Some of the items we linked to on the 100th anniversary of the guns falling silent in that war:
"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old"
The fourth stanza of Laurence Binyon's poem "For the Fallen" published in The Times newspaper on 21st September 1914, was written to honor the young Englishmen who had fallen in the war that had begun seven weeks earlier.They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
The horror would continue for another 1512 days.
This stanza is read at the Menin Gate as the "Ode of Remembrance" every evening at 8 p.m. to honor the 55,000 dead in and around Ypres who have no known grave. Another 34,959 are named at nearby Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing. 90,000.
It is now used as a tribute to all casualties of war, irrespective of nationality.
The above copy was handwritten by Mr. Binyon while he was on duty as a medical orderly in France in 1915 or 1916 and auctioned at Bonham's as Lot 50, April 10, 2013.
Audio: The Last Minute of WWI and A French Pilot's Flight Over The Devastation Shortly Thereafter
From MetroUK, November 7, 2018:
Eerie recording reveals moment the guns fell silent at the end of WWI
On the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month, the guns fell silent.
It brought an end to four years of war which crippled Europe, leaving 17 million dead including 888,246 British or Colonial servicemen.
As we approach the centenary of the Armistice on November 11, the Imperial War Museum has released a recording of the moment the war ended, patched together using recordings from their collections.
The artillery activity it illustrates was recorded on the American front near the River Moselle, one minute before and one minute after the war ended....MORE, including link to the Imperial War Museum.
And:
Been talking about the Ypres salient today and it reminded me of this stunning footage. It comes from a French flight over the devastated battlefields shortly after the guns fell silent on the Western Front. Powersul stuff. pic.twitter.com/McA7cxgrL5
— Dan Hill (@DanHillHistory) October 13, 2021
