The First World War: The Great War
Honouring the Fallen (11
November 2018)
"At the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh
month of 1918, the guns fell silent. A hundred years ago the
barbarous folly of the ruling elites of Europe known to us as the
First World War or Great War came to an end. The suffering and scars
it caused remain long afterwards and changed the world. How should
we remember and more importantly honour those of our forebears who
endured so much suffering and sacrificed so much? Is it just enough
to once a year listen to the hauntingly sad 'Last Post', and watch
the poppies falling in the Albert Hall?..."
They Fought and Died For Freedom - And It Was Not In Vain
(11 November 2018)
"We are now at the centenary of the Great War's end. Many
will be asking what the war was for, what did it achieve, was it
worth the immense, almost unimaginable cost in lives and suffering?
These are questions we should pose whenever we ask others to die on
our behalf. It would be deeply callous not to..."
Armistice 100: They Shall Not Grow Old
(11 November 2018)
"Black and white is another world: they do not feel because
there are no tears; where blood is grey, there is no pain. The
grainy ghosts are trapped in trenches or hanging on the old barbed
wire. We've seen them, we've seen them... Or have we partially
glimpsed and never really care because they aren't quite here?..."
We Shall Remember Them (11
November 2018)
"Today I, along with my wife and child, will put on our
'Saturday Best clothes' and will brave the rain and head off into
our local town for Remembrance Sunday. We will take our places among
many others young and old to pay our respects to those who have
served the British armed forces over many years. We will remember
those who served with distinction and protected this country and in
particular we will remember those who made the ultimate
sacrifice..."
Soldiers?
No, Britain Lost 700,000 Poets, Teachers, Inventors... and Fathers
(11 November 2018)
"What do you think about during the two minutes silence? I
used to think of men at war, and hear in my head the shouts and the
clash of arms. Now I see a narrow street of small houses at dusk. A
young man in army uniform is embracing his wife and little children
in a lighted doorway. He will not return..."
The Proud Memories You Will Never Allow To Fade (11
November 2018)
"Recollections of families'
service and sacrifice..."
YOUTUBE:
They Shall Not Be Forgotten (11 November 2018)
"A video to commemorate those men
on both sides of WW1 that paid the ultimate sacrifice. Lest We
Forget."
Preserving God's Image in the Face of Death
(11 November 2018)
"Regardless of what uniform each soldier wore ... underneath
[was] an image bearer of God (Genesis 1:27) ... Unfortunately,
despite Germany's very blessed past, in relation to the Reformation
... the nation's underlying philosophy had dramatically changed.
Darwinism was now clearly Germany's philosophy, which is understood
to be an underlying cause in its attitudes to its European
neighbours. People such as the biologist, Ernst Haeckel, a devoted
Darwinian disciple, had ensured that Social Darwinism had pervaded
the thinking of Germany's military, academic, and political leaders,
and the populace at large..."
They Loved and Were Loved (09
November 2018)
"It is said that there isn't any family which hasn't lost at
least one of their men in either, or both, of the two world wars...
My great-grandmother, Mabel (Ada) Robinson, née Ashby, was one of so
many, many women who lost their menfolk in battle. Her husband
and both her two brothers died in the Great War..."
The Great War and the Family Ties That Bind Us Together
(06 November 2018)
"The Doiran Memorial stands roughly in the centre of the line
occupied for two years by the Allies in Macedonia, but close to the
western end, which was held by Commonwealth forces. It marks the
scene of the fierce fighting of 1917-1918, which caused the majority
of the Commonwealth battle casualties..."
The
First World War: One Man's Story (22 October 2018)
This is just a very short account
of just a very small part of the terrible experience of my
Great-Uncle Harry on the battlefields of the First World War.
Silence and Sacrifice (October 2018)
"The last soldiers went 'over the
top' at 4.20am on 11th November 1918. The Armistice was signed at
5am in a railway carriage in the Forest of Compiegne, France. Then,
at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, the guns
of Europe fell silent. The Great War was over..."
