Links

This web page contains links to other websites which are not under the control of and are not maintained by Channel 4 Television. Channel 4 Television is not responsible for the content of these sites and does not necessarily endorse the material on them.

'War Game' review

Useful review in which an American academic muses about what 'War Game' is 'trying to teach children already calloused by the "A-Team", "Superfriends", "X-Men" and all the rest'.

www.lib.byu.edu/~english/WWI/children/review.html

Patriotism and reality

Online exhibition of US war posters offering opportunities to contrast patriotic appeals with the reality of conflict. (US National Archives and Records Administration.)

www.archives.gov/exhibit_hall/powers_of_persuasion/ powers_of_persuasion_home.html

Pals Battalions

The Accrington Pals

The recruitment of the famous East Lancashire Battalion, with useful primary source evidence.

www.btinternet.com/~a.jackson/enlistment.htm

The Leeds Pals

Short detailed account of the formation of the Leeds Pals.

www.leedspals.co.uk/history.htm

Image of pals

Large close-up photograph of a pals battalion.

www.lib.byu.edu/~english/WWI/main/PalsBattalions.html

The Christmas Truce

News report

A report and artist's representation of the 'Christmas Truce Between Opposing Trenches' on the Western Front, from 'The Illustrated London News' of 9 January 1915.

www.lib.byu.edu/~english/WWI/historical/slide6.html

Heart of Midlothian football team

Tribute site to the Hearts team who, the site tells us, 'were the only team to volunteer en masse'.

www.zinescene.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/war.htm

The sporting spirit

True accounts of the practice of kicking a football toward enemy lines while attacking.

www.lib.byu.edu/~english/WWI/children/captain_nevill.html

Eyewitness Accounts

Personal experiences

A compilation of eyewitness accounts of the 1914 Christmas Truce, from the Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres.

http://users.pandora.be/benedict.verheyen/ wwi_stories_christmas_truces_01.htm

Accounts from the Front

Soldiers' accounts of their experiences of the Christmas Truce of 1914.

www.newarkadvertiser.co.uk/features/truce.htm

Some shorts:

A single-page account of the 1914 Christmas Truce with some participant evidence.

http://perc.ca/PEN/1992-12-01/holmes.html

Short account of the 1st and 2nd Battalions The North Staffordshire Regiments' experience of the Christmas Truce football match at 'Dead Man's Alley'.

www.christmas-time.com/cp-trench.html

Letters

Letters home

Letters home from British soldiers who experienced the Christmas Truce, published by their local newspaper in January 1915.

www.thisishampshire.net/hampshire/archive/2002/01/03/ WINCHESTER_NEWS_NEWS57ZM.html

More letters home

Extracts from several soldiers' letters sent home from the trenches (some uncensored).

www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWletters.htm

Diary

A sergeant's diary

Detailed recall of military service, its second chapter focusing on November–December 1914. The Christmas Day entry notes record 'a chat with "our friends the enemy". Many of the Germs had costumes on which had been taken from the houses nearby, and one facetious fellow had a blouse, skirt, top hat, and umbrella, which grotesque figure caused much merriment. Various souvenirs were exchanged which I managed to send home. We also had an opportunity of seeing the famous Iron Cross which some of the men wore.' Read more at:

www.bobbrookes.co.uk/DiaryCH2.htm

The Trenches

Goodbye To All That

Some initial impressions of trench life on the Western Front, extracted from Robert Graves' powerful autobiography, one of the most famous books ever written about life in the trenches on the Western Front.

http://info.ox.ac.uk/departments/humanities/rose/goodbye.html

Waterlogged trenches

An explanation of the difficult conditions endured in the trenches together with soldiers' testimonies.

www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWwater.htm

Trench warfare

Experience an interactive 3D (360 º) virtual tour of a Great War trench network.

www.bbc.co.uk/history/3d/trench.shtml

No Man's Land

An explanation, description and eyewitness accounts of the horrors of No Man's Land.

www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWnoman.htm

Audio-Visual

A very scary Christmas

An audio resource with which you can hear a discussion of the Christmas Truce by Stanley Weintraub, author of 'Silent Night: The Story of the World War One Christmas Truce'. (See: Segment 2.)

www.wpr.org/book/011216a.htm

Great War movies

Follow the pals battalions to their front line trenches and accompany them on night patrol in No Man's Land.

www.bbc.co.uk/history/games/wwone/index.shtml

Poems

In Flanders Fields

Text of the immortal 'poppy poem' by John McCrae (1872–1918), with illustrations.

www.lib.byu.edu/~english/WWI/influences/flanders.html

The Great War poets

Introductions to the lives and works of the 16 Great War poets who are commemorated in Poets' Corner at Westminster Abbey.

www.lib.byu.edu/~english/WWI/poets/poets.html

Photography

Images

Excellent stimulus of original battlefield snapshots from a Great War family album.

www.users.zetnet.co.uk/dms/past/ww1/trenches.html

Images

An archive of some 1844 original photographs of the Great War.

http://raven.cc.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/photos/greatwar.htm

Primary resources

Australian State Library

Australian Government library of personal narratives and diaries, enlistment and casualty records, battle histories, war pamphlets, women's role, conscription and contemporary war magazines.

www.statelibrary.vic.gov.au/slv/resources/ww1/index.html

Poetry

Poetic interpretation

A footballing poets website with three modern poetic interpretations of the 1914 Christmas Day soccer games.

www.footballpoets.org/TrucePoems.asp#whatever

Christmas 1914

Text of the modern poem 'Christmas 1914' with appropriate illustration.

www.wargames.co.uk/Poems/Christmas1914.htm