Art Commemoration - 100 Year Anniversary Of Word War I

Hi, Jason,

I don't have any original work, but thought I'd share this multi-part series I found on YouTube. I've only watched part of the first episode, but have it on my 'watch later' list --

http://youtu.be/qY3Sb8xiQ_c?list=PLC91A368FC30FFF95

There are many WWI documentaries on YT.

This is a wonderfully poignant poem, In Flanders Fields, written by John McCrea during the first world war which I thought went well with my image of a poppy field.

thanks Wendy and Gill!

Poem by Robert Laurence Binyon (1869-1943), published in The Times newspaper on 21st September 1914.
written at the outbreak of WWI after British losses at Mons


For the Fallen


With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.


http://www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/laurence-binyon-for-the-fallen.htm

In Memoriam

by Ewart Alan Mackintosh (killed in action 21st November 1917 aged 24)
Ewart Alan Mackintosh

So you were David’s father,
And he was your only son,
And the new-cut peats are rotting
And the work is left undone,
Because of an old man weeping,
Just an old man in pain,
For David, his son David,
That will not come again.

Oh, the letters he wrote you,
And I can see them still,
Not a word of the fighting,
But just the sheep on the hill
And how you should get the crops in
Ere the year get stormier,
And the Bosches have got his body,
And I was his officer.

You were only David’s father,
But I had fifty sons
When we went up in the evening
Under the arch of the guns,
And we came back at twilight -
O God! I heard them call
To me for help and pity
That could not help at all.

Oh, never will I forget you,
My men that trusted me,
More my sons than your fathers’,
For they could only see
The little helpless babies
And the young men in their pride.
They could not see you dying,
And hold you while you died.

Happy and young and gallant,
They saw their first-born go,
But not the strong limbs broken
And the beautiful men brought low,
The piteous writhing bodies,
They screamed “Don’t leave me, sir”,
For they were only your fathers
But I was your officer.

http://www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/ewart-alan-mackintosh-in-memoriam.htm

I believe this goes with the theme of the thread. It's a pair of Sopwith Scouts on patrol in 1916. The Scout (aka Pup due to it's smaller size) was eventually replaced by the more commonly known Sopwith Camel by the end of 1917.

great work John!

Here are some photographs of WWI i found on FAA, in scenes so real, a photograph really brings it home as it was...
(i just realised you probably arent all that ancient, so you cant really post photos, paintings or poems you wrote then and there...)

If you ever get across the pond, here in Kansas City we have the best WWI museum in the country. Love to put you up and show you around.

I have a novel, the first part deals with WWI. It is a post war western and available in the UK on Kindle.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00D7KMIU0?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

Here is a local monument to commemorate the fallen in various wars over the past century here in Canada. HRH Princess Anne came over last year for the dedication.

Jason, what a great thread. I have some photos to post at the weekend. Wilfred Owen is one of my favourite poets. Here's a poem of his

.He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,
And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey,
Legless, sewn short at elbow. Through the park
Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn,
Voices of play and pleasure after day,
Till gathering sleep had mothered them from him.

About this time Town used to swing so gay
When glow-lamps budded in the light blue trees,
And girls glanced lovelier as the air grew dim,-
In the old times, before he threw away his knees.
Now he will never feel again how slim
Girls' waists are, or how warm their subtle hands.
All of them touch him like some queer disease.

There was an artist silly for his face,
For it was younger than his youth, last year.
Now, he is old; his back will never brace;
He's lost his colour very far from here,
Poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry,
And half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race
And leap of purple spurted from his thigh.

One time he liked a blood-smear down his leg,
After the matches, carried shoulder-high.
It was after football, when he'd drunk a peg,
He thought he'd better join. - He wonders why.
Someone had said he'd look a god in kilts,
That's why; and maybe, too, to please his Meg,
Aye, that was it, to please the giddy jilts
He asked to join. He didn't have to beg;
Smiling they wrote his lie: aged nineteen years.

