The 1914-18 War

[Hornspieler]

A hundred years ago, the "War to end all wars" was started.

Do you have any mementos from your grandparents (or great grandparents) part in that conflict?

I have just finished compiling and editing a series of dispatches which were sent by my father (Fred) to his grandson (my nephew, Tony) in the 1960s when Fred was 74 years old.

A remarkable account of how it was for those involved in that conflict. Names, places, events, all clearly remembered after so many years.

If you have any memories to share or if you would like to read those dispatches, PM me with your email address (confidential, I promise) and I will be happy to attach a copy of the completed document. (E & OE excepted)

It's time the world knew about this conflict, written not by historians but by those who took part and suffered during those wasted years.

Hornspieler

[Serial_Apologist]

A hundred years ago today, the "War to end all wars" was started.

Do you have any mementos from your grandparents (or great grandparents) part in that conflict?

I have just finished compiling and editing a series of dispatches which were sent by my father (Fred) to his grandson (my nephew, Tony) in the 1960s when Fred was 71 years old.

A remarkable account of how it was for those involved in that conflict. Names, places, events, all clearly remembered after so many years.

If you have any memories to share or if you would like to read those dispatches, PM me with your email address (confidential, I promise) and I will be happy to attach a copy of the completed document. (E & OE excepted)

It's time the world knew about this conflict, written not by historians but by those who took part and suffered during those wasted years.

Hornspieler

My grandfather, who'd been at the relief of Mafeking, tried to join up aged 40 but was rejected due to high blood pressure. He played his part in WW2 by assuming the reins over the local Home Guard in the part of Suffolk he and my Nan had moved to from London, and died in 1968 aged 93.

[french frank]

No family memories going back that far, I'm afraid, HS: my grandfather was injured playing rugby - c. 1905, I should think - and was never fit again, so a non-combatant.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

It's time the world knew about this conflict, written not by historians but by those who took part and suffered during those wasted years.

I agree - and there are a number of books around which document the soldiers' and medics' experiences using letters, diaries, memoirs and interviews from the young men themselves (as well as the experiences of people who remained in Britain at the time). I have

The Last Fighting Tommy by Harry Patch in conversation with Richard van Emden (Bloomsbury)
Bot Soldiers of the Great War by Richard van Emden (Headline)
Christmas Truce by Malcolm Brown & Shirley Seaton (Pan)
1918: Year of Victory also by Malcolm Brown (Pan)

My partner's grandfather was in the Artists' Rifles regiment and did a lot of research as part of her family history - which led to a wider interest in this aspect of history (hence the above books).

[Hornspieler]

I think your dates are mistaken, Hs; Archduke Franz Ferdinand wasn't assassinated until June 1914, and hostilities didn't start until July. Britain didn't declare war until August.

Thank you for that correction, FHG.

I blame the BBC for pushing the anniversary of the commencement of WW1 on TV today. (I wasn't alive at the time!)

HS

[Hornspieler]

I agree - and there are a number of books around which document the soldiers' and medics' experiences using letters, diaries, memoirs and interviews from the young men themselves (as well as the experiences of people who remained in Britain at the time). I have

The Last Fighting Tommy by Harry Patch in conversation with Richard van Emden (Bloomsbury)
Bot Soldiers of the Great War by Richard van Emden (Headline)
Christmas Truce by Malcolm Brown & Shirley Seaton (Pan)
1918: Year of Victory also by Malcolm Brown (Pan)

My partner's grandfather was in the Artists' Rifles regiment and did a lot of research as part of her family history - which led to a wider interest in this aspect of history (hence the above books).

I can also recommend "Gallipoli" by Alan Moorhead who pulled no punches in his comments about the glaring mistakes made during that particular campaign, resulting in the loss of tens of thousands of lives.

HS

PS I have already corrected my opening post - thanks to your message #2

[Pulcinella]

HS

Have you considered asking the Imperial War Museum if they woud be interested in a copy?

When my dad (a WW2 POW for four years) died they were very pleased to take his flying log book and POW notebook into their collection.

They may say no, but you never know. I would think that they would be interested.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I can also recommend "Galipolii" by Alan Moorhead who pulled no punches in his comments about the glaring mistakes made during that particular campaign, resulting in the loss of tens of thousands of lives.

HS

PS I have already corrected my opening post - thanks to your message #2

Original message #2 duly deleted

[Serial_Apologist]

Just to mention that the Imperial War Museum, which is well worth a visit and not at all "imperialistic" in how it presents itself, is due to re-open in July, following something of a makeover:

http://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/place/142062-iwm-london-imperial-war-museum-london

[johnb]

My father fought in WWI. He and a friend of his enlisted when they were only 15 and lied about their ages. His friends parents were able to get their son back, out of the army (for the time being) but my father's parents allowed him to continue.

