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The other idea for a thread that came to me was to put in one place stuff on You Tube about WW1. It can be documentary or drama. This year I bought myself a copy of "Journey's End", a film I had first seen at the cinema. I found it incredibly moving and have been drawn back to it a number of times already. It is about British soldiers on the front line in 1918 and they know a German offensive is imminent.

The recent film is a re-make of the original version produced by James Whale which, in turn, was based on a play written by RC Sherriff in 1928.

The 1930 film is available on You Tube here . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBi2npwNOyI

And, if you prefer, there is a theatre performance too from 2015 at the Bedlam Theatre . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM0otLDevJI

There is also a TV version from 1988 available on YouTube as well.

RC Sherriff was a soldier in WW1, "Sherriff served as an officer in the 9th battalion of the East Surrey Regiment in the First World War, taking part in the fighting at Vimy Ridge and Loos. He was severely wounded at Passchendaele near Ypres in 1917."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._C._Sherriff

This is a very short documentary about the Hindenburg line and the concept of Defence in Depth, adopted by Ludendorf . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vvGK_BWsI4

Anyone interested in the actual history of WW1 will greatly enjoy the amazing Peter Jackson documentary from a couple of years ago "They Shall not Grow Old". It is now easily viewable on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/ca/title/81048455

Jackson (the director of Lord of the Rings) is a huge WW1 buff with the fortune to pursue his interests. He assembled a documentary team in New Zealand to splice together archival silent movie footage from the British Imperial War Museum of British troops on the Western Front; and then re-shot the footage at right number of frames per second so their movements are natural, plus carefully colourizing the images, adding sound effects using WW1 era equipment to create the right ambient noise and even using speech experts to work out what commanders were saying and getting British actors to dub in their speech. He even enlisted the staff of the British High Commission in Wellington (to get the right accents) to sing "Mademoiselles d'Argentiere" in the final sequence of the film.

The net effect (as the title implies) is to bring the figures in these silent films back to life. There is an astonishing moment about ten minutes into the film when it shifts from the original silent black and white footage to this vastly more accurate depiction of the same soldiers.

I have not watched the Netflix version, but when I saw it in a cinema a couple of years ago, the film was followed by a 30 minute "making of" documentary that was even more interesting than the main feature. Look for that too if it is not included on Netflix.

Parade's End was absolutely brilliant on the telly. It is based on a novel by Ford Madox Ford. Trailer here . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRj48maOpZA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Madox_Ford

Here is another excellent documentary by Peter Barton, this one about the tunnels at the Somme . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc9s3ZMYIec

Italy declares war on Germany in August 1916 . . .

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=it ... &FORM=VIRE