YOUTUBE:
MCMXIV (07 January 2018)
"Never such innocence; never
before or since" / Viewers' comments: "The
generation that went to war in 1914 was one of the most courageous
and patriotic" / "Amazing men, made to do the
unspeakable" / "...only to be
betrayed by their own government. Shame on our politicians" /
"A desperately sad video. The enormity of what we have lost is
overwhelming, incomprehensible" / "Great Britain once a
vestige of Anglo Saxon culture and accomplishment is now reduced to
a third world cesspit"
World War One Trench Warfare (07 January 2017)
"On the 28th of July 1914, World
War One began and soldiers from both sides of the battle began
digging big holes in the ground where they would live, eat, sleep,
fight, and die together. The trenches became the battle ground of
The Great War and they became the final resting place for millions
of young men ... After six weeks of basic training, the young men
were sent to war really unprepared for the unimaginable horrors that
lay ahead of them..."
YOUTUBE:
The Trenches in WWI (17 August 2015)
"An overview of experiences in
the trenches from History File"
Remembrance Sunday: Sacrifice, Freedom and Peace (09
November 2014)
"You've probably never been shot
by a sniper or blown to bits by a hand grenade, but sacrifice is
agony. It might sound golden, but it is hours of fear and loneliness
garnished by the weeds of an obscure grave. We only hear the valiant
tales of detachment and farewell. But hearts bled, limbs writhed and
voices groaned in rivers of bitterness chocking on the stench of
trotting flesh ... They were our boys ... they died to save us..."
100 Facts About World War One - 100 Years After It Began
(08 August 2014)
"This week marks the 100th anniversary of the start of World
War One. Here are 100 facts about that fateful war, 100 years after
its beginning..."
Unveiling of the Rothenstein Mural (20 May 2014)
"The Rothenstein Mural was
painted in 1916 as a memorial to members of the British universities
serving in the Great War ... 'I happened to be at Oxford where I
witnessed the conferring of degrees... The sight of a number of
youths, booted and spurred, with their gowns over their khaki,
kneeling before the Chancellor to receive their degrees, put me in
mind of the age of chivalry, so touching and beautiful were these
young figures; and I thought what a fine subject for a memorial
painting this would make'..."
YOUTUBE:
WWI Overview (19 October 2008)
"An introduction to World War I"
The Poppy
A Morning Selling Poppies (11
November 2018)
"Poppies should always be red. The blessings bestowed on our
country are overflowing. But if you reach down into our history,
also overflowing is the blood of millions of our ancestors and those
in recent wars - profusely and thickly and deeply - the earth is
socked in the blood of the slain. This Remembrance Sunday, when we
stand silent, we will remember those who died, sacrificed and never
came home, and those left behind. I hope we never stop wearing our
Poppies."
The Poppies Should Always Be Red
(09 November 2018)
"As I waited for the lift, I stared at the Poppy display
table next to it. It looked so serene and peaceful, with red poppies
strewn over a white cloth, a poppy wreath and a small cross. A
simple yet beautiful homage to deep sacrifice and terrible
bloodshed..."
Remembrance Day: The Story of the Poppy (06 November
2017)
"Much of the fighting in the
First World War took place in the once peaceful and beautiful
countryside of Western Europe. Landscapes, villages and lives were
destroyed - torn to pieces by the shelling which took place over the
four years of conflict. The once beautiful countryside was
transformed into bleak and barren fields of mud where no sign of
life could be found. But, it was in one such seemingly-lifeless
field that bright red 'Flanders' poppies, surprisingly resilient for
their delicate appearance, began to grow..."
YOUTUBE:
Explanation of Poppies and Remembrance (04 November
2014)
Viewer's comment: "Very
informative and should be relevant to everyone"
We Shall Not Sleep Though Poppies Grow in Flanders Fields
(11 November 2011)
"The 11th November marks the end
of the Great War that ended at 11am 11/11/1918, specifically known
as Armistice Day. Remembrance day, an alternative name since 1919,
holds a 2 minute silence on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of
the eleventh month for remembering and reflecting upon the courage
and the pure selflessness of [the soldiers'] actions. The
significance of the poppy, as it traditionally worn, marks our
respect for these heroes who have fought and for those who have lost
their lives in the Great War in order to make us free..."