He was in the Gallipoli campaign and there suffered a gun shot wound to the left upper forehead. Amazingly he survived the injury and was operated on, on board one the hospital ships. The surgeons drilled a second hole in his skull, also in the upper forehead, in order to extract the bullet and bone fragments.

He made a full recovery but for the rest of his life there were two unmistakable hollows in his upper forehead.

My father hardly ever talked about his experiences in WWI and it is one of my great regrets that I never asked him about it.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

My grandmother had a strange experience in 1916. She was living in Patricroft a small town on the Liverppol-Manchester railway to the west of Salford.
She had heightened sensitivity to earth tremors and distant industrial vibrations. One day, she claimed to be feeling something in the ground. "It's as though there's a big battle on". She found it difficult to sleep during the night because of it.

A few days later, they heard about the Battle of Jutland that had taken place in the distant North Sea.

My father was 4 years old at the time, so didn't think his mother's statements were at all strange until he was older. He asked her about it and she confirmed what she had sensed.

[Hornspieler]

Just to mention that the Imperial War Museum, which is well worth a visit and not at all "imperialistic" in how it presents itself, is due to re-open in July, following something of a makeover:

http://www.visitlondon.com/things-to...-museum-london

Thanks for that, S-A It is the family's intention to gather together my father's medals*, citations, his Army paybook (recording 27 years service) and his personal reminiscences; and present everything to The School of Artillery at Larkhill (where I was born), where he finished his army service as Garrison RSM under General (then Brigadier) Alanbrooke in 1934.

These include the sniper's bullet, retrieved from his spine in Gallipoli, which was mounted in a solid gold cartridge case by Lord Stamfordam (Equerry to The Prince of Wales) and the Croix de Guerre de Belgique and Citation presented to him by King Albert of Belgium, following an action at Ypres (he never told us what for and always maintained that he must have been mistaken for someone else of the same name)
There is also a telegram congratulating him on his 90th Birthday signed by "Officer Commanding and All Ranks from Larkhill Garrison"

So Larkhill it shall be.

HS

[LeMartinPecheur]

My father hardly ever talked about his experiences in WWI and it is one of my great regrets that I never asked him about it.

This seems to have been almost universal among WWI veterans, those who served in the real killing fields anyway. Not sure that asking would have done much good though: there seems to have been a very deep reluctance to talk in any circumstances. Though I wonder if veterans were more open amongst themselves - British Legion etc?

I was in the same position with both my grandfathers. Both served in France, one in the infantry, one in the artillery. Both died before I was old enough to ask sensible questions, though I think I recall a miasma of pain when I said something small-boyish about how great/ exciting it must have been to have been in a war. I guess the reluctance to talk may have been because of a feeling that no one who wasn't there could possibly understand, and even if perhaps they could it was 'unnecessary suffering' to make them do so.

My father followed his father into the Royal Artillery in WWII - he was rather more willing to talk about it I think despite participation in some of the major bloodbaths of Burma (some or all of the Admin Box, Imphal, Kohima...). There seems to have been something more bearable about even the worst of that war. Perhaps the near-total stasis of the WWI slaughter on Western Front (and at Gallipoli) was a key element? It must have added vastly to the feeling of pointlessness.

Perhaps the true purpose of the Western Front battles from the Somme onwards (kill more of the enemy than he kills of us) was never explicitly stated to the troops? Did they really have to buy into the belief that was I think standard fodder for the 'home front': that we were always on the brink of a decisive breakthrough and an advance to Berlin? Perhaps the disillusionment came from the slow realisation that this was nearly impossible, and slow, grinding, static slaughter was the real aim?

[BBMmk2]

With war veterans of any conflict, they do not ever talk about their experiences I find. The horror of what they saw, was too much for them to talk about. My father does not talk about what he did in WW2, so there is a point there? My grandfather was an officer in The Royal Horse Artillery in WWI.

[richardfinegold]

I have read extensively about WWII, and recently turned my attention the origins of WWI. I recommend Robert Massie's Dreadnaught, which does a great job incorporating background material from the mid 19th century, and I have recently started Max Hastings Volume.
Most interesting of all, to me, are the "Willy-Nicky" telegrams between the Kaiser and the Tsar as the two cousins exchanged family pleasantries amidst the threats of mobilization.
My grandparents were all trying to escape pogroms in Ukraine and Galicia at this time and desperately trying to immigrate to the States, so no family stories to share.