For every belligerent, 1917 was a year of crisis at home and at the front, a year of wild swings and near disasters, and by the time it was over the very nature of the war had changed dramatically. A French offensive in the spring soon ground to a standstill, sparking a wave of mutinies and indiscipline in the trenches that left the French army virtually useless as an offensive force. The British offensive of July–November, called variously Passchendaele or the Third Battle of Ypres, was a tactical disaster that ended in a viscous porridge of mud. That offensive action could be ordered under such conditions is a measure of how far Western Front generals had been seduced into a gothic unreality. Allied and German casualties “in Flanders Fields, where poppies grow” numbered between 500,000 and 800,000. The British Army, too, neared the end of its offensive capacities.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/291225/international-relations/32821/Military-stalemate-and-new-belligerents#ref=ref303982
In Flanders fields.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
Lt.-Col. John McCrae
"In Flanders Fields" is one of the most famous poems written during the First World War. Canadian physician and Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae wrote it on May 3, 1915, after he witnessed the death of his friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, the day before. The poppies referred to in the poem grew in profusion in Flanders where war casualties had been buried and thus became a symbol of Remembrance Day.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Flanders_Fields
The War Poets
Poets such as Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Isaac Rosenberg and Ivor Gurney have a strong association with World War One. As a group, their poems are often violent and realistic, challenging earlier poetry which communicated a pro-war message. The first-hand experience of war is arguably one reason why there is such a shift in the attitude of poets towards war.
Wilfred Owen is one of the most famous war poets. He was born in 1893 and died in 1918, just one week from the end of World War One. His poetry is characterised by powerful descriptions of the conditions faced by soldiers in the trenches. Dulce et Decorum Est, probably his most famous poem, uses gruesome imagery to narrate the horrors of a gas attack. Owen makes clear to the reader that he is unconvinced by the rhetoric of previous poets who have declared the glory of dying in war. Poems such as Tennyson's (1809-1892) Charge of the Light Brigade offer a final message of glory and bravery, with sacrifice for one's country a noble and desirable end. Wilfred Owen's poem Dulce Et Decorum Est rejects 'The old Lie'. Owen experienced war, and so his poems are more closely reflective of the views of the serving soldiers.
Below the first few lines of Tennyson’s The Charge of the Light Brigade:
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
'Forward the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!' he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Owen’s Dulce Et Decorum Est
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! - An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime...
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams before my helpless sight
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin,
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/warpoets_knew.htm
Wormwood Scrubs
The prison was built between 1875 and 1891. During World War II the prison was used by the War Department
http://www.hmprisonservice.gov.uk/prisoninformation/locateaprison/prison.asp?id=404,15,2,15,404,0.
The Fenians
The Fenians were members of the so-called Fenian movement in Ireland and elsewhere, though primarily America and England . The Fenians wanted one simple desire for Ireland - independence from British rule. The Great Famine had a massive impact on Ireland. Some in Ireland believed that the government in London - to solve the 'Irish Problem' - had deliberately done as little as possible to aid the people of Ireland – a form of genocide – and these people concluded that the only hope Ireland had for its future was a complete separation from Great Britain. If London was unwilling to grant this, then the Fenians would fight for it.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/fenian_movement.htm
Easter Rising
The 1916 Easter Rising and the War of Independence that followed in 1919-21 transformed the political landscape in Ireland. To explore the events leading up to 1916, the Insurrection itself and its aftermath, through essays, photographs, sound archive, music and newspapers from the period go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/easterrising/
The Fabian Society
Socialist society founded in 1883–84 in London, having as its goal the establishment of a democratic socialist state in Great Britain. The Fabians put their faith in evolutionary socialism rather than in revolution. The Fabians at first attempted to permeate the Liberal and Conservative parties with socialist ideas, but later they helped to organize the separate Labour Representation Committee, which became the Labour Party in 1906. The Fabian Society has since been affiliated with the Labour Party.
The national membership of the Fabian Society has never been very great (at its peak in 1946 it had only about 8,400 members), but the importance of the society has always been much greater than its size might suggest. Generally, a large number of Labour members of Parliament in the House of Commons, as well as many of the party leaders, are Fabians.
