I live in Ghana, West Africa, we have a small war grave for commonwealth troops who died here during the 1st and 2nd World Wars(mostly of disease) and to the great credit of the CWGC the graves are kept immaculate. I visit every year on Anzac day to pay my respects at the dawn service.

"Five sailors known unto god. March 1st 1941", is inscribed on a CWGC headstone in the New Calton cemetery in Edinburgh. My grandfather stood next to them on the bridge of the MV Atheltemplar . Thank you for preserving their memory.

We are always to one side quietly thanking you gents and ladies for your ongoing sacrifices as the fallen are honoured.

In 1978, working and living in Malawi, I visited the CWG in Karonga in the far north, which recorded fighting in the opening days of the war. Regarding destruction of WW! regimental memorials by the Germans in WW2, I was told by an elderly KRRC officer that the SS deliberately destroyed a WW1 western front memorial to the regiment. The WW1 merchant navy memorial in Plymouth does not mention that the pay of merchant seamen ceased the moment their ship went down. I believe this remained the case until the early years of WW2. A sad reflection on the men who served without a uniform to show their bravery.

Thank you for this, very interesting. I have visited several of the war graves in France and found the grave of a great uncle. They are very moving.

As we watch this video, a similar folly unfolds in Eastern Europe.

Wonderful lecture. For the British Empire military casualty "production" for WW1 starts 4 August 1914 and ends on 31 August 1921. The end date is much later than conventionally assumed. For other countries, WW1 starts earlier for example for the Ottoman Empire the Balkan wars in 1912, and for Italy the Lybian wars in 1911. WW1 therefore starts in 1911 and ends in 1921.

Some came home and did not talk about the war. Some unfortunates lived many years and spent the remainder of their life in mental hospitals.

The lessons of trench warfare during the siege of Richmond, during the last years of the American Civil war, were ignored by European military theorists and its professional command level officers in the decades between 1865 and the build up to WW1 one after 1900. I'd love to know how, when the technology of American warfare was being adopted and developed by the Europeans. Speculative fiction throughout this period, certainly seemed to GET the idea: that technological innovation, could could transform the combat environment, and render both conventional strategic planning, and tactical training suicidal.