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Voices of the First World War

Factual: History

Archive interviews with those who experienced the First World War.

Voices of the First World War: 1918

11/11/2018

1918

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Voices of the First World War, 1918

The story of WW1 in 1918 told through archive interviews with those who were there.

Drawing on the archives of the BBC and Imperial War Museum, Dan Snow tracks some of the events of the First World War in 1918 through interviews with those who were there.

Dan Snow introduces a selection of programmes covering the events of the war in 1918. 

The year didn't begin well for the British. After a few months of relative quiet over the winter, British soldiers experienced the massive onslaught of the first German Spring Offensive in March. 

In interviews recorded by the BBC in 1964 and the Imperial War Museums in the 1980s, men recall their devastating experiences of shelling, retreat, serious injury and imprisonment in the wastelands of the Somme during Operation Michael. But American troops started to arrive in large numbers, and by August there were significant breakthroughs at Amiens. 

When the end finally came in November 1918, there were common themes in veterans' reactions to the Armistice: relief and disbelief, but also a sense of emptiness, with some reporting feeling drained of all emotion.

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