Germans he scarcely thought of; all their guilt,
And Austria's, did not move him. And no fears
Of Fear came yet. He drought of jewelled hills
For daggers in plaid socks; of smart salutes;
And care of arms; and leave; and pay arrears;
Esprit de corps; and hints for young recruits.
And soon, he was drafted out with drums and cheers.

Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer Goal.
Only a solemn man who brought him fruits
Thanked him; and then enquired about his soul.

Now, he will spend a few sick years in institutes,
And do what things the rules consider wise,
And take whatever pity they may dole.
Tonight he noticed how the women's eyes
Passed from him to the strong men that were whole.
How cold and late it is! Why don't they come
And put him into bed? Why don't they come?

Cheers Kevin!! And wish you good luck with the novel !
A very fine monument in Canada James!
Provoking poem Maria, look forward to the photos your going to post (ps was there a title to the poem?)


There is some incredible art at the Imperial War Museum in London
http://www.iwm.org.uk/history/war-art-schemes-of-the-first-world-war#

"The war art schemes developed by the British government during the First World War were an unprecedented act of government sponsorship of the arts. As the schemes evolved, they ultimately explored every aspect of conflict, from the violence of industrial warfare to hastened social and industrial change at home."..

"The Imperial War Museum, established in 1917, was charged with collecting a wide variety of material documenting the war, including art. In addition to acquiring works produced under the Department of Information scheme, the museum commissioned its own artists."...


Gassed© IWM (Art.IWM ART 1460)

"Gassed
art
Gassed, 1919, by John Singer Sargent. One of the leading society portrait painters of his day, Sargent was commissioned to contribute the central painting for the Hall of Remembrance. Gassed is based on the scene at a dressing station as it took in casualties from a mustard gas attack on the Western Front in August 1918."

I have used the words of various poets

The other bother killed was John William Jackson



Killed in Salonica - late 1918 - burried in Hawkhead Cemetary, in Paisley, Nr Glasgow

Brother Percy also served and also survived.

____________


Among the bothers killed on my fathers side was George Gardiner, I have his details but I am unable to locate them at the moment.

I have researched the First World War for longer than I can remember, there were almost one million British servicemen killed, around 10,000 of them were from the Sunderland area,

I would never claim to have the records of all those killed from the area but if I do not have them all then there can only be a few records of those killed that I do not have.

My Grandfather told me that he and his bother Dave stood in the queue together to enlist.

Conscription started in 1916.

Notice the Service Numbers on the medal cards, they are consecutive.







____________

My Great Uncle David Jackson (on my mothers side) killed in the Battle Of The Somme with my Grandfather Arthur Jackson, on the right who survived, though he was gassed twice - and had bad lungs for the rest of his life..

Note the spurs and horse whips - they worked with a team of horses that pulled the artillery around the battlefield

____________

If anyone would like to produce artwork, including poems that are based on the photograph above then please message me and I will send you a larger jpeg.

I will be building a Blog on WW I in the near future and I will showcase any work and give full credit.

____________

Click on the images posted to see a larger image.

The Battle of the Somme began on the 1st July 1916

If David Jackson had died on the day he received his injuries his medal card would have recorded his death as K I A - Killed In Action.

His Medal Card just states "Dead" so we can never know the date he received his injuries.

Therefore he must have received his injuries on a day before his death.

He died on the 12th of July 1916

As he was killed in the Battle of the Somme that means that he received his injuries on a date between the 1st of July 1916 and the 11th of July 1916

On the first day of the Battle of the Somme there was a huge number of casualties.

About half of those casualties were K I A while most of the other half were eventually recorded as "Dead," as they died days later, weeks later, months later and in some cases years later.

So no one knows for sure how many were killed because of injuries received on the first day, but there are records of those K I A.

Those K I A on the first day were around 30,000 and in total there were around 60,000 British Army casualties on the first day.

Consider this, the British Army took more casualties in one day than all those killed serving in the American Army throughout the whole of the Viet Nam war.