The principal activities of the society consist in the furtherance of its goal of socialism through the education of the public along socialist lines by means of meetings, lectures, discussion groups, conferences, and summer schools; carrying out research into political, economic, and social problems; and publishing books, pamphlets, and periodicals.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/199691/Fabian-Society
Beatrice (1858-1943) and Sidney (1859-1947) Webb
The Webbs were social reformers, founding members of the Fabian Society, prolific writers, and the founders of the London School of Economics. The Webbs' writing on trade unionism, labour history, and local government considerably affected contemporary political theory and practice.
Letters home: Becoming a man
The website of the BBC has a myriad of information about the First World War. One of the most interesting sections reproduces letters that real soldiers wrote home while away fighting. Below a few of them.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1998/10/98/world_war_i/203846.stm
EJ 'Ted' Poole was the younger brother of a soldier who was killed at the third battle of Ypres in 1917. The young Ted was conscripted in May 1918 and trained at Aldershot, from where the letter below was posted. It is clear he was replying to the concerned enquiries of his father, who, having already lost one son, wanted Ted to become a good soldier in the hope that it would improve his chances of survival.
Ted, who was sent to France in August 1918, wrote that he sure that the training would "either make a man of me or kill me". Scarcely two months later, on 13 October, he was killed in action. He was 18.
28th May, 1918,
Dear Father,
Just a few lines in answer to your letter which I received today.
Yes I have got used to the puttees, as they have shaped to my legs by now. And I am getting used to my other things now, as I have been dished out with a rifle and bayonet, and now when I go on parade I have got to wear my belt, bayonet and cartridge pouch and also take the rifle.
They have been teaching us bayonet fighting today and I can tell you it makes your arms ache, when you make a point that is, when you lunge out at imaginary enemy, with the rifle at arms length. I think with this hard training they will either make a man of me or kill me. You ought to see me in my Shrapnel Helmet and Gas Mask, it would make you laugh, especially as the helmet wobbles from side to side, every time I walk.
Yes I got my food alright and you can have supper if you like to go for it, and you can bet I always go for supper. I am taking your advice and eating all I can.
Yes I did remember Dolly's birthday and I have sent her a little badge of my Regiment which she asked for and which I expect you have received by now. You will have to tell Miss Farmer that I think she will have to wait another two months before she sees me on leave.
I will see the officer about the allowance in a day or so, as I have heard today that two or three boys mothers are receiving an allowance, but I don't know how much.
Well, I think I will have to close now. As I haven't anything more to say just at present. Hoping you are quite well.
From your loving son,
Ted.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
PS. Love to Dolly and Frank
After the war Ted Poole's family erected a headstone which bore the inscription, "Out of the stress of the doing, into the peace of the done". He is buried at Naves Communal Extension Cemetery, near Cambrai in France.
EJ Poole's letters are held in the documents library at the Imperial War Museum. Extracts are also published in Malcolm Brown's book 1918 Year of Victory.
Letters home: Forever sweethearts
Private William Martin and Emily Chitticks were engaged to be married when he was killed in action on 27 March 1917.
While he was fighting in France with the Battalion Devonshire Regiment, the couple wrote to each other as often as possible.
Emily was devastated by her fiance's death and never married. After she died in 1974 a note among her papers was found requesting that William's letters be buried with her.
France, 24 March, 1917
My dearest Emily
Just a few lines dear to tell you I am still in the land of the living and keeping well, trusting you are the same dear, I have just received your letter dear and was very pleased to get it. It came rather more punctual this time for it only took five days. We are not in the same place dear, in fact we don't stay in the same place very long... we are having very nice weather at present dear and I hope it continues... Fondest love and kisses from your
loving Sweetheart
Will
xxxxxxxxxxx
Three days after this letter William Martin was killed in action. Emily Chitticks continued to write, ignorant of his death, but oddly she changed to writing in red pen the day after William died. Five of her letters were returned marked "killed in action":
29/3/17
Mr Dearest Will
I was so delighted to get your letter this morning and know you are quite alright. I am pleased to say I am alright myself and hope dear this will find you the same. I was so pleased to hear darling that you had such a nice enjoyable evening, It was quite a treat I am sure. I don't suppose you do get much amusement.
I am glad you are getting my letters dear, I am not waiting until I get your letters dear now before I write because it would make it so long for you to wait for a letter, and I guess you are pleased to get as many as possible.
Emily's letter were returned marked 'killed in action'
I can understand darling your not being able to write as frequently. I shall get used to waiting for your letters soon I guess, but at first it seems so strange after being used to having them so regularly.