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders Fields (Page Last Edited 01 November 2018)
"John McCrae was inspired to
write [his poem] on May 3, 1915, after presiding over the funeral of
friend and fellow soldier Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, who died in the
Second Battle of Ypres ... Its references to the red poppies that
grew over the graves of fallen soldiers resulted in the remembrance
poppy becoming one of the world's most recognised memorial symbols
for soldiers who have died in conflict..."
Film: They Shall Not Grow Old
They Shall Not Grow Old on BBC Two
(07 November 2018)
"Peter Jackson's highly anticipated First World War archive
feature film They Shall Not Grow Old is to receive its
broadcast premiere exclusively on BBC Two in Sunday 11 November at
9.30pm, following its world Premiere at the London Film Festival in
October ... It is to those that paid the ultimate price over 100
years ago we owe our freedom today..."
'They Shall Not Grow Old' (20
October 2018)
"I watched the film 'They Shall Not Grow Old' last Tuesday
and felt so moved by it. The film covers the lives of the men and
boys who heard of the coming war and signed up for King and Country.
Some lads were as young as 15 years old, but big for their age. The
recruiting officers when told of their age, told them to go outside,
have a few birthdays and come back in. They did this and then
signed up. The film has used black and white stills/videos taken at
the time, digitally enhanced and converted to colour. The film shows
the terrible conditions that our troops had to suffer..."
FILM
DOCUMENTARY:
They
Shall Not Grow Old (16 October 2018)
"A documentary about World War I
with never-before-seen footage to commemorate the centennial of the
end of the war."
YOUTUBE:
How Peter Jackson Brought to Life WWI Footage in His New Film
(10 October 2018)
Viewers' comments: "These men paid
for our freedom with their lives. I wonder how they would view our
modern world where people are 'traumatised' and need 'safe spaces'
just from words or ideas they personally do not like. Everyone today
is a victim or survivor of some minor event ... These men died or
suffered terribly and came home and went back to work. No
counselling, no safe spaces ... much respect to Mr Jackson for this
great work" / "Peter Jackson highlights the 'lack of
self pity' that the soldiers had after the war. Compare that to
rampant 'victim mentality' amongst young people today" /
"Every school in the UK should show this film" /
"Probably the UK's best generation of men ... that today is long
gone, and will never get back" / "God bless them all and
God bless you for keeping their memory alive. Thank you."
Videos and YouTubes
YOUTUBE:
Do Not Let Their Blood Have Been Shed in Vain (11
November 2018)
"They loved God, king, and
country. They loved this land and they loved our nation. Yes, they
loved you and me. And what I want to ask is, do we return that love?
Do we appreciate and remember that great sacrifice? And do we strive
every day to preserve our fine civilisation they they made such a
sacrifice for? It is time now for the British Lion to rise again..."
YOUTUBE:
Why We Remember - 100 years On From Armistice (11
November 2018)
Viewer's comment:
"Thank
you for this truly moving report. I have lain wreathes at Menin Gate
several times and visited countless cemeteries. Just like you, I
can't help welling up seeing the sheer scale of the sacrifice these
brave young men and women made for the defence of our country. It is
unforgiveable that our governments past and present are happy to
hand over our sovereignty to a foreign dictatorship when so many
people suffered hardship and sacrifice for King and country"
YOUTUBE:
Interview: Nigel Farage on WWI (11 November 2018)
"Nigel Farage gives an exclusive
interview on WW1 and its impact today. We talk about the left's
attempt to re-write history, mental health, war poetry, and
poppies."
YOUTUBE:
Under an English Heaven
(02 January 2018)
Poems:
England, My England -
William Ernest Henley, and The Soldier
- Rupert Brooke.
