… we will remember them. On Sunday 11 November 2018 I joined 9,999 other people from across the UK to walk past the Cenotaph in the Nation’s Thank You procession. You can see a video of the Nation’s Thank You procession, and some photos, here on this page of the armistice 100 website. I was thrilled to have … More At the Going Down of the Sun, and in the Morning ….
A look at the major events in the conflict during November 1918: November 1st The Battle of Valenciennes is launched by the British Army to advance to the French-Belgian border and the city of Valenciennes. The offensive lasts two days and results in the recapture of the city. November 2nd British cargo ships SS Surada … More WWI: Fifty two months, fifty two posts – 52 – The Last Month of War
There have been thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of different remembrance projects being carried out over the four years of the centenary of the “war to end all wars” of which my little blog posts are the smallest of small parts. “They Shall Not Grow Old” – the film project co-commissioned by 14-18 NOW … More WWI: Fifty two months, fifty two posts – 51 – They Shall Not Grow Old
Wilfred Owen is probably the best know of the WWI poets and his death, which occurred during the Allied attempt to retake the Sambre-Oise Canal just 8 days before the armistice was signed has come to symbolise the dreadful waste of war. Owen wrote the majority of his poems between August 1917 and September 1918. … More WWI: Fifty two months, fifty two posts – 50 – Smile, Smile, Smile
This is not a post about the unidentified soldier buried in Westminster Abbey on 11 November 1920. Instead it is about a man who survived the war and whose words were lost for almost a century only to be found in an attic in Hertfordshire in 2017. Allick Ellis – who was born in Norfolk … More WWI: Fifty two months, fifty two posts – 49 – Unknown Soldier
A look at the major events in the conflict during July 1918: July 1st The US troop transport ship USS Covington is torpedoed by German submarine U-86 off Brest, France. July 3rd Turkish Sultan Mohammed V of the Ottoman Empire dies at the Yildiz Palace in Constantinople and is succeeded by his brother Mohammed VI. … More WWI: Fifty two months, fifty two posts – 48 – Another Month of War
Yet another post where I recommend you leave this blog and go and read something else! However this time it’s a book, rather than something else on the internet; Empires of the Dead by David Crane to be precise. Front and Back Cover of Empires of the Dead by David Crane If you’ve ever traversed … More WWI: Fifty two months, fifty two posts – 47 – The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Another post which is really just a pointer to a completely different website; this time one run by Veterans Affairs Canada. This link will take you to a page of the diary of Private Charles Robert Bottomley, who served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, for the month of May 1918. However the website holds not … More WWI: Fifty two months, fifty two posts – 46 – The War Diaries of Private Charles Bottomley
On the 1 April 1918 the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service merged to form the Royal Air Force. Since there were a significant number of women working in both of those organisations there was a need for a separate women’s air service so the Women’s Royal Air Force was also formed on … More WWI: Fifty two months, fifty two posts – 45 – 100 years of the RAF and the Death of a Legend
I am finding more and more that the things I would speak about in these blog posts are already far more eloquently explained in posts on other, more prestigious, websites. So this month my post is a link to a most excellent article on the Poetry Foundation website. Wilfred Owen’s draft of Dulce Et Decorum Est with … More WWI: Fifty two months, fifty two posts – 44 –War Poems and Poets at War
Kizzia Mildmay 