1961: WW1 Veterans return to Ypres | Tonight | BBC Archive
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 พ.ย. 2022
- Tonight's Alan Whicker travels with British World War One veterans on a pilgrimage to the Flanders Fields battlefields near Ypres. While there, they will meet with German veterans of the conflict.
Over 40 years have passed since they fought on these fields as enemies, how do they feel now?
Originally broadcast 10 November, 1961.
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It’s mad how these guys were fairly old in the 60’s, yet we only lost the last veteran in 2009. All of them are heroes.
Will The Champion of buses 32 how many of these world war 1 veterans had sons serve in world war 2
In a probably another decade or two at most , we are losing the ww2 veterans too , if you really think about it.
It was actually 2012, his name was Florence Green. Considered the last “confirmable” soldier of the Great War to have died.
With so many countries fighting, many not keeping the best regulations on the ages of soldiers, we never will know in many cases.
@@garystadler5583 My wife's Grandfather fought in both. His two sons in WW2. All passed now. RIP, god bless.
@@stevonwhite8933Florence Green was a nurse who died in 2014
Lovely seeing actual WW1 veterans singing pack up your troubles
Bless them, true heroes, none left now 😢
they finally rest..
Fine tribute to the humblest of gentlemen.
Old Tommy talking to his German adversary...
"I shot at you and missed, and I'm jolly glad that I did" 🖤
I’m so glad the BBC put these out for all to see, it’s archives are truly a treasure and not just of British history but of so many others
This shows us that we are all human beings who could be friends if we weren't forced to kill each other 😢
When I first visited Ypres I could shake hands with a veteran, this made it living history and I’ve been gripped by it ever since.
It's the dignity of these men that shines through. All passed away now, including Alan Whicker who treats these heroes with such respect.
My grandfather was wounded by shrapnel in 1915 and shot in the leg by a German three hours before the armistice. He was my hero as a small boy and in fact that generation all stood so tall that we, a much later generation, would have to lean backwards and crane our necks upwards to look them in the face. God Bless Them All. Those of us who remember them will never forget.
And just look at what we’ve got now. Sam Smith and his worthless woke ilk.
This footage and interview is of tremendous historical value.
When I was 8....." why does grandad walk with a limp daddy?".....he was born like it my dad said. Years later after my grandad had passed he told me the truth. My nan had told him and was also told never to mention it. It's how they were back then. RIP grandad xx
My late father told me that when he began work, it was not uncommon for WW1 veterans to be lead away from their machines suffering from the after effects of mustard gas. They were relatively young men themselves but their health was broken. In many ways WW1 marked the end of an older era, and the introduction of killing on an industrial scale.
"killing on an industrial scale" ooof thats hard to swallow
I've just returned from Ypres today. It's an incredibly sobering experience, and just beggers belief how those men coped and carried on. And how many stayed. God bless them all.
They had to cope. If you didn't then there was a good chance of being shot for cowardice...
@@paulleach3612 they were obviously built of stern stuff, and they believed in the cause.
"I bloody missed you, and im jolly that I did".
Those wonderful men from a bygone world. Both heroic and tragic all at once. What a fantastic piece of respectful journalism.
We can't imagine the horrors that those men went through but it's typical of that generation that comradeship was so important to them. And now there's no one left.
John Simpson put it amazingly profoundly, when he was Uni there were still Boer War veterans alive and every other man over 30 was a WW2 Veteran.
2:29, no idea why but when they both turned and pointed in the same direction together, made it real.
I was eleven when this was made and can remember Alan Whicker on the TV, from memory it was a nightly show and I think Panorama with David Dimbleby was weekly, correct me if I’m wrong. My grandad and his two brothers were in the British Army at Ypres and the Somme, I’ve still got a copy of his war diary. Miraculously all three brothers survived. In the diary he made almost daily entries at the start and it seemed like one big party for the first few weeks, then the diary tailed off when the bloodletting started. I remember when I was a kid the WW1 veterans seemed like old codgers, and the WW2 veterans were just your normal adult.
My grandmother's uncle fought at Gallipoli.
I remember being told that they marvelled at the idea of travelling to far away, exotic places..
