials are now commemorated at military and civilian sites in more than 150 countries and territories.

Kipling suggested the line “Their name liveth for evermore” as an inscription for war cemetery memorials. He also suggested “Known to God” for tombstones of soldiers unable to be identified, and it is from a Kipling poem that we get the phrase “Lest we forget”.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/john-kipling-killed-at-the-battle-of-loos

John Kipling killed at the Battle of Loos On September 27, 1915, Second Lieutenant John Kipling of the British army, the only son of Nobel Prize-winning author Rudyard Kipling, is killed at the Battle

In 1918, on November 1st, the push to end the war on The Western Front continued, as French and American forces attacked German lines at the Meuse River, while the British-led forces moved on towards Ghent and Mons. Ultimately the capture of Mons - which had been held by the German army since the outbreak of the war - would occur on Armistice Day. It was at Valenciennes that - after a general retreat in October - the Germans held and decided to make a stand against advancing Canadian troops under General Currie.
https://www.vimyfoundation.ca/battle-of-valenciennes/

Battle of Valenciennes - Vimy Foundation Battle of Valenciennes November 1-2, 1918 After a general retreat through October 1918, the German Army decided to make a stand in Valenciennes, a strategically-located city of several thousand French civilians, and the last major French city still under German control. The German commanders believe...

Here's something you don't see every day...
Incredible Scale Models Show the Intricacy of World War I Trench Warfare.
https://mymodernmet.com/wwi-trench-warefare-models-andy-belsey/

Incredible Scale Models Show the Intricacy of World War I Trench Warfare Every inch of these models of WWI soldiers in the trenches is crafted with amazing details, right down to the real-life letters written to home.

There is a new film released called The War Below, based on the true story of a group of British miners who are recruited to tunnel underneath No Man's Land and plant bombs under the German frontlines in hopes of breaking the deadly stalemate of the Battle of Messines in 1917.

In 1916 alone, 1,500 mines were detonated, along with thousands of smaller charges, known as camouflets, designed to blow up enemy tunnelers. Tunnelers faced terrifying, claustrophobic conditions and death could come at any moment from either a tunnel collapse, a poisonous gas explosion, or detonations triggered by the enemy digging nearby. In fact, it is recorded that by mid-1916 the British Army had around 25,000 trained tunnellers, mostly volunteers taken from coal mining communities.
https://youtu.be/j__6C_Lb2BQ

The War Below - In Cinemas & On Digital 10th September During World War 1, a group of British miners are recruited to tunnel underneath no man's land and set bombs from below the German front in hopes of breaking...

On this day, July 1st, in 1916, The Battle of The Somme was launched (under the leadership of Sir Douglas Haig who provided the overall direction of the battle as Commander-in-Chief, with Sir Henry Rawlinson commanding Fourth Army, which was to attack on the first day) and of the 120,000 Allied troops—including those from Australia, India, South Africa, New Zealand, Newfoundland and Canada—who participated in the initial attack, nearly 20,000 were killed, most of them in the first hour, and another 37,000 were wounded. Thirty-seven sets of British brothers lost their lives on the battle’s first day, and one man was killed every 4.4 seconds, making July 1, 1916, the bloodiest single day in the history of the British Army. Lest we forget. WW1 Remembered
https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-battle-of-the-somme

10 Things You May Not Know About the Battle of the Somme Explore 10 surprising facts about the bloodiest encounter of World War I.

It's Vimy Ridge Day.

This is a very decent retrospective on what eventually led to the outbreak of war in 1914, as many history books still imply the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand was the cause.

8 Events that Led to World War I Imperialism, nationalistic pride and mutual alliances all played a part in building tensions that would erupt into war.