Art in the First World War.


The price of art produced in the First World by soldiers has slowly but steadily increased in price over the years, much of the art was produced using used artillery shells that were made of brass, such work can be found often on eBay.

The items you might find include ash trays, brass match box covers, miniature tanks, and engraved shell casings. The better the engraving the higher the price, with much of the work including different military details such as the names of regiments.

The shell casings were once used to placed by the fireside and pokers were placed within them.

Being made of brass they have stood the test of time, other items have not weathered so well. When British soldiers where transferred from field hospitals to hospitals further behind the line they were given embroidery patterns of regimental badges to work on in order to help take their mind off things.

The patterns were normally stitched into a pillow cases and being fragile they are becoming rare.

My Grandfather was hospitalised twice during the war, he was in the Royal Artillery, I can only guess that when they came round with the patterns that they must have ran out of his regimental badge pattern because he produced an embroidery of the Royal Engineers Cap Badge.

I never used to look at such items on eBay seeking to buy, I searched out such items looking for information. My research of WW I is not as great now as it once was up until three or four years ago, Blogging now takes up most of my time, so some details I write of may not be current,

In my time looking though ebay, which in my opinion is (or used to be) one of the best places on the internet to find public domain images of the war, I saw hundreds of "Trench Art" shell casing and no more than twelve embroideries.

There are web pages where examples can be found but in total I would guess I have seen 25 + 1. That 1 in particular is the best without a shadow of a doubt, though I have not seen many I have definitely never seen better and it was produced by my grandfather, in hospital during his first or second visit, there due to being caught short without a mask.


NEXT?

Are WW I British Military Medals a good investment?

Fantastic insight and family connections and history Geordie! I did notice the consecutive Service numbers of your Grandfather and his brother! History made real. May be a biography or 2 in the making! Thanks Roy and Edward.

Heres more from the Imperial War Museum -


We are Making a New World© IWM (Art.IWM ART 1146)


Object description

image:
"The view over a desolate landscape with shattered trees, the earth a mass of shell holes. The sun hangs high in the sky, beams of light shining down through heavy, earth-coloured clouds"


Label

"This work, based on the drawing, 'Sunrise. Inverness Copse', is one of the most memorable images of the First World War. The title mocks the ambitions of the war, as the sun rises on a scene of the total desolation. The landscape has become un- navigable, unrecognisable and utterly barren. The mounds of earth act almost as gravestones amongst the death and desolation. Nash was looking for a new kind of symbolism divorced from the more traditional Symbolist principles. He realised that the ideas he had been presenting in a figurative way before the war could be more meaningful in pure landscape form.


This work, based on the drawing 'Sunrise: Inverness Copse', is one of the most memorable images of the First World War. The title mocks any ambitions of war, as the sun rises on a scene of total destruction. The landscape has become un-navigable, unrecognisable and utterly barren; the mounds of earth are gravestones to a recently departed world."

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/20070

Are British Military Medals a good investment? - Pt. I

Bet your life on it.

_____________


My research into First World War Military medals started at a point that eventually included so many tangents that at the time I visualised it as a forever twinkling star.

The reason why I looked into this and that and the other and then on coming back finding another was that my research coincided with the prediction of a one Ron Paul.

What did he say?

Well the smallest nutshell I can put it into is that he predicted the collapse of the American economy.

Most gold that has been extracted from the earth still exists, wedding rings, jewelry, gold coins and bars.

The store of silver that has been extracted from the earth is dwindling.

Most electrical goods today include minute amounts of silver, you mobile phone, your television and so on and so forth.

The amount of silver in your personal computer is so small that it is not worth trying to extract it but there are billions of computers and the list of electrical items that have silver components in them goes on and on and on.

And every year the list gets bigger, with the latest must have, scratch ye back, mobile, all in one, hand held, touch screen, talk to ye back computer, coming your way, thoughout the year, especially in winter.

America is keeping silver artificially low in order to help industry, that Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeds in order to feed your gluttony.

