Last week on TV we had a) 100 Days to Victory (documentary about a change of tactics in 1918 trench warfare); b) Teenage Tommies (doc on lads in the trenches); c) The Machine Gun and Skye’s Band of Brothers (doc on the pact of the Maxim machine gun on the war); d) The Somme Secret Tunnel Wars (doc on the trenches). And we even had two episodes of Black Adder Goes Forth.  

This week we have the second episode of 100 Days to victory; b) War Horse (feature film about a horse in the trenches); c) We Will Remember Them (doc on Great War cemeteries & memorials); d) The First World War From Above (doc of aerial photos of the war zone); e) 3 episodes of The Last Tommies (doc of Veterans of the Great War telling their stories, in particular of the Somme); f) The History of the Royal Tank regiment (doc starting with the Great War); g) Captain Jack and the Furious Few (doc on Royal Naval pilots in the Great War); h) The Final Hours (doc on the signing of the Great War armistice); and as well as two more episodes of Black Adder Goes Forth there’s also an Antiques Roadshow World War One Special from Etaples Military Cemetery.

BUT….the Great War was not just about fighting and dying. The result was not decided purely by fighting. The Allied Home Front kept going, the German Home Front collapsed, and that’s what ultimately decided the war. And if you’re wondering what the strange looking photograph opposite is, it’s London’s Trafalgar Square during “Tank Week.” One of the main ways the Allied war effort was funded was by people buying government bonds. And “tank weeks” were major fund raising events. See the tank, listen to speeches, buy bonds.