Wars and ConflictsΒ permalink
Help with WW1
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Message 1.Β
Posted by Lauren (U15046085) on Monday, 28th November 2011
I am in desperate need of help from fellow historians.
I am a year 12 student currently studying history, english literature, english language and economics.
For my literature/language coursework i am doing text/context analysis on how World War 1 was represented. For this i have to pick 3-5 texts and analyse them in detail. I have found a few to use, such as Siegfried Sasson's decleration against war, and some poetry from poets such as wilfred Owen. However i cannot find a newspaper article that was written during the time, possibly focused on trench warfare or conditions or just war in general.
Would anyone happen to know any websites where i may be able to view such articles?
Many thanks if you do!
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Message 2
Posted by Triceratops (U3420301) on Monday, 28th November 2011
Lauren,
This is one page of what is a large site of WW1 articles;
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Message 3
Posted by suvorovetz (U12273591) on Monday, 28th November 2011
If you're looking for literature fiction based on the Great War, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque comes to mind. Any library would have it, I think.
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Message 4
Posted by Triceratops (U3420301) on Monday, 28th November 2011
This is the main index;
"Storm of Steel" by Ernst Junger,is the memoir of a German soldier on the Western Front. It was republished a few years ago. -
Message 5
Posted by Triceratops (U3420301) on Monday, 28th November 2011
This is from Harpers Weekly in 1915
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Message 6
Posted by colonelblimp (U1705702) on Monday, 28th November 2011
Hi Lauren,
Can I suggest this:
Philip Gibbs was an official war correspondent and this piece contains links to articles that he had published in newspapers at the time. After the war, a lot of his reports were compiled into books, including a couple on the Somme and on Passchendaele. My grandfather, who had been a soldier in WW1 and actually fought at Passchendaele, had both of these - so I guess he must have thought Mr Gibbs was giving an accurate account.
Somewhere, I also have Philip Gibbs' later book, "The Realities of War", which the website says "painted a most unflattering portrait of Sir Douglas Haig, British Commander-in-Chief in France and Flanders, and his General Headquarters". It certainly did! I remember he described GHQ as "the city of beautiful nonsense", and had a great deal to say about how out of touch it was with the reality of the trenches. Of course, there was no way he'ld have been allowed to print this in his wartime articles.
I've looked at the actual war diary of the battalion my grandfather was serving with (that is, the official record kept by the unit every day during the fighting). It includes the message of thanks sent to them by the Brigade commander after the attack near Passchendaele in which grandad was wounded, which the Brigadier summed up in one terrible sentence: "The men kept going until they were killed or stuck in the mud". You'ld have thought that experience would have inclined grandad to agree with what Philip Gibbs had to say about Haig & Co after the war, when he was free to speak out - but he never bought "The Realities of War", I picked that one up second hand as a teenager. Maybe the wartime version, even though it wasn't so true to reality, was the way he preferred to remember it. -
Message 7
Posted by LongWeekend (U3023428) on Monday, 28th November 2011
Lauren
This site has some cartoons from WWI, from various countries:
This isn't text, of course, but was a popular form of communication in the Press.
Not online, but your local archive service or library may have the local newspapers of the period. Those would give you the type of material you are asking about.
If you are still looking for contemporary texts, "War Letters To A Wife" by Rowland Fielding is very interesting and is a source not often quoted. He was a barrister in the Guard's Special Reserve who ended the war in command of a battalion (in which one of my relative's served in a very junior capacity). The book is literally the letters he wrote to his wife during the war.
If you are using Siegfried Sassoon's Declaration, you should note that he was attacking the political leadership of the war, not the military leadership.
Good luck -
Message 8
Posted by Caro (U1691443) on Tuesday, 29th November 2011
I presume you are wanting British sources, but if you were interested in a different perspective this site, written on the second anniversary of the Great War, talks of the reasons for the war and why NZ is fighting (and how good we are at it, first to do this, that and the next thing!).
And another set of war letters to his wife is from William Malone, leader of the NZ contingent or some of it at Gallipoli and killed there. He was relatively old, in his 50s, with a younger wife. His letters are quite emotional while the diaries he sent show someone quite disciplinarian and Victorian in many ways. The letters and reports are in a book called No Better Death: the Great War diaries and letters of William Malone, edited by John Crawford. It may not be available in Britain.
Cheers, Caro. -
Message 9
Posted by Piltdown (U6504098) on Saturday, 3rd December 2011
Get hold of a copy of "The Wipers Times". This is an anthology of a trench newspaper published by British soldiers on the front line and provides a fascinating insight into the opinions and humour of front line troops of the time.
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Message 10
Posted by Tim of Acleah (U1736633) on Saturday, 3rd December 2011
'Testament of Youth' by Vera Brittain, although written sometime after the war, is an account of her experience as a VAD during the war and also of losing brother and closest male friends during the war.
Tim -
Message 11
Posted by Heather (U15043255) on Sunday, 4th December 2011
Hi, Have you looked at the site called 1914-1918.net
It is titled "The Long,Long Trail
It is quite comprehensive about WW1 and has links to other relative sites.
I found it very interesting.
Heather
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