Well darling I don't know any more to say now and I am feeling sleepy. Oh I wish you were here darling, but its no good wishing. Fondest love and lots of kisses from
your everloving little girl Emily
xxxxxxxxxxxxAlthough records reveal that William Martin was buried, his grave was never found. He is commemorated on the Fauborg d'Amiens memorial at Arras.
The couple's letters are held in the document library at the Imperial War Museum.
Letters home: Over the top
Company Sergeant-Major James Milne wrote this poignant letter to his wife moments before he was ordered over the top. It was to be delivered in the event of his death - but luckily James Milne survived and was later reunited with his family.
July 20, 1918
My own beloved wife
I do not know how to start this letter. The circumstances are different from any under which I ever wrote before. I am not to post it but will leave it in my pocket, if anything happens to me someone will perhaps post it. We are going over the top this afternoon and only God in Heaven knows who will come out of it alive.
I am in his hands and whatever happens I will look to him in this world and the world to come. If I am called my regret is that I leave you and my bairns. I go to him with your dear face the last vision on earth I shall see and your name upon my lips, you the best of women. You will look after by Darling Bairns for me and tell them how their daddy died.
‘God in Heaven knows who will come out of it alive’
Oh! How I love you all and as I sit here waiting I wonder what you are doing at home. I must not do that. It is hard enough sitting waiting. We may move at any minute. When this reaches you for me there will be no more war, only eternal peace and waiting for you.
It is a legacy of struggle for you but God will look after you and we shall meet again when there will be no more parting. I am to write no more sweetheart... Kiss the Bairns for me once more. I dare not think of them my Darlings.
Goodbye, you best of women and best of wives, my beloved sweetheart. May God in his mercy look over you and bless you all... May he in that same mercy preserve me today. Eternal love from
Yours for evermore
Jim xxxxxxxx
This letter is currently on display in the Imperial War Museum’s First World War Remembered exhibition.
Joseph Rudyard Kipling (Bombay, 1865–1936). One of the most popular writers in English in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is known for his children's books (The Jungle Book and Kim), poems (Mandalay and If— ) and his many short stories (The Man Who Would Be King). Kipling has been seen as a "prophet of British imperialism" as well as an advocate of militarism in his works.
If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
T S Eliot, (1888–1965), was a poet, dramatist, and literary critic. Famous , among other poems, for The Waste Land. He was born in the United States, moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 (at age 25), and became a British subject at the age of 39. The Waste Land begins with the following famous lines:
April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967) was an English poet and author. One of the “war poets”, famous for his satirical anti-war verse during World War I.
The Battle of Verdun was one of the most critical battles in World War I on the Western Front, fought between the German and French armies from 21 February to 18 December 1916 around the city of Verdun-sur-Meuse in northeast France. The Battle of Verdun resulted in more than a quarter of a million deaths and at least a million wounded. Verdun was the longest battle and one of the bloodiest in World War I.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Verdun
General Pétain became a hero in France for his leadership during World War I, and in particular during the Battle of Verdun.General Douglas Haig ( 1861–1928) was a British soldier and senior commander (field marshal) during World War I. He commanded the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) from 1915 to the end of the War. Most notably he was commander during the Battle of the Somme, the 3rd Battle of Ypres and the series of victories leading to the German surrender in 1918.
Lloyd George (1863-1945) was one of the great reforming British chancellors of the 20th century and prime minister from 1916 to 1922. Son of a schoolmaster raised in Wales by his mother after his father died when he was very young. He became a lifelong Welsh nationalist. Elected Liberal member of parliament for Caernarvon, a seat he held until 1945. He quickly became known for his radicalism and earned notoriety for his opposition to the Boer War. As Chancellor of the Exchequer (Minister van Financiën) his 1909 budget has been called the 'people's budget' since it provided for social insurance that was to be partly financed by land and income taxes. The budget was rejected by the House of Lords. This, in turn, led directly to the Parliament Act of 1911 by which the Lords lost their power of veto. Lloyd George remained chancellor of the exchequer through the early years of World War One. In 1915 he was appointed minister of munitions. In July 1916 he became secretary of state for war. In December 1916 he became prime minister. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/george_david_lloyd.shtml
Rupert Brooke (1887–1915]) was an English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War (especially The Soldier); however, he never experienced combat at first hand. He joined the Royal Navy as a volunteer, but died shortly after from an infected mosquito bite.
