WW1 100 years ago

[Super Slo Mo]

Had a look for a thread but can't find one. 100 years since WW1 began.
Commemorations going on in Belgium today, I'm at one that's airing this evening, should be poignant based on rehearsals.
I appreciate it's not everyone's cup of tea, although I think it's good to remember.

[Super Slo Mo]

Search facility on my phone isn't great.

I'm in a mixed allied and German cemetery, brings a lump to my throat to walk around the graves. The youngest lad here was merely 17. It seems so young.
Some of the early letters back to family tell of the young soldiers excitement, how it seemed like a holiday. That was, until they experienced the horror of the front line.

[Super Slo Mo]

After the event last night we went to a bar in Mons that was lit purely by candlelight. They're making quite a big deal of it over the whole town, it looks like there's something planned for the 23rd, which offhand I think was the original date of the big battle of Mons. Certainly lots of the graves in the cemetery have that date inscribed on them.

I'm thinking I might do a tour of the WW1 sites later in the year, it's sparked a bit of curiosity in me.