THE GREAT WAR 26 : And We Were Young (A E Housman) [Main Title]

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  • Title: THE GREAT WAR 26 : And We Were Young (A E Housman) [Main Title]
  • Film Number: IWM 1065-26
  • Other titles: AND WE WERE YOUNG (A E Housman) [Alternative Title]
  • Summary: The last months of the war on the Western Front, and the conclusion of the Armistice with Germany, October-November 1918.
  • Description: On 26th September 1918 the Allies launched a new series of offensives on the Western Front. On 28th September the Germans, told that the Bulgarians would surrender on the following day, decided to make peace. The German government was being warned of revolution at home and mass dissaffection in the German Army. The problem was to negotiate an armistice. The French had lost over 1,300,000 men and the British 750,000, and both were implacable. The British had also lost a "a centuries' old sense of immunity", its ships sunk and its civilians vulnerable to air raids. On 3rd October the new liberal government of Germany therefore approached America to negotiate an armistice. President Wilson stipulated that the basis for this should be the "fourteen points" plan he had announced in January. He did not consult the Allies in this, and some of the points were unacceptable to them. Meanwhile through October mud and transport problems slowed the Allied advance, until only the British Army was capable of sustaining the offensive. Even that force began to weaken with the strain of its increasing losses. But the Central Powers faced disaster on all fronts: on 1st October Damascus in Syria fell, Aleppo on 26th October and on 30th October Turkey asked for an armistice; Allied forces from Salonika had pushed up to the Danube; on 24th October the Italians crossed their own frontier and on 3rd November Austria-Hungary surrendered: Germany was alone. Ludendorff had resigned on 27th October and by 6th November there was revolution in all areas of Germany. On 7th November the German armistice commission crossed the lines to negotiate with Marshal Foch at Compiègne. On 9th November the Kaiser abdicated and fled to Holland. At 5am on 11th November the Armistice was signed and at 11am it came into effect, just as the Canadians entered Mons. It took a while for the soldiers, except for the newly-arrived Americans, to accept that the war was over and begin their celebrations. Most showed little emotion. Foch told his men that they had saved the liberty of the world; Hindenburg told his that their struggle was not over yet. German dead from the war were reported at 1,800,000; those of Austria-Hungary at 1,200,000. But, as the civilian populations of New York, Paris and London heard of the Armistice, they launched into sustained rejoicing, overcome with emotion.
  • Alternative Title: AND WE WERE YOUNG (A E Housman) [Alternative Title]
  • Colour: B&W
  • Digitised: No
  • Object_Number: IWM 1065-26
  • Sound: Sound
  • Access Conditions: NON-IWM: PROJECTION PRINT ONLY - NOT FOR PRODUCTION USE
  • Featured Period: 1914-1918
  • Production Date: 1964
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Production sponsor) Imperial War Museum (Production sponsor) Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Production sponsor) BBC (Production company) Essex, Tony (Production individual) Watkins, Gordon (Production individual) Terraine, John Alfred1921-01-152003-12-27 (Production individual) Rollins, Ed (Production individual) Manefield, Tom (Production individual) Terraine, John Alfred1921-01-152003-12-27 (Production individual) Jarvis, Anne (Production individual) Hipple, Rex (Production individual) Kay Film Laboratories (Production individual) Bigman, Richard (Production individual) Caravel Films (Production individual) McWatt, John (Production individual) Garland, Nicholas1935 (Production individual) Saunders, Robert (Production individual) Read, Bill (Production individual) Keene, Brian (Production individual) Callaway, Ian (Production