Frankly I don't follow the logic. Why celebrate the start of an event that probably shouldn't have been allowed to happen in the first place? Surely the celebration should be in 2018? I certainly don't believe that my grandfather, who endured the most part of it and suffered from it for the rest of his life, would consider it something to shout about.
What is the aim? I financed a school trip for my 13 year old grandson advertised as a "Visit to the Somme Battlefields" because he is interested in history (one of the few subjects where he achieves high marks). In the event they mostly visited Passchendaele. I had tried to get an itinerary but the School did not provide it - and I can understand why because the teachers had less knowledge than the pupils. I wrote up a summary of the battles (at least on my side of the family and as far as I could discover) that his gg grandfathers and ggg uncles in which they fought and where some of they are buried. I quizzed him to find out what he had learnt and enjoyed. Flanders Field Museum was brilliant - fantastic computer system! Bought a spent bullet and the major highlight was stumbling over and finding a fuse on Ulster Hill (which the teacher had confused for Usna Hill!). Kept visiting The Cemeteries which were mega boring. Overall as you might have expected in a full blooded 13 year boy, the war bit was brilliant the rest was boring. I shudder to think what his 12 year old sister would get from a visit to the battlefields. Lets be honest this is more remote from the new generation as the Crimean War is for me. My view? Total waste of money.
You only have to look around the War Memorials and Graveyards of the UK and abroad to see that people still remember and the sacrifice will never be in vain. Look at your local War Memorial and note the number of Village/Town members who never returned. We should Remember and encourage Rememberance. A few photos attached from around the UK
Some 68,000 Canadians died during ww1. I hope the Harper government reaches out to all Canadians to make sure that we remember the sacrifices of so many on lands so far away.
Some 68,000 Canadians died during ww1. I hope the Harper government reaches out to all Canadians to make sure that we remember the sacrifices of so many on lands so far away. So do I, haven't seen it yet though. WWI memorial sites are full of British tour buses, seems someone is cracking down on the schools, kids are all going. We have a lot of Canadian history in WWI, lots of things to see.
My Granddaughter went over last weekend, November 23rd-24th, with her school. Intinerary "out there": 1300 Arrive in France, local time. Bayernwald- take part in the trench experience with a 'Show and tell' session with a British Tommy. Guide's presentation on the Christmas Truce in Location and RE-enactment: of the Christmas Truce with the British Front line facing the German front line just as it would have been 90 years ago on this site. 1800 Dinner in Grand Square Ypres. 1930 Briefing at Menin Gate. 2000 Last Post Ceremony. 2015 Depart for Hostel Accommodation: "Youth Hostal Messines". Day 2 Sat 24th: Ypres Salient with Science warfare. 0830 Depart Hostel. Hill 60: Technological developments in the Great War: Mining; Artillery; Tanks & war in the Air. Essex Farm CWGC & Advanced Dressing Station: The ethos of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission: Boy soldiers; The Treatment of battlefield casualties & medical advance. Vancouver Corner: The use of poison gas and its effects; development of the gas mask. Chemical Warfare & WMD today. Langmarck: German cemetery ethos, Slaughter of the innocents; Hitlers 1940 visit; reconciliation. Tyne Cot: 1917 3rd Ypres (Passchendaele), 1918 & the end of war. 1750 Depart France. My Granddaughter had a great time
Peccavi-I'm sorry that you felt that your grandson's battlefields tour was disappointing. However I think it is unfair to conclude that because of this all battlefields tours for young people are a waste of time. I have been running a school battlefields tour since 1994. I plan the itineraries myself and focus on the part played by former pupils of the school, local regiments and relatives of the boys on the tour. Each tour is different and we visit battlefields of both world wars. I am proud to say that it is the most popular residential trip that the school runs and is always oversubscribed. For 2013 demand has been so great that we have increased the number we are taking to 60. Many boys choose to come on multiple tours, the current record is seven! It is a battlefields tour: of course we visit cemeteries but the aim is to put them in the context of what happened and why they are there. They are visited along with recreated trenches, mine craters, pillboxes and the sites of particular actions etc. Individual stories are crucial. The 'here's another cemetery, isn't it sad, wander round for 10 minutes and get back on the coach' syndrome is to be avoided at all costs. I also don't try to cover everything in one trip-this year I focussed on the battles for Messines and Passchendaele ridges. Preparation, knowledge and enthusiasm are the keys. I'm a war anorak so it's ok for me but we can't expect all teachers to be specialized battlefields guides. If so, then the tour companies can provide guides, many of whom are very good and will try to personalize the tour in something like the way that I describe or provide the interesting itinerary (sounds like Anglia tours) outlined in the post above. 2014 will be our 20th anniversary tour and we have already made a preliminary booking as demand for accommodation in the Ypres area will be so great. The itinerary will include the site of the Royal Warwicks' Christmas Truce at St Yvon at which my great uncle (namesake of my avatar) was present with a recreation based on the accounts by Captains Bruce Bairnsfather and Robert Hamilton. Apart from anything else, Peccavi, the school needs to do a health and safety briefing on not picking up bits of the 'iron harvest'. Blutto-surely it's a commemoration not a celebration. There has been absolutely no suggestion that events to mark the centenary will be giving thanks for the outbreak of the war. I think that that sort of thing was confined to 1914 itself!
