Tag Archives: first world war

At the going down of the sun

Posted on July 31, 2017 by ActonBooks

World War One has been jogged back into the UK’s collective consciousness once more with the Third Battle of Ypres,aka Passchendaele getting its own Royal Command Performance on British TV. Two thoughts; one pretty much universal and the other pretty … Continue reading →

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“Useful present for a soldier”

Posted on November 28, 2014 by ActonBooks

Napoleon called the British a nation of shopkeepers. As the first Christmas of the 1914-18 war neared, those shopkeepers of Britain were concerned the country might be distracted from being a nation of customers. To remedy it for that year … Continue reading →

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“War is no sport”

Posted on November 17, 2014 by ActonBooks

Inevitably there will be many more words written over Christmas about that unofficial truce during the first year of the First World War, when, to the dismay of their senior officers, British and German soldiers left their trenches swapped cigarettes … Continue reading →

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“The Fiends We Are Fighting”

Posted on August 20, 2014 by ActonBooks

Now that the handwringing over the millions killed in the First World War has momentarily quietened, here’s a story that in all probability will not get told again, as it does not play the tidy vision of civilised nations fighting … Continue reading →

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A million men died — and it wasn’t in World War One

Posted on August 4, 2014 by ActonBooks

A cynic could play cliché bingo in Britain today. “Ultimate sacrifice”, “pals’ battalion”, “over the top”, “the mud”, “No Man’s Land”, “over by Christmas”, “lions led by donkeys”, “four years of trench warfare.” We are treating 100 years’ tick tock … Continue reading →

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