History and Memory Florence Green The final living veteran of World War I died peacefully in her sleep this weekend at the impressive age of 110. Florence Green enlisted in Britain's Royal Air Force in 1918 at the tender age of 17 and served during the final two months of the war. She would have turned 111 on February 19th. She outlived the last two surviving male veterans of WWI Claude Choules, a Royal Navy sailor and the last WWI combatant, and Frank Buckles, the last American veteran, both of whom died last year at the age of 110. With Miss Green's passing, the end of an era is truly upon us.
The Great War Remembered: What Were They Thinking? I. England in 1913 II. 100 th Anniversary of World War I Remembrance 1. What do the Historians Say? 2. National Commemorations 3. Everyday Figures of Speech 4. The Human Cost of War III. Thank You for Your Service/Sacrifice IV. How the War Was Won? V. Oh, What a Lovely War VI. WWI and Its Consequences
The Great War Remembered or What Were They Thinking
Testament of Youth 1 1/6 - YouTube www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub_jhylzaxkcached Testament of Youth Episode One 1/6 BBC 1979
LEST WE FORGET Campaign
Remembrance Day
Armistice Day
German Naval Memorial
Veterans Day
Remembering Wars to end all wars. This war, like the next war, is a war to end war.(lloyd George) The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime. (Sir Edward Grey) Make the world safe for democracy A War to end all innocence lost generation Over the top. In the trenches Road to Tipperary No man s land Dogfight
'Humpty Dumpty hammered the Gaul Humpty Dumpty had a big fall; All the King's horses and all the King's men Can't take Kaiser Billy to Paris again!
Trench Warfare
Delce et Decorum Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares(2) we turned our backs And towards our distant rest(3) began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots(4) Of tired, outstripped(5) Five-Nines(6) that dropped behind. Gas!(7) Gas! Quick, boys! An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets(8) just in time; But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime(9)... Dim, through the misty panes(10) and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering,(11) choking, drowning. If in some smothering dreams you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud(12) Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, My friend, you would not tell with such high zest(13) To children ardent(14) for some desperate glory, The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori.(15)
Declaration of a Soldier I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority, because I believe that the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it. I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that this war, upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation, has now become a war of aggression and conquest. I believe that the purposes for which I and my fellow soldiers entered upon this war should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to change them, and that, had this been done, the objects which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation. I have seen and endured the sufferings of the troops, and I can no longer be a party to prolong these sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust. I am not protesting against the conduct of the war, but against the political errors and insecurities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed. On behalf of those who are suffering now I make this protest against the deception which is being practiced on them; also I believe that I may help to destroy the callous complacence with which the majority of those at home regard the continuance of agonies which they do not share, and which they have not sufficient imagination to realize. July, 1917. S. Sassoon
How was the War Won?
Oh, What a Lovely War