YOUTUBE:
The Last Post (Violin) (27 April 2016)
"Having had our ANZAC Day
commemorations and memorial this past Monday, I felt inspired to pay
my own tribute to our brave ANZACs, including both of my Great
Grandfathers. Sadly, neither of them made it home. To those who
served then and to those who serve now, I thank you. Here is my
rendition of The Last Post. Lest we forget..."
YOUTUBE:
The Battle (Written and Recorded 1969 / Uploaded 08
November 2014)
"In the early dawn the Bishop's
men / Shivered in the damp / But the shiver came not from the cold /
And spread throughout the camp / The trembling horses sensed the
fear / Of silent thoughtful men / Who prayed that wives and families
/ Might see them once again..."
YOUTUBE:
No Man's Land / Green Fields of France / Willie McBride
(Written 1976 / This Version Uploaded 20 September 2014)
"Well how do you do, Private William McBride / Do you mind if
I sit here down by your grave side? / A rest for awhile in the warm
summer sun / I've been walking all day and I'm nearly done / And I
see by your gravestone that you were only nineteen / When you joined
the glorious fallen in nineteen-sixteen..."
Revisionism
"This know also, that
in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers
of their own selves ... proud ... disobedient to parents,
unthankful, unholy, without natural affection ... fierce, despisers
of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of
pleasure more than lovers of God ... ever learning, and never able
to come to the knowledge of the truth ... their folly shall be
manifest unto all men" (2 Timothy 3:1-4,7,9)
1914 - 1918: The War to Start All Wars Up Again (10
November 2018)
"The nation's youngsters have
dutifully and thoroughly gobbled up all the propaganda fed to them
by their teachers and by the scriptwriters and presenters of the
many programmes made to mark the centenary of the ending of the
First World War..."
The
Poppy
Our Pride in the Poppy (15
October 2018)
"What has really stuck with me through the years were the
ages of the fallen, they were all so young, they never had a life.
Yet modern youth ... who have never done anything but whine, feel
able to condemn a single moment in a year when we can remember the
sacrifice of those that gave us our today" / "We remember those who
gave their lives for us because (1) It is the right thing to do, (2)
It stops us repeating the mistakes of the past. These spoilt and
delicate children have no idea what is the right thing to do and no
idea what they are destroying and thus what they are creating for
the future" / "May we never break faith. The young don't know there
are things worth dying for."
The Poppy Doesn't Glorify War, You Cambridge Snowflakes. It
Recognises Our Debt to the Fallen
(14 October 2018)
"There is no glorification of the horror of war in
Remembrance Sunday. Wearing a poppy doesn't, to use that horrible
neologism, 'valorise' anything. We are simply acknowledging a debt
... That we live in a free and democratic country is something we
owe to all of them, and we recognise this through acts of collective
remembrance. It's difficult to believe this needs restating to
anyone, let alone to the privileged elites who attend institutions
such as Cambridge University, but it seems it does..."
Down With England's Past (13 October 2018)
"The Students' Union of Cambridge
University ... has voted not to celebrate Remembrance Day because it
'glorifies war' ... That's like saying that a woman weeping for her
departed husband thereby glorifies the cancer that killed him ...
The entire history of England is, according to [UK students] one
uninterrupted chain of oppression, injustice, slavery ... and every
other sin than which nothing worse exists. Hence we should spit on
the graves of those who died defending this awful place, including
presumably those 20,000 Royal Navy sailors who laid down their lives
trying to stop the slave trade in the early nineteenth century..."
The
Rothenstein Mural
A War Memorial? No, A Contemptible Symbol of White Male Privilege
(26 October 2018)
"This week we see how identity politics can make you a cruel,
self-indulgent fool who lacks all self-awareness as well as
compassion or empathy ... Ms Dawes ... didn't see sacrifice ... she
didn't see hope or despair ... [she] didn't see young men being sent
to their death, off to the Somme or some other hell on earth to be
machine-gunned down in the prime of their life. Instead she saw
'white male privilege' ... So yes, Ms Dawes is a disgrace to her
university. And a disgrace to her sex..."
