WW1

Marjorie’s War: four families and the Great War

This podcast is based on the recently published book which tells the story of the author’s grandmother and nine young men from the four families. They were all served as junior officers and between them fought in all the major ...
The Battle of the Somme: fallen comrades

The clip starts with a title and sequence showing British tommies rescuing a fallen comrade who later died. We then see the famous shot of a soldier carrying his fallen comrade. The action then shifts to more shots of wounded ...
The Battle of the Somme: Battle Police

The film clip starts with Tommies making their way across No Man’s Land and into enemy front line trenches. We then see a title explaining that Battle Police are rounding up prisoners and wounded in No Man’s Land. From here ...
The Battle of the Somme: ammunition dumps

This clip gives us a detailed view of preparations for the attack at the Somme. We see vast ammunition dumps followed by busy scenes of trucks moving shells and other equipment and men busily loading and unloading vehicles. The final ...
Women Making Munitions

The film goes straight in to show women using heavy engineering machinery such as belt driven lathes. We see women on the production line assembling shells, which is clearly a complex and quite skilled process. The worker takes great care ...
‘With the North and South Irish At The Front’ Official pictures of the British army in France-Fourth series

The opening titles tell us we are looking at the Ulster Division, probably from 1915-17. We then see huge numbers of soldiers from that division all posing, smiling and waving for the camera. The titles then show us the Royal ...
US soldiers in a camp in France

This short clip shows a large number of US troops eating their rations. They are wearing their ‘doughboy hats’. Context US troops fought alongside British empire and French forces in the latter stages of the war. The USA entered the ...
Inspecting Captured German Defences

In this short sequence we see Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig inspecting the wrecked remains of the Hindenburg Line, Germany’s strongest line of defences. With him is Colonel Robert S. Bacon, a US officer, and French and British officers as ...
For the Empire – Part 2

This clip takes us first through a sequence of ruined cities in Belgium and France and shows scenes of complete devastation. This is contrasted with London’s safety from such attacks and this then links to a shot of merchant ships, ...
For the Empire – Part 1

At the start of this clip Britannia (representing Britain) points out ‘What others are doing for us’. We then see a young recruit being waved off to war by his poor, elderly parents. The action then moves to scenes of ...
British Soldiers Digging Trenches

This clip shows trainee Tommies digging trenches, probably in England in 1915. The clip closes with instruction on rifles and a machine gun. Context The film shows troops training before being sent to the western front in 1915. They are ...
Total war

This talk focuses on the concept of total war, what it means, and what it has meant over the past 200 years, with particular reference to the First and Second World Wars, the Boer War, the American Civil War and ...
Galaxy Zoo and old weather: exploring the potential of citizen science

A team at Oxford University has launched a range of ‘citizen science’ projects, all aimed at delivering real research through the efforts of a large community of public volunteers. ‘Old Weather’ is the first non-astronomical project for the team and ...
Merchant Navy operational records

Janet Dempsey examines the wealth of records which deal with the tragedy, terror, heroism and honour of the Merchant Navy in both World Wars.
Voices of the Armistice: Treaty of Versailles

Extracts from the Treaty of Versailles that ended the war between Germany and the Allied Powers. Original document catalogue reference: FO 93/36/76