Furter to Blutto's comments about a 'celebration' there is an article in the current edition of the Western Front Association's magazine 'Stand To!' in which leading academics connected with the WFA (Messrs Simkins, Sheffield and Bourne) express concern about the overly negative tone of the proposed commemoration, with its concentration on defeats and disasters and the failure to acknowledge that the British and allies actually won the war!
Furter to Blutto's comments about a 'celebration' there is an article in the current edition of the Western Front Association's magazine 'Stand To!' in which leading academics connected with the WFA (Messrs Simkins, Sheffield and Bourne) express concern about the overly negative tone of the proposed commemoration, with its concentration on defeats and disasters and the failure to acknowledge that the British and allies actually won the war! But the majority of actions during WWI were defeats and disasters. Also, it's fair to say most of the memorials (Thiepval, Menin, Vimy ) are dedicated to the dead and missing, not to mention the cemeteries. I expect / hope there will be events and commemorations for each year of the war, hopefully not just 2014. An idea perhaps is to prepare a rolling event for the 100 days, in several locations..... for 2018. People might feel better knowing there is a good ending coming.
Martin-I think you're slightly missing the point of my post. In post 21, 'Blutto' decries the proposed 'celebration' of the war as he sees it, at the same time as a group of academics have said that the proposed events are too 'negative' in tone, i.e. not celebratory enough. Difficult to satisfy everyone. If you read the Prime Minister's statement on the Centenary you will see that a range of events (e.g. Gallipoli and the First Day of the Somme) are planned to be marked during the 2014-18 period.
Paul seems too modest to mention, so I will. His WW1 Centenary blog here: WW1 Centenary Will there be a link to this website on the front page?
I could do with adding a few more links - and you might have a point there re. a few WW1-centenary specific links on the Portal. Big events coming up that I assume most here would have an interest in. I'll have a think.
From the CWGC Friendface feed: Centenary News "Peter Francis of the Commonwealth War Graves Commision speaks about education, memory and the Commission's role in the Centenary 21 Mar 2013"
Frankly I don't follow the logic. Why celebrate the start of an event that probably shouldn't have been allowed to happen in the first place? UK Election in 2015? Get set for the crowing of Camoron & Co Anyway... First World War Centenary
First World War centenary plans revealed The Queen is to lead the nation in commemorating the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War at a service where she will be joined by other heads of state. Today ministers will announce details of the entire programme from 2014-2018, which they hope will allow people to mark the conflict which ravaged the continent “with sorrow and with pride”. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/britain-at-war/10108162/First-World-War-centenary-plans-revealed.html
I don't know if this question should perhaps start another thread, but why did we become involved in World War One? World War 2, we know for sure that we feared the Nazi encroachment over all Europe, even worldwide. It was a terrible thing, that could also affect us. We were defending our own country, homes and families. But what was the reason for the first world war? Why did so many of our young men die for that "cause"?
The declaration of war on 4 August 1914 - over a so-called "scrap of paper" perhaps? If you are completely new to the subject you could look up the terms of the Treaty of London (1839) and particularly the recognition of Belgian neutrality by the signatory powers.
9. Causes of the First World War The Rest is History - podcast - * "9. Causes of the First World War Whose fault was it? Does the question even make sense? Are wars always somebody's "fault"? Was it really the first global war? And should Britain have fought, or stayed out?" Also a bit about the Second World War ------- * Historians Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook are interrogating the past, attempting to de-tangle the present for their new podcast "The Rest Is History" They question the nature of Greatness, why the West no longer has civil wars and whether Richard Nixon was more like Caligula or Claudius. They're distilling the entirety of human history, or, as much as they can fit into about thirty minutes.
