Historic battlefields.

Remembrance in the 21st century

As the 90th anniversary of the armstice approaches it it interesting to see the increasingly mutli-media approach to remembrance.

The National Archives, home to countless files and documents, seems to be embracing new[ish] media with a series of podcasts starting with the story of John Mills a Quartermaster.

The BBC building on its People's War project have their remembrance site linked into religon, aimed at schools it is still an interesting, and hopefully developing, site.

More to come I hope.

Another calendar coincidence?

Raising my head, briefly, from my dissertation research I spotted the following two news stories;

First, the safe disposal of a bomb found by fishermen just off the coast of Essex is being reported by the BBC.

By coincidence this story appears on the night of the 15th/16th May which links us [just about] to:

The 65th anniversary of the "Dambusters" raid, being reported, again by the BBC, here with a short video piece here. Ok- the raid was the night of 16th/17th but I didn't see either till today, the 16th.

CWGC shoots, they score!

I've mentioned before the link between sports, remembrance and the First World War. The CWGC has launched a new mini site, "Glorydays"

Firstly, this is just a fun site but it is also educating by stealth. In my case perhaps a bit too stealthy as I didn't get full marks on the test. Maybe this approach is more appropriate for the "playstation" generation than the poetry of Owen et al.

Defying the odds

My research interests made this piece catch my eye, but it is good to hear anyway.

More British servicemen were seriously injured in Afghanistan in the first nine months of 2007 than in the whole of the rest of the present conflict.

Grim as that fact is, many of those so-called "catastrophic" wounds would have been fatal in previous wars. Even as recently as five years ago many would not have returned home alive, the head of battlefield medicine for the armed forces says.

For the full article click here

Never forget