I thought about that when you mentioned that the first few weeks seemed like some kind of party.
Poor fellas.
David's father, Richard.
God rest those beautiful souls xx
When I was a child growing up in a small, mining and textile village in Yorkshire there was a group of these men who used to meet one day a week in the centre of the village. They all wore flat caps and they just sat together talking and smoking. I only saw them oddly during the October half term holidays which of course now becomes more significant as it would be approaching Remembrance Day. They were all very dignified but seldom seemed to smile. I wish I could have interviewed every single one of them to ask them of their life experiences but at the young age I was then I had no idea of their importance and significance to history. Time seemed to stop as me and my mates used to watch them. We knew that they were important men but did not really know why.
Oh my word this made me cry
My great-grandmother's husband was one of the many who never returned from Ypres. Men of infinite courage.
I could listen to Alan Whicker all day long.
i remember meeting some ww1 vets in the 1960s as a kid. Everyone treated them with respect and the kids were all awestruck. Back then children were raised to treat their elders with respect. Not like today.
What a fantastic video. Gracious and brave men of a bygone era
They were a different breed to people today , always had maximum respect for the WW1 and 2 vets of my youth always took the time to speak to you if in uniform , we were professionals , but these men were a breed apart
So many brave men 😢
Wonderful that this is available for us to watch. Great to hear the veterans interviewed by brilliant Alan Whicker
At the going down of the Sun and in the morning we will remember them.
So much to learn from these poor old souls.
OMG that's really a gem
Man this is very emotional. Heroes😥
Respect.
Beautiful singing!
Remarkable relic of the past.
Both of my grandfathers survived the horrors of this war,but left behind, their brother's, cousins,mates,and their chums.
How they ever managed to cope with life afterwards is beyond me,but they were both great fathers and grandfathers and inspired me to always see the best in people
Amazing footage, Lest We Forget. Truly a bygone generation.
Fun fact, the canadian statue commemorating the gas attacks you can see at 7:25 is an anachronism. It commemorates an event that took place in april(1915) but the soldier wears a helmet that would see service in the commonwealth many months later(September I believe).
Have been to visit battlefields and cemeteries very moving just standing in the places where these brave men fought we should never forget
Reminds us how many different ages signed up.
Not just the young fought.
For many, this was a time when they eventually felt ready to talk about things.
My granddad for instance, it took a few years until he spoke about being held captive.
Excellent and very moving. The human beings come shining through across the gulf of a lifetime. Pack up yer troubles......
Very moving
2:34 guy on the far right still has great posture
Fantastic film and glad these gents have been remembered.❤
Humbling!
Fantastic watch. We'll never know the horrors they witnessed.
Lord this did my heart good. ❤️🙏🏻
All school children should see these films
I don't agree about force-feeding kids history. If you are interested in it, you are interested in it and will gravitate towards it anyway. I didn't learn anything about WWI (or WWII) when I was at school in the 90s but I got fascinated myself and have studied it ever since. There is nothing worse than going to Tyne Cot Cemetery and having coach loads of bored school kids dicking about and getting in the way. You can't force a kid to 'care' about history.
Great video. Thanks for posting
Unbelievable bravery These men had endured quadruple Hell on this very Earth for they had truly seen into the abyss least we forget least we forget😐
Fascinating and very moving.
Both my grandfathers served in WW1 and both survived.....
Hence your ability to write this message . Lucky for them, lucky for you!
The Great War,
"The war to end all wars."
Private James Kenny, 2nd Batt. York and Lancaster Regiment, wounded by gunshot February 1915, killed in action 4th June 1915.We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
The saying "they don't make em like that any more" has never been so apt
What a great video. I have read many books about the men in ww1. I would like to see this video in colour.
This is fascinating to watch. Similar to watching the old US civil war vets meeting in 50s.
Need men of this caliber more than ever today ! Wonder what they would think of Europe, UK and the rest of the western world today ?
They were fighting for a British Empire. Remember that. Billions of people of all colours and creeds, painted pink on the map. That brought in the modern age of multiculturalism and globalisation. Sorry, you can't live in a Medieval village anymore. Modern world. You can't have it both ways: enjoy the fruits of empire yet bemoan the consequences of empire.
