Private grief began to enter public debate. ibid.
Hitler lusted to make Germany a world empire once more. It was a far cry from never again. ibid.
Just when Germans were being forced to think about 1914 as an immoral war caused by their own country’s aggression, most British people came to see it as a war that had no clear cause, no moral justification, and achieved nothing at all. ibid.
The War made politics red hot. It gave birth to an age of mass democracy … By 1919 Europe had 9 new American-style republics. David Reynolds, Long Shadow II
Italy emerged from the War divided and frustrated … In Italy the democratic experiment proved short-lived. ibid.
France had over 40 separate governments between 1918 and 1940, a striking contrast with Britain … France seemed close to civil war. ibid.
Nowhere was that legacy more profound than in the unleashing of nationalist fervour. The War made national identity a stark either/or issue, a matter of us or them. David Reynolds, London Shadow III
The not so United Kingdom is still of the long shadow of the Great War. ibid.
National self-consciousness among these ethnic groups of the Habsburg Empire was rising before the War. ibid.
And what was left after the traumatic convulsions of post-war nationalism was a bitter divided Ireland: partition between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. This was an invented mini-state nominally run from Belfast but in reality dependant on London for funding and security. ibid.
And now a new empire, the Soviet Union, was taking a grip on Czechoslovakia and most of Eastern Europe. It demanded that national identity be subsumed in socialist internationalism as defined by the Kremlin. ibid.
War drove innovation in the skies … The Sopwith Camel becomes the most dangerous dogfighter. The Germans unleashed a scourge with their Fokker and Dekker. The allies launch the Spitfire of its time – the SE5. Wings of War III: Flight for the Skies
It was the dawn of aviation when the world went to war in 1914. Daring young men took to the skies in flying machines and blazed a trail for a radically new type of battle. ibid.
The outbreak of the First World War averted to threat of a violent confrontation between Ulster Unionists and the British government, and home rule was suspended. The Road to Partition s1e1, BBC 2021
Nine weeks after the Easter rising, on the western front the men of the 36th Division made a very different blood sacrifice. In July, during the first two days of fighting at the battle of the Somme, the Division suffered an appalling 5,500 casualties. Men fighting for Britain … ‘The battle of the Somme was absolute slaughter particularly for Ulster Unionists.’ ibid.
Yet somehow we found ourselves on different sides of the most murderous conflict the world had ever known. The Royal Mob IV, History 2022
‘World War I: A tragedy of misunderstandings and missed conceptions … They believed that war could rejuvenate their decadent empires.’ ibid. Montefiore
I never dreamt that that was the last time we would see each other. ibid. Victoria Hesse’s commentary
The news that Nikki, Alix and the children were prisoners in their own palace was truly shocking. ibid.
I’m speaking from London. It is late afternoon and the people of London are preparing for the night. Everyone is anxious to get home before darkness falls, before our nightly visitors arrive. London Can Take It ***** short 1940
We haven’t had a quiet night now for more than five weeks. ibid.
The nightly siege of London has begun. The city is dressed for battle. Here they come. ibid.
They are fused together not by fear but by a surging spirit of courage the like of which the world has never known. ibid.
This is the authentic story of a bombing raid on Germany, how it is planned and how it is executed. Target for Tonight, caption, short 1941
‘Certainly is a peach of a target, isn’t it, sir.’ iibid. Bomber Command
Blended together in one great symphony is the music of Britain at war: the evening hymn of the lark, the roar of Spitfires, the dancers in the great ballroom at Blackpool, the clank of machinery, and shunting trains … Listen to Britain, short 1942
This was the slaughter known as the First World War. Sixteen million died and twenty-one million wounded. At the height of the carnage the prime minister of Great Britain, David Lloyd George, had a private chat with the editor of the Guardian, C P Scott. If people really knew the truth, said the Prime Minister, the war would be stopped tomorrow. But of course they don’t know and they can’t know. John Pilger, The War You Don’t See, 2010
I say if Germany be allowed to win this war — then we in America shall have to drop every other activity and devote the next twenty or thirty years to preparing for a last-ditch defence of the democratic principle. Upton Sinclair, letter of resignation from the Socialist Party, September 1917