individual) Bosworth, Pam (Production individual) Carr, Norman (Production individual) Heelas, Peter (Production individual) Toovey, Barry (Production individual) Cave, Julia (Production individual) Broadway, Anne (Production individual) Bryen, Doris (Production individual) Kersey, Jill (Production individual) Davidson, Eric (Production individual) Vigne, Jean (Production individual) Mendelsohn, Robyn (Production individual) Maloney, William (Production individual) Macloughlin, Marya (Production individual) Maros, Basil (Production individual) Virgo, Myrtle (Production individual) Descendre, Anne (Production individual) Edwards, Jeffrey (Production individual) Parry, Audrey (Production individual) Shukman, Harold (Production individual) Kuehl, Jerome (Production individual) Barrie, Alexander (Production individual) Hastings, Max Hugh Macdonald1945-12-28Researcher, BBC TV Great War series, 1963–64; Reporter, Evening Standard, 1965–67; Fellow, US World Press Inst., 1967–68; Roving Correspondent, Evening Standard, 1968–70; Reporter, BBC TV Current Affairs, 1970–73; Editor, Evening Standard Londoner’s Diary, 1976–77; Columnist, Daily Express, 1981–83; contributor, Sunday Times, 1985–86; Editor, The Daily Telegraph, 1986–95; Dir, 1989–95, Editor-in-Chief, 1990–95, The Daily Telegraph plc; Editor, The Evening Standard, 1996–2002; contributor, Daily Mail, 2002–; Contrib. Ed., Financial Times, 2009–13. As War Correspondent, covered Middle East, Indochina, Angola, India-Pakistan, Cyprus, Rhodesia and S Atlantic. Mem., Press Complaints Commn, 1991–92. Churchill Fellow, Westminster Coll., Fulton, Mo, 2011. TV documentaries: Ping-Pong in Peking, 1971; The War about Peace, 1983; Alarums and Exercursions, 1984; Cold Comfort Farm, 1985; The War in Korea (series), 1988; We Are All Green Now, 1990; Spies, in series Cold War, CNN, 1998; Hitler’s Germany, 2000; The Falklands: reluctant heroes, 2002; Winston’s War, 2003; The Falklands Legacy, 2012; The Necessary War, 2014. A Vice Pres., Game Conservancy, 1992–; President: CPRE, 2002–07; Sir Walter Scott Soc. of Edinburgh, 2012–13. Trustee: Nat. Portrait Gall., 1995–2004; Game Conservancy, 2014–. Liddell-Hart Lecture, KCL, 1994; Mountbatten Lecture, Edinburgh Univ., 2004; Leonard Stein Lectures, Oxford Univ., 2009. FRHistS 1988; FRSL 1996. Hon FKC, 2004. Hon. DLitt: Leicester, 1992; Nottingham, 2005. Journalist of the Year, British Press Awards, 1982 (cited 1973 and 1980); What The Papers Say, Granada TV: Reporter of the Year, 1982; Editor of the Year, 1988; Duke of Westminster Medal for military literature, RUSI, 2008; Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement, Chicago Pritzker Library, 2012; Friuladria Prize, Gorizia Internat. Hist. Fest., 2014 (Production individual) Liddell Hart, Basil Henry1895-10-311970-01-29 (Production individual) Terraine, John Alfred1921-01-152003-12-27 (Production individual) Barnett, Correlli Douglas (Production individual) Pitt, Barrie (Production individual) Horne, Alistair1925Trustee of the Imperial War Museum (Production individual) Bonham-Carter, Victor (Production individual) Williams, John (Production individual) Josephs, Wilfred (Production individual) BBC Northern Orchestra (Production individual) Hurst, George (Production individual) Redgrave, Michael (Sir) (Production cast) Richardson, Ralph (Sir) (Production cast) Williams, Emlyn (Production cast) Goring, Marius (Production cast) Luckman, Cyril (Production cast) Shaw, Sebastian (Production cast)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations:
  • Keywords: 01/3(4-15).9 (event) First World War, Armistice & 11/1918 (event)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Sound Soundtrack language: English Title language: English Subtitle language: None
  • Technical Details: Format: 16mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 1543 ft; Running time: 45 mins
  • HD Media:
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    IWM 1065-26

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