My great uncle was machine gunned in the stomach during WW1, and is buried in Ypres. These men could have been serving alongside him. I found out relatively recently that my paternal grandfather was an ambulance driver. He never, ever told his children - my late father only found out a few years ago after decades of meticulous family history research. It explains my paternal grandfather's alcoholism; he probably saw some terrible things. These days, he'd probably have had a diagnosis of PTSD.
I am still ashamed today that the country where fate placed my birth started both world wars. I am so grateful to the peoples who were opponents of the Germans at the time that they were able to forgive at all. That was neither to be expected nor demanded. I will never forget that, even though I was born 21 years after the end of World War II.
Germany didn’t start WW1, or why would you think so?
@@UWfalcin Well, I think indirectly it did, because Kaiser Wilhelm might have prevented it if he hadn't given Count Hoyos the so-called blank check for a war against Serbia. In any case, Germany had a greater share in the outbreak of the war than the Allies. Can we agree on that?
you're a nice guy! glad we were born when we were
@@stevenkarras3490 Thank you Steven! Appreciate that.
I'm British and there should be no shame. The wars and their consequences were nothing to do with you. I personally think that WW1 was a collective mistake. Did Germany make mistakes? Yes. Were they alone in doing so? No. The French had the biggest military in Europe, they were gagging for a fight. Which is to say nothing of the mistakes made by the British. We had no obligation to protect Belgium, who were hardly entirely innocent themselves. Which is to say nothing of the Balkans and Russia. It was all a collective mistake. Blame for the second world war can be laid at the door of Germany, the treaty of Versailles was perhaps unfair but compared to what was metered out to Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, it wasn't. Yes, we can blame Germany for it. But the Germany of then couldn't have less in common with the Germany today. What's important is we all learn the lessons of the horrors and brutality of war. If only the Russians had.
My Great Great Uncle Adam Craig (12th Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles) died at Langemarck during the Passchendaele Campaign, August 1917.
My Great Uncle died in France, 6 weeks in. Dead at 21. RIP
When this was made, WW2 had been finished just 16 years before.
Very intense footage.. war begats war May there finally be peace upon the Earth I pray.. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall inherit the earth.🙏💕
They are all gone now there pain and suffering goes with them what they leave behind should inspire you there loyally and love for our flag made them go over the top not because its a brave thing to do but its the right thing to do when Britain means everything to you feel there pride feel there passion feel the same yourself to you albert and Edward just two young lads like many who never came home from that war
"Those that I fight I do not hate,
Those that I guard I do not love..."
Very sad 😢
those glasses are sooo amazing
I wonder what they would think of England now in 2023?
Wow, first time I see german veterans other than in people’s century from the 90’s.
All fought and died for nothing with the state of the country today
Totally agree. Both wars with Germany were suicidal for us in the long run. Britain, now swamped with foreign barbarians is entering it's death throws.
They weren't fighting for us.
It is a far better society now than then.
If you knew how WW1 actually started you wouldn’t say that, WW1 was a complete waste of life.
Yeah. The public is still treated as subjects instead of civilians. The country voted to leave the EU, and we have the tory party in charge, protesters not able to protest with a king in charge and get sent to prison. Going back to the ways before WW1.
But for what did they fight? Why? Most men went over thinking it’d be fun.
I shed a tear when he said "The Kaiser's soldiers"
The veteran seen at 1:01 looks just like harry patch
And the British met the Germans with song, and drink, and merriment, where once they met with flash and thunder. Very few laughs, I noticed.
I can’t believe that the oldest one of them all were around to play the Nintendo DSI
I wonder if these old guys knew what Europe would become would they even have bothered?
Rip
My great uncle was wounded in the face and captured by the Germans. He had surgery from a German doctor, after the war they kept in touch with each other.