The soldier
"If I should die, think only this of me:
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed; (verborgen)
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware, (bewust gemaakt)
Gave, once her flowers to love, her ways to roam, (zwerven)
A body of England’s, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home. (gezegend)
And think, this heart, all evil shed away, (zonder het kwaad)
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day; (her=England’s)
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven."
Christopher Marlowe(1564–1593) was, next to William Shakespeare, the most important dramatist, poet and translator of Queen Elizabeth I's reign (1558–1603). There has always been much speculation about his “mysterious” life, notably the theory that Marlowe was a secret agent working for intelligence service. He was stabbed to death in a row. One of his most famous plays is The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (first published posthumostly in 1604), based on the Faust story, in which a man sells his soul to the devil for power and knowledge.
Victoria (1819 – 1901) was from 1837 the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and from 1876 the first Empress of India until her death. The period centred on her reign is known as the Victorian era.
Lord Kitchener (1850 - 1916) was commander-in-chief of the Boer War, where he fought the guerrillas by burning farms and herding women and children into disease-ridden concentration camps. Secretary of state for war at the beginning of World War I, Kitchener organized armies on an unprecedented scale and became a symbol of the national will to win. He was killed in 1916 when HMS Hampshire was sunk by a German mine while taking him to Russia. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/kitchener_lord.shtmlWhitehall is a road in London where the government ministries are located. The Mall is the road that goes from Buckinham Palace to Trafalgar Square. Both roads are therefore associated with the government and the monarchy.
The Russian Revolution(1917–1918)
World War I was a disaster for Russia: it caused inflation, plunged the country into a food shortage, and ultimately cost the lives of nearly 5 million Russian soldiers and civilians, as well as a series of humiliating military defeats.
The October Revolution(also called the Bolshevik Revolution) overturned the interim provisional government and established the Soviet Union. After October, the Bolsheviks realized that they could not maintain power in an election-based system without sharing power with other parties and compromising their principles. As a result, they formally abandoned the democratic process in January 1918 and declared themselves the representatives of a dictatorship of the proletariat. In response, the Russian Civil War broke out in the summer of that year and would last well into 1920. Vladimir Lenin was the founder of the Bolshevik Party, organizer of the October Revolution, and the first leader of the Soviet Union. Lenin spent most of the early twentieth century living in exile in Europe (primarily Britain and Switzerland). He was a devout follower of Marxism and believed that once a Communist revolution took place in Russia, Communism would spread rapidly around the world. Lenin recognized that the current Russian leaders’ hesitation to pull the country out of World War I was a weakness that could be exploited. He knew that after four years of massive losses and humiliating defeats, the army was ready to come home and was on the verge of revolting.
http://www.sparknotes.com/history/european/russianrev/section1.html
MarxismAccording to Karl Marx, under capitalism, the working class own only their capacity to work; they have the ability only to sell their own labor. The workers, in order to support their families are paid a bare minimum wage or salary. The worker is therefore alienated because he has no control over the labor or product which he produces. The capitalists, who own the means of production, sell the products produced by the workers and keep the surplus value for themselves, rather than distributing it equally among the workers. Surplus value is the difference between what the worker is paid and the price for which the product is sold. Eventually, workers will revolt against this situation and take over the state (the means by which the ruling class forcibly maintains rule over the other classes) and establish a dictatorship of the working class.
http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/what-is-marxism-faq.htm
Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, essayist, and social critic, best known for his work in mathematical logic and analytic philosophy and his anti-war protests.http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell/
Entente Cordiale(April 8, 1904)
Anglo-French agreement that settled numerous colonial disputes and ended antagonisms between Britain and France. It granted freedom of action to Britain in Egypt and to France in Morocco and resolved several other imperial disputes. The agreement reduced the virtual isolation of each country and was consequently upsetting to Germany, which had benefited from their antagonism. The Entente paved the way for Anglo-French diplomatic cooperation against Germany before World War I and for later military alliances.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/188822/Entente-Cordiale
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)Austrian physician who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology. Freud is best known for his theories of the unconscious mind and the defense mechanism of repression and for creating the clinical practice of psychoanalysis for curing psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst. Freud is also renowned for his redefinition of sexual desire as the primary motivational energy of human life, as well as his therapeutic techniques, including the use of free association and the interpretation of dreams as sources of insight into unconscious desires. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud
SuffragettesLate-19th and early-20th century movement for women’s right to vote. Suffragettes carried out direct action such as chaining themselves to railings, setting fire to mailbox contents, smashing windows and on occasions setting off bombs. Many suffragettes were imprisoned and went on hunger strikes, during which they were restrained and forcibly fed .