And if the American economy collapses the price of silver will shoot through the roof.


_____________


So saith Ron Paul



So giving a ring of truth to the guy that says, it's not my fault

Hi Jason,
The Wilfred Owen poem was called Disabled.

Are British Military Medals a good investment? - Pt. I I


Here is a beauty

That is a work of art


Depicting King George V

Bare back riding

I would have said bare arsed riding

If it had have been someone else

But as it's the King

I thought I would show some respect


There he is

Astride a great white charger

Stamping its heavy hoof with outrage

Down upon Teutonic symbols of hate with hate

Nestled as it was

By the heart of "Seven Million" Servicemen

In mourning

For the million among the millions

Who gave their lives

So that we could be free

Are British Military Medals a good investment? - Pt. I I I

Are British Military Medals a good investment? - Pt. I V

Ladies and Gentleman

Roll up

Roll up


And feast your eyes
On the intrinsic beauty of what I set before thee
Arguably the best designed medal
Awarded to those who fought
For King and Country
Made of the best silver
And that is how it is still here
For you to see
Do not be fooled by those
Who would fleece you constantly
With the promise of coin of 100% purity
What use be such a trinket
So soft you dare not look and see
Sirling Silver
92,5
with a little copper
For durability
Unlike 100%
That would bent
If dropped in a babies cot
With covers all soft
92.5
Will endure
Century after Century

____

With the spiel over
This is what you do

Intrinsic value aside for the moment

How much is an oz of silver?
How much silver is in a BWM?
What is the silver value of a BWM?
Are battered BWMs worth the going price?


For any BWM in a good condition
Add X % to the value
X being that which you as an individual are willing to pay

Look at the give away prices that they often go for in Ebay

Then shop around and see if there is a better buy


____


Remembering

If everything does go pear shaped

You will want to be left with more than a penny to scratch your backside with


____


Coming Soon the Princess and the pauper

An interesting article from the LA times on the impact of WWI on art and culture


A scene from “All Quiet on the Western Front” from 1930. (Universal Pictures, Universal…)



http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/21/entertainment/la-et-cm-world-war-art-20120722


"The Great War of 1914-18 tilted culture on its axis, particularly in Europe and the United States. Nearly 100 years later, that legacy is being wrestled with in film, visual art, music, television shows like the gauzily nostalgic PBS soaper "Downton Abbey" and plays including the Tony Award-winning"War Horse," concluding its run at the Ahmanson Theatre.

"It created an epoch in art," said Leo Braudy, a USC professor of English and author of "From Chivalry to Terrorism: War and the Changing Nature of Masculinity." "The question is, what was on one side and what was on the other?"

The simple answer as to what lay on the near side of World War I is Modernism, that slippery but indispensable term denoting a wide range of new sensibilities and aesthetic responses to the industrial age. Modernism took shape decades before World War I, but its clamorous arrival was vastly accelerated by the greatest collective trauma in history to that point.

From the fiction of Hemingway, Virginia Woolf and John Dos Passos to the savagely critical paintings and etchings of George Grosz and Otto Dix, World War I reshaped the notion of what art is, just as it forever altered the perception of what war is. Although World War II racked up more catastrophic losses in blood and treasure, World War I remains the paradigmatic conflict of the modern age, not only politically but also culturally."

Does anyone know of a Thomas Gregory who served in the Queen's Battalion and died of wounds, I think in North Africa in 1941. We found his photo and a letter in a friend's belongings after she had died. Love to know more. I have his service no. if needed.

