WWI: The Last Tommies

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Stories told by the last Tommies, remembering life and death in World War I.

Vivid and heartbreaking stories told by the last Tommies, remembering life and death in World War I, illustrated with powerful archive.

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Steve Humphries

Nick Maddocks

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WWI: The Last Tommies: Series 1: Episode 1: For King and Country

For King and Country

Episode 1

Episode 1: For King and Country

Series 1

BBC Four - WWI: The Last Tommies, Series 1, For King and Country

The Pals Battalions discover trench warfare isn't the glorious adventure they had imagined

Stories told by the last Tommies, remembering WWI. The Pals Battalions discover that trench warfare isn't the glorious adventure they had imagined.

Vivid and heartbreaking stories told by the last Tommies - filmed in their 90s and 100s - remembering life and death in World War I, illustrated with powerful archive.

This episode tells the story of the first years of war in 1914 and 1915, culminating in the Battle of Loos, when the Pals Battalions, who had enthusiastically volunteered to serve, had their first taste of the horror of mass industrialised warfare. We see how the Tommies survived and kept their spirits up in the trenches with death all around them. And we see how families at home faced up to the absence and the tragic loss of husbands, fathers, sweethearts and sons. Yet despite this shock they still had to work incredibly long hours in the munitions factories and 'keep the home fires burning.' War wasn't the glorious adventure that so many had imagined.

WWI: The Last Tommies: Series 1

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Episode 1: For King and Country

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