In that moment in the video at 4:32 -
I can't even begin to understand what this true warrior went through to have a look like this in his eyes in such a moment as that where everything is supposed to be cheery and cordial. I guess that is a fine example here of British politeness, coming from an American. It seems like he is nice and kind to the Germans on the outside. But on the inside, even in that wheelchair, you can see that he probably wanted to slap them to the ground down to his level from how they treated him in the war and after he was captured by them. I find it interesting how contrary the behavior of the Germans is, that they seem to have forgotten all of their past, at least in the same manner as by not showing it at all on the outside, but knowing it within, but being much more cheerful and outgoing and almost happy to meet the British in that moment. But you could see the tremendous pain and reflections of memories so horrendous to even think of for any normal person in his eyes and in his soul. He may have been older, but the wherewithal and the passion, as well as his fight and wit was still very much with him.
Keep in mind that I paused the video at that exact moment and wrote this comment above, not knowing after I wrote it that he smiled to the German veteran just a second after the timestamp 4:33. Well, it almost goes along with what I believe he was thinking. He wanted to seem nice on the outside, but in his mind, he couldn't stand being there, even behind that cheeky smile.
09/18/2023, 10:05am. God bless all of those soldiers, even on both sides. And let's hope that another global war like this doesn't happen again. At least not for a couple hundred years or so, that's the best I can hope for.
The Brandenburg Gate badge was interesting, was it a East-German thing?
Most striking is that trench. Still got those helmets as if the boys who wore them would be coming back. Of course they never did.
My Grand Uncle Michael Higgins of the Connaught Rangers was killed in Ypres in April 1915 in the first week that gas was introduced on the Western Front. No grave but his name is on the Menin Gate
You may want to watch a WW1 lecture on a book called The Searchers. After WW1, every effort was made to find where soldiers had died. They did the best they could. Even to this day, overlooked graves from WW1 are being found.
In England, the MOD has a database of every regiment, etc and where they went in the war. Everytime a forgotten grave is found on the battle fields of WW1, the MOD looks at the database and narrows down who it could be. Then they send requests to get potential DNA matches from the fallen soldier's family. If the DNA matches, the family of the fallen is informed that their family members body was found and they are given a proper Christian burial.
Who knows, one of these days your family may get a phone call like that from the MOD. I hope you and yours do get a call like that.
@@cooldudicus7668 Thank you.
YET 'AGAIN' WE ARE STRUGGLING AGAINST 'FASCISM' and 'OPPRESSION'
🇬🇧 💪
I went on a battlefield tour recently the Belgian guide lost relatives executed by the Germans in WW1 we went to a German cemetery and I had a quick chat with some German visitors the guide gave me a black look but I don’t regret it it was over 100 years ago RIP all
WW1 veterans were like the Vietnam vets of their day now their all dead.
The T,rench,s cut deep and in the arms was swiftly adding to addaptable add fundings has still is weres that then
And now Europe is fighting a completely different war. There are no bombs or bullets being fired in this war. Yet this time we might just get wiped out for good, culture and all.
What do you mean? And what culture?Europe has many. Not trying to be rude. Just genuinely don’t understand.😊 Thanks!
It was fine when Europe were using bombs and bullets throughout Africa and Asia to start countless wars and wipe their cultures out though right?
@@Youruso I'll be very clear so there is no misunderstanding. Europeans are rapidly being ethnically and culturally replaced on their own continent.
I walked through the city centre of my home city today and I can’t help but feel like the nation these men died for is all but dead. Our leaders have betrayed the English people.
Oh granddad time for bed.
Apparently you haven't even realised there is an actual war on European soil with trenches and tanks as we speak.
How would the Tommy's that fought and died in both wars react to what London has become. 😢
Fight war not wars.........
when men were men
my mother lost her uncles in that hell
What really will remind anyone who has been in combat is the smell. From day one till the end, the smell of gunpowder or military explosive then days later of actual human beings frozen at the time of death move slightly or violently because of rigor mortis. I thought they were alive but any dead person will turn purple and smell very bad after 2 days in the hot Summer and the skin will start to bloat and maggots will eat at them, later turn into flies. In the Winter when it's cooler the body will bloat a bit from the slight warmth but the blood will pool down and the skin will look very waxy. The smell of death will always creeps my mind...
"Kamerad"
No idea who won and who lost that War.
Allies won... Central powers lost.
Any old onion,s for dinner
No one wins a war I mean win , not a game , but at least stop them .