Maria i was going to suggest the national archives, however they don't hold WWII records...
Those researching WWI records might find this link useful -


http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-person/britisharmysoldierafter1913.htm


"The National Archives does not hold army service records for the Second World War. They are still with the Ministry of Defence.
Many army service records between 1914 and 1920 do not exist as they were destroyed by enemy bombing in 1940 - only about 40% survive.
The condition of the surviving service records can vary greatly - some are badly damaged.
When searching for a person you may find information on:
regiment and rank
remarks concerning the individual
next of kin
medical reports and pension details
The records of soldiers who served in the guards regiments (Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish and Welsh) are accessible by writing to the appropriate Regimental Headquarters. Some of these records were destroyed by enemy bombing whilst stored in the Guards chapel during the Second World war."

however i came across this site that might assist in your research

http://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/aboutus

there are 20 hits when searching for Thomas Gregory and filtering for WW2 and died in service. Details might be personal so i didn't pursue the search for you and you need to register.

The year is 1917

There is stalemate all along the front line that runs the full length of France, from the Mediterranean in the south up though Normandy in the north, the prize is Paris.

From the outset the aim has been Paris, as it was in 1914 when German ambitions where halted at the battle of Marne and on through to 1916 when the France troops where placed under so much pressure in the Battle of Verdun that the British begin the bloodiest battle ever involving British troops in the Somme valley in an attempt to take pressure from the French at Verdun.

Millions had been killed since 1914 and millions more were to follow.

Royal dynasties have yet to fall, the Austo-Hungarian Empire has yet to crumble, further north in Russia Lenin is leading a revolution.

It is June 1917

The Tsar and his family have only a few more months on the throne

Back in England the King, George V, visits the people of Sunderland and goes on a tour of the shipyards, where there are more ships built than in any other town or city in the world. The King thanks the workforce of the shipyards for their ability to keep the Merchant Fleet at sea regardless of the large number of Merchant ships that are being sunk by German U-boats.

At Sir James Laing's shipyard in Deptford the King attention is caught by a young rivet catcher named John Cassify and a photographer is on hand to capture the moment.

A little further down the river Wear people just like Cassidy, live in the slum areas around the dockside and shipyards known as Bonnersfield. The river is a mass of shipping and the people of the area are known as Barbary Coasters in recognition of the tough area, one of family are the Harrisons. The men of the family are mainly seafarers and shipyard laborers, the young woman are kitchen maids and one is recorded as being a coffee grinder.

Back in Laings the King bids farewell to the workforce and some days or weeks later the photograph of the King meeting young Cassidy is seen all over the world.

Back then Royalty had to marry Royalty to remain Royal but events later that year and the following year changed Royalty forever. The Bolsheviks took control of Russia and killed the whole Royal Family, The Austro=Hungarian empire was wiped out and Royals who fought in the war on both sides were killed. After the war as the years progressed rules had to be changed that eventually allowed commoners to marry Royalty. Kate Middleton walked into Westminster Abbey on the 29th of April 2011 a commoner and walked out a little later a Princess.

The surname of Kate's Grandmother on her mothers side is Harrison.

Back in 1917 when the King looked upon the young rivet catcher John Cassidy, he would never have been able to believe that a future Queen would be related to people just like young Cassidy that stood before him, he would never have been able to comprehend that a Queen of England would be related to people who lived in poverty, in an area regarded as being so tough it was know as the Barbary Coast.

The future Queen of England related to Barbary Coasters, that has to be a Fairy Tail.

I was speaking to a group Christians of long standing recently about a poem titled "Prediction" about my idea that there does not have to be an Apocalypse.

And at some point I said, looking back on the people who lived during those times I find it hard to believe just how many people thought it was the Apocalypse.

One of them got into wars and rumours of wars and pestilence and disease and how given such condition did I not feel it understandable.

I then got into why I did not find it understandable, via, the poem, Revelation, the Temple, the Golden Dome, how Temple was not built then and how it is still not built today.

A second person thought of things differently, asking, where have you read where it says that people thought the First War was the Apocalypse?

I told him that I had read it said but that I could not remember where.

What, you cannot remember where you might have read it?

No I cannot

But you might just be making it up.

I would not make up such things

You could be telling a lie

I would not lie about it

But you could be

But I'm not

You know you should not say such things to people unless you can prove them

What if I can prove it?

But you said you could not

I said I could not remember where I had read it

So you cannot prove it

But what if I can?

