WW1 History site

Wudang

BOFH
Wudang
Joined
Jun 30, 2003
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Location
People's Republic of South Yorkshire
http://www.livesofthefirstworldwar.org/

A head's up for the above project from the Imperial War Museum. My company's part is we've scanned all the records from the UK's old Midland Bank and we're beta-testing a crowdsourced transcription service. They're quite short entries, name, rank, regiment,DOB, date joined bank, date enlisted. What makes them fascinating is the notes on the back.
Today was a good day as most of the ones I transcribed in spare moments made it back ("resumed his duties as Bank Staff"). Not all. One 2nd Lt - 3 years training in England.
Jul 1 - to France
Aug 1 - wounded in head by sniper.
Aug 3 - died from wound.
Others as we know came back wounded in body and spirit.

Other companies are doing similar things or contributing in different ways. It should be interesting.
 
Since it will soon be 100 years since the start of World War I, then I am sure that there will be quite a few new World War I web sites in the near future.
 
There is going to be plenty of on line material to commemorate the Centennial of the Great War,believe me.
 
Lots of media too... I'm working on a WWI mini-series in NZ at the moment, and I know of about six films or TV series currently shooting in Australia that are about WWI.
 
It seems it's basically going to be a database of life-stories of people involved in the war. People who's family members served can even upload pictures of objects (for instance things brought back from the war by a relative) and add them to that particular person's entry. It seems like a cool idea, and they say they've got over 8 million people's stories.

From the front page:
Lives of the First World War will bring material from museums, libraries, archives and family collections from across the world together in one place. IWM needs your help to explore those documents, to link them together and to start telling the stories of those who served in uniform and worked on the home front.
Click to expand...
 
Anyone know a '100 days ago' website that shows stories and news articles from a 100 years ago each day, especially concerning WW1?

I think it would be neat every day to check in on what was happening exactly 100 years ago: the escalating tension, discussions of armed forces, negotiations, etc. So far, my searching hasn't found anything very good.
 
Sounds interesting. My grandfather was an American surgeon who ended up at the front at the time of the armistice.

One story he told long long ago was that near the end they ran out of sutures, and one of the last patients they sent back to the hospital in England was stitched together with safety pins. He always regretted that he had not found out what happened to him. I wonder if there's a record somewhere.
 
President Wilson declared that the United States entering this spectacle of mass insanity would be "the war to end all wars" and would "make the world safe for democracy". If anything I hope the centennial will be a reminder of the limitations of our political leaders' vision.
 
bignickel said:
Anyone know a '100 days ago' website that shows stories and news articles from a 100 years ago each day, especially concerning WW1?

I think it would be neat every day to check in on what was happening exactly 100 years ago: the escalating tension, discussions of armed forces, negotiations, etc. So far, my searching hasn't found anything very good.
Click to expand...

It sounds like an interesting concept, but I've not come across one.
 
Damien Evans said:
It sounds like an interesting concept, but I've not come across one.
Click to expand...

Our local newspaper used to do this every day; each edition included an article from the edition exactly 100 years earlier. Some were fascinating, some quirky, some amusingly old-fashioned. Sometimes they included an ad instead. I don't think they do it any more, sadly.
 
We shot our first battle scenes the other night. It was a "going over the top" scene (think the end of "Blackadder Goes Forth". It was as we were shooting it that the significance of what we were recreating finally sunk in. It was a pretty eerie, spine-tingling moment.
 
gumboot said:
We shot our first battle scenes the other night. It was a "going over the top" scene (think the end of "Blackadder Goes Forth". It was as we were shooting it that the significance of what we were recreating finally sunk in. It was a pretty eerie, spine-tingling moment.
Click to expand...

Which battle was it based on?
 
Wudang said:
http://www.livesofthefirstworldwar.org/

A head's up for the above project from the Imperial War Museum. My company's part is we've scanned all the records from the UK's old Midland Bank and we're beta-testing a crowdsourced transcription service. They're quite short entries, name, rank, regiment,DOB, date joined bank, date enlisted. What makes them fascinating is the notes on the back.
Today was a good day as most of the ones I transcribed in spare moments made it back ("resumed his duties as Bank Staff"). Not all. One 2nd Lt - 3 years training in England.
Jul 1 - to France
Aug 1 - wounded in head by sniper.
Aug 3 - died from wound.
Others as we know came back wounded in body and spirit.

Other companies are doing similar things or contributing in different ways. It should be interesting.
Click to expand...

As an aside, a military historian of my acquaintance pointed out that 88% of combatants came back alive - albeit many in a state of psychological trauma.
 
Anerystos said:
As an aside, a military historian of my acquaintance pointed out that 88% of combatants came back alive - albeit many in a state of psychological trauma.
Click to expand...

Not to mention injured...

Although if you were a New Zealander in World War One your odds were poorer - only 82% of all those sent overseas (that's combatants and non-combatants) survived to come home, and of those, about half were wounded.
 
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