Posts Tagged ‘ww1’
Hew Strachan Warns Britain over WW1 Commemorations (About.com European History)
An interesting history-related post from About.com European History:
I'm still forming in my mind how I'd like to see Britain, Europe and the world commemorate the centenaries of World War One, and I have a feeling I'll be on the opposite side from Hew Strachan, whose article for the Telegraph warns of a "sterile", even "boring" event. But I think it's important for me to link to it here because Hew isn't just one of the leading experts on the war, but a member of the board advising the government.
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Old Camera Yields WW1 Photos (About.com European History)
An interesting history-related post from About.com European History:
People who collect old cameras probably won't think much of this story, but I thought it was marvellous: Anton Orlov was working on an antique camera he'd acquired - a Jumelle Bellieni stereoscopic - and found eight previously lost photos dating from the World War One era. The contents include pictures of soldiers and planes, and Yahoo has a couple. You never know what you might find...
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Historians Builds 60 Foot WW1 Trench in Garden (About.com European History)
An interesting history-related post from About.com European History:
Andrew Robertson is an ex-history teacher, current head of a museum, and advised on the War Horse movie... and he's now built a sixty foot World War 1 style trench in his back garden to help teach how soldiers lived. I'm mentioning this entirely because I'd love to do this myself, but Mr. Robertson has also assembled a group of volunteers to live as troops for twenty four hours, and recorded their efforts for a book. He's made a video for schools, and is considering the web. The Daily Mail has plenty of pictures.
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Last Known WW1 Service Member Dies (About.com European History)
An interesting history-related post from About.com European History:
Florence Green, a British woman, was the last known surviving service member of World War One. She joined the Woman's Royal Air Force aged 17, and worked for them in UK air bases for two months before the war ended. Sadly, she had now died aged 110. While it is possible that other service members of the war might come forward - Green was only recognised in 2010 after a search - she is the last currently known, and represents a break with one of key events of the twentieth century.
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CIA declassify WW1 espionage documents (About.com European History)
An interesting history-related post from About.com European History:
The CIA is currently engaged in declassifying and rereleasing a mammoth amount of documentation, and among it are six of the oldest confidential documents that remained in the US archives. They relate to the diplomacy and espionage of the First World War, including how secrets and messages were sent between the powers. Obviously the US is the primary player in these files, but I'm mentioning it here because, according to this Telegraph article, the documents contain a French file which explained the formula for the German's invisible ink (and thus the fact they could read some German communications.)
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The Football Charge of the Somme (Beachcombing's Bizzare History Blog)
An interesting history-related post from Beachcombing's Bizzare History Blog:
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Toasting Poland (Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog)
An interesting history-related post from Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog:
Beachcombing has always had a bit of a thing about the Poles: a nation of warriors and survivors. It is difficult not to get a little teary-eyed then when, in 1918, Poland officially becomes, after 120 years of dreaming, a nation again. Unlike Italy’s pretend risorgimento – to have a ‘resurrection’ you need to have originally existed – here there really was a return to life. There had been a Poland in 1000 and there had been a Poland as recently as 1795 – before it was butchered by the Russians, Prussians and Austrians – and now, until 1939, there ...
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Epiphany: War In Dollyland (Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog)
An interesting history-related post from Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog:
As Beachcombing noted yesterday (click here, if you dare, for Beachcombian reflections) he has prepared a gift for the WWW this snowy epiphany: War in Dollyland in all its glory.
Textual notes: the following was copied from the 1915 original with some care leaving eccentric or antiquated spellings in place. The only change that Beachcombing has made is in the name of the cat now called Black, (who originally had a name that is prosecutable across the western world). Beachcombing just can’t be bothered to explain source integrity to WordPress’s lawyers (sorry).
Beachcombing is making up about ten hand-stitched copies of this books for ...
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Prelude to Epiphany: Fitzgerald in the trenches (Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog)
An interesting history-related post from Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog:
For Beachcombing a canonical text on the First World War is chapter thirteen of Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night. Here FSF gets as close as anyone ever has to explaining why European civilisation committed suicide in 1915 and 1916. Dick and his party, including the vapid Rosemary have come to visit the First World War trenches mere years after the end of the conflict.
‘This western-front business couldn’t be done again, not for a long time. The young men think they could do it but they couldn’t. They could fight the first Marne again but not this. This took ...
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WW1 from the Air? (About.com European History)
An interesting history-related post from About.com European History:
Recently the BBC screened a TV show featuring footage from World War 1 of battlefields, taken after the war from the air. In the course of promoting this, they did a little video piece on their news site featuring some of the video which anyone on the web can watch. The devastation is, if you've read about the war, much as you might imagine it.
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The Slave Trade in 1800s America