Listening Post

Personal stories about WWI

“We will remember.”

 ANZAC Day in New Zealand By John Felton PAIHIA, NEW ZEALAND — It was still pitch black at 5:30 this morning when more than 500 people gathered at the waterfront of this small town in northern New Zealand for the annual sunrise service commemorating Anzac Day — April 25. On this day in 1915,  the…

WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Nasiriya Falls to British; Eye al-Kut Next Ottoman Forces Retreat in Face of British Juggernaut Special to The Great War Project (23-25 July) The British offensive in southern Mesopotamia (now Iraq) gains another victory with the fall of Nasiriya. British and Indian troops take control of the city on this date a century ago. The…

Searching for Uncle Theo, Killed in WWI

The rifle volley shattered the quiet in the cemetery and made me jump. Immediately, the synchronized snick of bolts being worked, empty shells clinking on the ground, and the order, “Ready, fire!” and another cracking volley. I was ten at the time. I scrambled between adult legs to snatch one of the still warm brass…

Remembering WWI in a Small Town in Scotland

German and British soldiers playing football during a truce on Christmas Day 1914

I moved to Oban, on the west coast of Scotland, in late October. A few weeks later it was November, and the town was blanketed in red poppies. I soon learned that’s the symbol for war remembrance here. Poppies bloomed in the fields of battle, and red, of course, symbolizes blood. Maybe it was just…