I keep hearing, all for nothing. Well as a youngster south of edinburgh i lived with my grandfather for the first 11 years of my life. In that coalmining area there was dozens off great war veterans, second world war too. My great uncle died in gallipoli 1915 and my polish uncle survived arnhem fighting with the polish brigade. They would have given anybody short shrift if they had said to them it was all for nothing. I have a brother in law living in ukraine with his family. Ask the ukrainians if its all for nothing. Tyrannts are everywhere. Are good people just meant to roll over
I suppose the reason people say that about WWI is that it was supposed to be 'the war to end all wars'
Yeah the Ukraine war definitely is all for nothing. Ukraine is going to lose, it's economy is destroyed and it's going to have hundreds of thousands of dead from the war and be permanently depopulated by emigration. There was a peace deal hammered out a few weeks into the way which basically says Ukraine keeps out of NATO and treats the ethnic Russians properly. And it was torpedoed by Biden and Boris Johnson and Scholz. This isn't just a rumour anymore, a couple of weeks back German corroboration was released including from the ex head of the German army. So yes, the war is all for nothing or perhaps for the US neocons to kill some Russians by expending Ukrainian lives.
And yes the First World War was all for nothing too. What did it achieve? Millions dead, Europe destroyed, British empire fatally weakened, Bolshevik Revolution in Russia which soon killed millions more and all it did to Germany was postpone its rise by twenty years.
I thaught that i thaught for some1 something I'm going to thaught about i.t tho
We will remember them. But in a society becoming more self-centered and dwindling turnouts on 11/11, will the next generation?
Sie hatten eine sicher Insel und kamen zu sterben auf das Festland.
No more Brother Wars for the profits of the already incalculably rich.
It seems Europe goes through phases of total war then avoiding war between each other for almost 100 years. There was almost 100 years of peace after the Napoleonic Wars then almost 100 years of peace after WW2
@@tdoran616 Nonsense 😂, European nations have always been at some sort of war until the 90s with the Yugoslav wars, are you literally forgetting Kosovo-Serbia in 1999? Only then has there been peace until Russia invaded Ukraine recently
@@Izzy01711 The Balkans isn’t a civilised part of Europe. Any war in the Balkans is glorified tribal warfare. Not a proper war with actual European nations that are superpowers.
@@tdoran616 Oh yeah the ‘proper’ wars where countries literally destroy each other to pieces, and 100+ million people end up dying, and fighting wars over 100 years, because that’s not uncivilised and tribalistic at all…, and I suppose the Balkans is part of Asia too, as Mr T doran redrawn Europe’s borders 👍🏾
@@tdoran616 You mean a proper war with men sticking bayonets in each others guts the proper way?
And now look at what has been done to their nation.
@@ghjgbnhjjghjthknvf6379 agreed!
@@ghjgbnhjjghjthknvf6379 Screw the parties. We need people who aren't afraid to speak up and say "Enough is enough".
If you’re on about what I think you are, ‘those’ people living in this nation are British in the sense their ancestors grew up under a British flag and anthem within the empire, they came here as british citizens with that right.
It’s also hilariously ironic how them being used as cannon fodder to defend Britain in WW1 Is never brought up, your first thought is these veterans and not the millions across the empire who were forcefully drafted in
@@Izzy01711 I don't know which of the colonies you're on about? Conscription was introduced within Britain because one million volunteers wasn't enough. There was no conscription in the Caribbean and there was no conscription in India in either war. The white commonwealth countries were more likely to have used conscription because they sent a greater percentage of men when compared to their overall population.
@@Izzy01711 Yes. We are adressing the issue of Europeans being Replaced by Non Europeans on the European continent, and the fact that Europeans are about to die out in the World.
And for some reason you are excusing this crime against humanity by bringing up drafting from over a century ago. It was a world war. In a world war the entire world fights.
We where ALL cannon fodder in that time. But the fact that you choose to weigh the miniscule drafting of Indian soldiers for Britain on the European front, with the complete destruction of Western European culture and Ethnicity in its entirety, is completely bizarre.
You are advocating genocide. And you're completely oblivious to it.