But you cannot

Yes - But - What - If - I - Can?

Well go on then

OK - I am going to ask you a question and I would like you to answer that question just as the Christian you are today. OK

Yeah go on

Wait a minute, after you have answered the question as a Christian please consider Christians during the First World War and let me know if you think that they with their different attitudes would answer in a different way. Is that OK

Yeah that's fine

OK tell me this, as a Christian what does a war to end all wars mean?







So there you go, now you know, that is what they believed







"The war that will end war" written by H. G. Wells in 1914, is where the saying came from

Thanks Jason, I found his records. He died in Italy and it gave his parents names. :)

For the story of Sergeant Alvin Cullum York, the most decorated American soldier in WW I follow the link below and once the page opens click Older Posts twice.


http://churches-from-around-the-world.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/by-lianne-schneider.html

Yesterday I spent much of the day showing my 17 year old grand niece and boyfriend around Kansas City. As I pointed out the WWI museum she exclaimed she had been there and it was fantastic. Now this comes from a girl born 80 years after the cessation of hostilities. How this conflict reaches across generations is amazing.

i agree Kevin, its great the youth show an interest in history.... we are very good freinds with Germany now ....
its definitely good to learn from history how things went wrong...
oh and....

Today a man took a WW2 mortar bomb into his police station and caused a mass evacuation. it was live. maybe it was used as a book end since 1945. who knows.

Yeow! There are a number of deaths in Belgium and France every year from WWI ordnance.

WWI memorial at the University of Kansas.


-- mary ellen anderson

In honor of Veteran's Day I'd like to share these recent images I captured of a WW II memorial situated on a hill overlooking the United States Naval Academy. It is a tribute to the men & women who fought in that war...

.

This WW II Memorial sits on a hill on the Severn River over looking the United States Naval Academy. It is a tribute to the men & women who fought in that war.

The World War II Memorial Commission was authorized by statute in 1991 (Chapter 380, Acts of 1991) and reconstituted by the Governor in 1994 (Executive Order 01.01.1994.20). The Commission advised the Governor and General Assembly on the design, construction, and placement of a memorial or monument to those Marylanders who served in World War II (Code 1957, Art. 41, sec. 18-303). In August 1997, the Board of Public Works approved the construction contract for the Memorial. The groundbreaking ceremony for the $2.3 million monument was held on October 29, 1997.

The Memorial was built on Route 450 overlooking the Severn River in Annapolis. Designed by New York architect Secundino Fernandez, the Memorial consists of a rectangular amphitheater surrounded by columns and granite slabs inscribed with the names of 6,454 Marylanders who died in World War II. Stone panels and mosaic circles further depict Maryland's role in the War.

In September 1992, the Commission submitted a report to the Governor and General Assembly. Authorization for the Commission was extended to when the Memorial was dedicated on July 23, 1998 (Executive Order 01.01.1994.29), and formally rescinded in December 2008 (Executive Order 01.01.2008.19).

Resource: Maryland State Archives Website.

Today is Armistice day that prompts 2 mins national silence at 11am on 11th of each November
There were 37 million casualties that included 20 million deaths and 17 million wounded in WWI

This is photograph Q 800 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums (collection no. 1900-09)
http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205193912

From Wiki pedia
"A German prisoner helps British wounded make their way to a dressing station near Bernafay Wood following fighting on Bazentin Ridge, 19 July 1916, during the Battle of the Somme. (Original caption: "Five British and German walking wounded, injured in their arms and legs, on the way to a dressing station near Bernafay Wood.")"

Forces of the British Empire/Commonwealth in WWI:-
~4 million British
1.5 million from the Indian subcontinent (incl India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka)
500 thousand Canadians
500 thousand Australians
200 000 Irish
100 000 New Zealanders
and many tens of thousands of Caribbean, African and Other British dominions of much smaller populations, fought together with the French

The scale of the war is exemplified by the bloodiest battle ever fought in the history of mankind -

The composition of the British forces also defines how commonwealth multiculturalism developed in the UK after the world wars.

