Mail: Anger As Britain Lags Behind In Plans To Mark The Centenary Of WWI

Anger as Britain lags behind France - and Belgium - in plans to mark the centenary of the First World War​

Anger as Britain lags behind France in plans to mark the centenary of the First World War | Mail Online​

 

And what are the Govt's plans to celebrate, next year, the 30th anniversary of victory in the Falklands ?

 

Ooooh, Seaweed, noooo!
Couldn't possibly do that, it might offend the Argies! ukeleft:
Main article - I dunno what all the rush is about; there's still well over two years to go yet, and we do have other things to do in the meantime.
Side article, re. Pondland and poppies - WTF do these people do for brains? 'Uniform code'? Time to get their priorities sorted, methinks. ukeright:
JB.

 

Why would we wish to celebrate the start of the first world war? The end of it yes and we do that every year.

 

Here are the Poundland Directors: Directors | Poundland

Re WW1, celebrate wouldn't be my word for 4.8.1914. However something that teaches our history to the young, and to those who have only recently chosen to come and live here, would be no bad thing.

 

Might not be your word, but is a valid choice.

 

We can all use different dates for the start of the war if you take the declaration's of war as the start dates
1 Aug 1914 Germany declares war on Russia
3 Aug 1914 Germany declares war on France
4 Aug 1914 Britain declares war on Germany
13 Aug 1914 Japan declares war on Germany
2 Nov 1914 Russia declares war on Turkey
5 Nov 1914 Britain and France declare war on Turkey
6 April 1917 USA declares war on Germany

So you can have different "celebrations" depending on nationality with the USA having to wait until 2017.

And to have pedant mode on, the First World War did not officially end until the signing of the Versaille Treaty on the 28th of June 1919. Before that, the guns fell silent on the 11th November 1918 when an Armistice was declared (or ceasefire if you wish).

Bit of a Wail non-story IMHO.

 

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As mentioned, it all depends on what one wants to commemorate.

Looking to the recent ceremonies associated with WW2, the Government let ( ? details ? ) each service choose a particular date. The RAF chose Battle of Britain Day (1940), the Navy the symbolic month of May 1943 for the Battle of the Atlantic and the Army D-Day (1944) with all joining together for VE and (to a lesser extent) VJ days.

That would make some sort of sense for WW1. The Navy would presumably choose the Battle of Jutland, the Army one of the major battles ( ? Somme or Passchendale ? ) with the RAF probably misguidedly choosing the formation of the RAF (????? - very arguable as most of the war was fought by two separate aerial servives ) and all coming together for Armistice Day - but this will be subject to lots of wheeler-dealing behind the scenes.

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I would have thought any "Celebtrations" of the start of WW1 would want to be a low key affairs.Archduke Ferdinand's assassination may have been an abomination but was it really the need to send millions of men and women to premature deaths.A period of reflection on the folly of war would be in order and the determination not to repeat the mistake.