We Will Remember Them

A century ago, bells rang out to spread the news that the war was over – it was time to look to a better future.

- Sally Rodger

As we approach the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, we’re joining with the rest of the country to pay tribute to the memory of all the men and women who lived through such hard, desperate times and the hundreds of thousands who made the ultimate sacrifice.

By the time the bells rang out around the country on November 11, 1918, to signal the end of one of the bloodiest conflicts in history, more than 700,000 members of the UK Armed Forces were dead and around 1.7 million were wounded.

When we think about the Great War, as it was known at the time, we tend to think about the Western Front – muddy, trench warfare in France and Belgium with fierce battles fought to move the front line by a few hundred yards. But there was an Eastern Front, too, with German forces lined up against Russia, while Allied Forces confronted troops of the Ottoman Empire in Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Gallipoli Peninsula. In northern Italy, Austrian and Italian troops engaged in a series of battles on the Italian border.

Life was not easy on the Home Front, either. War demanded all the nation’s resources. Young men went off to fight while those left behind worked flat out to provide everything that was needed. A vast munitions industry was built up to provide shells, guns, warships and other weapons. Agriculture had to be stepped up to provide food for both civilians and soldiers. Everything was in short supply due to the success of the German U-boats which sank 5000 merchant ships over the course of the war.

Zeppelins

Before the Great War, Britons were largely unaffected by war, but this was to change at the beginning of 1915. The Forces were deadlocked on the Western Front, so the Germans decided to use their Zeppelin airships, which could carry up to two tonnes of bombs, to spread fear and panic, and break morale, by targeting British towns and cities.