Listen, and learn
Just a couple of weeks after Henry Allingham’s passing at 113, Harry Patch, Britain’s last surviving soldier of the Great War, dies at 111.
So there are no-longer any former British soldiers who can relay the horrors of the Great War. Books, movies, photographs and interviews can tell some of the story, but there’s nothing like the experience of hearing stories told directly by those that were there.
There are many veterans of the second World War still alive and kicking, they may even be related to you, but they won’t be around forever. Make an effort to hear their stories while you can or we may never learn the lessons taught so painfully in the two bloodiest conflicts of the 20th Century.
WW2 People’s War from the BBC have a huge (47,000) archive of memories submitted by the public and is well worth an explore.