UK Student Leader Demands 'White Men' War Hero Memorial Be Destroyed
(25 October 2018)
"Emily Dawes, the president of the University of Southampton
Student Union, vowed to vandalise the memorial unless sit was taken
down ... The mural, displayed at the heart of the leading
university's campus, depicts fallen soldiers - who were students
before they left to fight in the Great War - picking up the degrees
they [lived] to finish..."
[Please see the comments under the line.]
In
Flanders Fields
"In Flanders Fields"? (12 November 2018)
"[T]he foe of which John McCrae
wrote were not the people in the opposite trenches. The foe were
tyranny and dictatorship ... our soldiers knew this ... Have we
still not learned that 'the foe' is not a race but a tyrannical
ideology? Have we still not learned that appeasement does not work?
Have we become so brainwashed, so soaked in 'feminism', that we
regard any fighting as abhorrent and never mind that there are good
reasons to fight? Survival, for example? Our children and young
people seem to have been taught that it's better to get raped
peacefully than to stand up and fight... Yes, we have indeed dropped
the torch! Yes, we have indeed broken faith with those who died and
lie in Flanders Fields! ... and yes, we will have to bear the
consequences in the years to come..."
Immature Arrogance
A Tweet From a Young Remainer (16 June 2016)
In voting to leave the European
Union in 2016, we voted for the future freedom of our children and
grandchildren as our forebears fought in the wars last century for
our freedom. Tragically, we did not realise that in sending
our children to state schools and universities we had been turning
their hearts and minds from grateful respect for the sacrifices of
their forefathers unto arrogant and ignorant contempt, from truth
unto error, from good unto evil, and ultimately from life unto death
as they will become 'once more slaves'.
Poor
Fools...
"Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks.
Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools.
And their grandchildren are once more slaves."
Did They Die In Vain?
From Dark November Morn to April Evening
(19 November 2018)
"In the morning dark of Armistice Sunday I was walking home
from the village war memorial where at sic o'clock we had listened
to a lone piper playing 'The Battle's O'er' ... I wondered what
these veterans would have thought if they had known the scheming
that went into the European project ... Having fought for the
familiar freedoms and laws of their own country, would they have
relished the idea of being kept in the dark about a totally new
system of government by foreigners, including former enemies? It was
a terrible insult to their service and showed what the plotters of
the planned Eurostate thought of them..."
All That Vanished Glory (11
November 2018)
"The conflict of 1914-1918 stands as the Great Divide of our
time ... all those forces of cultural destruction were given a power
assist by the Great War ... Consider this partial list, beginning
with the most important: Bolshevism... Women's lib... World
government... Pacifism... When nihilism takes hold of a culture, is
there any way it can be reversed without a complete societal
collapse?..."
Did They Die in Vain? (10 November 2018)
"As this is Remembrance Weekend,
a cynic might be tempted to ask whether those who so courageously
and so patriotically gave their lives in the last two wars would be
pleased at what has happened to the country, the traditions and the
freedoms they fought to defend:..."
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
In Flanders fields.
John McCrae,
MD,
Canadian Army (1872-1918)
"[T]he foe of which John McCrae
wrote were not the people in the opposite trenches.
The foe were tyranny and dictatorship ... our soldiers knew this ...
Yes, we have indeed dropped the torch! Yes, we have indeed broken
faith with those who died and lie in Flanders Fields! ...
and yes, we will have to bear the
consequences in the years to come..."
[source]
To every
thing there is a
season, and a time to
every purpose under the
heaven:
A time to be born, and a
time to die; a time to
plant, and a time to
pluck up
that which is
planted;
A time to kill, and a
time to heal; a time to
break down, and a time
to build up;
A time to weep, and a
time to laugh; a time to
mourn, and a time to
dance;
A time to cast away
stones, and a time to
gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a
time to refrain from
embracing;
A time to get, and a
time to lose; a time to
keep, and a time to cast
away;
A time to rend, and a
time to sew; a time to
keep silence, and a time
to speak;
A time to love, and a
time to hate; a time of
war, and a time of
peace.
(Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)
©
Bayith Ministries
http://www.bayith.org
bayith@blueyonder.co.uk
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