The so-called Cat and Mouse Act was passed by the British government to prevent suffragettes from obtaining public sympathy; it provided the release of those whose hunger strikes had brought them sickness, as well as their re-imprisonment once they had recovered.
During World War I, a serious shortage of able-bodied men occurred, and women were required to take on many of the traditional male roles. This led to a new view of what a woman was capable of doing. The war also caused a split in the British suffragette movement, with the mainstream, represented by Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst's Women's Social and Political Union, calling a 'ceasefire' in their campaign for the duration of the war, while more radical suffragettes, represented by Sylvia Pankhurst's Women's Suffrage Federation continued the struggle.
In 1918, the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed an act granting the vote to women over the age of 30 who were householders, the wives of householders, occupiers of property with an annual rent of £5, and graduates of British universities. Finally, women in the United Kingdom achieved suffrage on the same terms as men in 1928.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffragette
Nurse Edith Cavell helped hundreds of soldiers from the Allied forces to escape occupied Belgium to the neutral Netherlands, in violation of German military law. She was arrested on 3 August 1915, held in prison for 10 weeks, court-martialled and executed by firing squad. Cavell became a popular martyr and entered British history as a heroine. Edith Cavell's case became an important article of British propaganda for the remainder of the war.
http://www.edithcavell.org.uk/
Madame Curie (1867 –1934) was a physicist and chemist of Polish upbringing and, subsequently, French citizenship. She was a pioneer in the field of radioactivity, the only person honored with Nobel Prizes in two different sciences, and the first female professor at the University of Paris. Her achievements include the creation of a theory of radioactivity and the discovery of two new elements, radium and polonium. It was also under her personal direction that the world's first studies were conducted into the treatment of neoplasms ("cancers"), using radioactive isotopes.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Curie
Chief whip is the name used in the British Parliament for the Member of Parrliament (MP) that makes sure that the Members of Parliament of his or her party are present when voting on a law and that they vote according to what the party leaders have stipulated. They are therefore in charge of party discipline.
The Hound of the Baskervilles is a novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with detective Sherlock Holmes as main character.
If You Want to Find the Sergeant Major (also commonly known as The Old Barbed Wire) was a popular wartime British song. http://www.firstworldwar.com/audio/ifyouwanttofind.htm
Battle of Dardanelles
The Dardanelles is a 61km (28 mile) strait between Europe and Asiatic Turkey. At the outbreak of World War I, the Ottoman Empire (currently Turkey) was an unaligned power. At the outbreak of war, the British seized two battleships constructed for the Ottoman Empire which were still in British shipyards, while also refusing to refund payment made on the vessels. In response, Germany made a gift of two ships as replacements.Operated by their German crews, these ships became the backbone of the Ottoman navy. In October 1914, the Ottomans closed the Dardanelles to Allied shipping, thus prompting an Allied attack.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWdardanelles.htm
Battle of the Somme
Fought from July to November 1916, the battle of the Somme was among the largest battles of the First World War. With more than 1.5 million casualties, it is also one of the bloodiest military operations recorded. The Allied forces attempted to break through the German lines along a 12-mile (19 km) front north and south of the River Somme in northern France. One purpose of the battle was to draw German forces away from the Battle of Verdun; however, by its end the losses on the Somme had exceeded those at Verdun.
Verdun was an icon that would affect the national consciousness of France for generations, and the Somme would have the same effect on generations of British people. The battle is best remembered for its first day, 1 July 1916, on which the British suffered 57,470 casualties, including 19,240 dead—the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army. For the first time, the home front in the United Kingdom was exposed to the horrors of modern war with the release in August of the propaganda film The Battle of the Somme, which used actual footage from the first days of the battle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Somme_(1916)
the Battle of the Somme
The love that dare not speak its name refers to homosexuality. It is a phrase from the poem "Two Loves" by Lord Alfred Douglas, Oscar Wilde's lover. Oscar Wilde was a successful playwright, poet and novelist. He was a witty public figure who, after doing two years of hard labour in prison for so-called indecent behaviour, died abroad in self imposed exile.