This is an amazing panoramic photograph taken in 1907 so i had to post it and explain its significance


" Lusitania at the end of the first leg of her maiden voyage, New York City, September 1907. (The photo was taken with a panoramic camera.)"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Lusitania
The above British cruise liner was to have a tragic end and a pivotal part to play on American involvement in the first world war.


There is some remarkable reading in wikipedia over the controversial status of Lusitania

"On 17 April 1915, Lusitania left Liverpool on her 201st transatlantic voyage, arriving in New York on 24 April. A group of German–Americans, hoping to avoid controversy if Lusitania were attacked by a U-boat, discussed their concerns with a representative of the German Embassy. The embassy decided to warn passengers before her next crossing not to sail aboard Lusitania. The Imperial German Embassy placed a warning advertisement in 50 American newspapers, including those in New York:
NOTICE!
TRAVELLERS intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and her allies; that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to the British Isles; that, in accordance with formal notice given by the Imperial German Government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters and that travellers sailing in the war zone on the ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk.
IMPERIAL GERMAN EMBASSY
Washington, D.C., April 22, 1915."

Many believed the Lusitania might have been carrying ammunition to the UK

The sinking of the Lusitania was a defining moment in stirring opinion and debate within the United states as over 100 American citizens died. American entry into the war in 1917 was important as Russian troops had been withdrawn from the Eastern front due to their internal conflict; the Russian revolution had resulted in the Eastern front being "freed up" such that German Empire troops were free to move to the Western Front to confront allied forces...

Excerpt from Morris' Code by Kevin Callahan, Kindle Books

After sitting out the war for years, America had finally entered the fray. When the hostilities in Europe began in 1914 many politicians in America called for an isolationist policy. There were many in America who felt that the country should weigh in on the side of England and France. But there was also a sizable contingent of German-Americans living throughout the country who supported their homeland. A large number of Americans felt that the United States should remain neutral. The sinking of freighters off the coast of the Atlantic by German war ships heightened concerns in America. Finally, the sinking of the passenger ship Lusitania goaded American war-fever to the brink.

Pro-war sentiment was pushed over the edge when a German spy was captured in the southwest United States carrying a cable meant for the president of Mexico. The cable urged Mexico to come into the war on Germany’s side. Germany promised that if Mexico would come in on the German side, with a German victory, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California would be returned to Mexico.

Germany’s hopes of being allied with Mexico and Japan ultimately were not to be realized. Mexico stayed neutral and Japan entered the war on the side of the Allies. The cable did serve to make the western and southwest states very nervous about possible invasions from the south and the Far East. The resulting clamor drove America over the brink and its peace politics were drowned out in a general call for war. The entry of the United States into the hostilities gave the Allies a desperately needed infusion of fresh manpower, ordnance, and insight.

The losses in WWI were staggering, America was to lose over 100,000 men in her short involvement due to the continuing lethal nature of trench warfare against machine guns. However this fresh input did turn the war to victory for the allies. The casualties of WWI were catastrophic. 20 million dead.

Today they started dismantling the poppy installation in London. Seldom has a piece of art completely captured the hearts and sentiments of an entire nation, about 5 million have visited!!
Obviously this thread was primarily about WWI because of the 100 year anniversary of the outbreak of this dreadful war, but it was the profound impact of this installation, the sea of blood, each poppy marking an individual, that literally transformed a nation, this is where art hits its mark and does its duty; to engage with an individual is every artists dream, to profoundly engage with a nation for all the right reasons, to deeply move people, provoke conscience, resurrect feelings of honour, invoke deep thought, respect, sadness, conviction, awe, and so much more, is breathtaking..

And so to conclude this thread, we are so glad the Germans are now amongst our closest friends!! That is a very deep feeling. My father was an English soldier who also fought in several global conflicts. Service men and women are honoured and respected for their call to duty in every term of service they undertake. Because it is their country that calls them to duty.