Programme 1

Activities

The activities below are specific to Programme 1, but the two programmes are closely linked. It would be worthwhile to divide the class in two and show one half Programme 1 and the other half Programme 2; then each half could report back to the rest of the class, or try the activities relating to the programme they have seen.

Activity 1
Experiences of war

The programme covers a number of stages in the experiences of the people involved in the war:

stage	timecode
joining up	0.00–3.40
travelling to war	3.40–4.30
arriving in France	4.30–8.18
in the trenches	8.18–11.20
keeping busy	11.20–13.50
Christmas in the trenches	13.50–15.07
horrors of war	15.07–17.03
into battle	17.03–end

Some of their experiences are positive; others are negative. Students could study each stage, or work in pairs or small groups and study one or two stages each. As they watch the programme they should make careful notes of any evidence or positive or negative examples. A table like this might help:

stage	evidence or examples of positive experiences	evidence or examples of negative experiences
joining up
travelling to war
arriving in France
in the trenches
keeping busy
Christmas in the trenches
horrors of war
into battle

Activity 2
The shock of war, 1914–16

Many soldiers (and others involved in the war, such as medical officers and nurses) found that they were not really prepared for the reality of war. They were shocked when they found out what it really meant. Print out this extract from the diary of Walter Bloem, a soldier in the German army in 1914, and show it to the class.

‘Reports coming back along the column seemed to confirm the fact that the English were in front of us. There was much joking about this, and also about Bismarck’s remark of sending the police to arrest the English army...
[The attack begins]
...We had no sooner left the edge of the wood than a volley of bullets whistled past our noses and cracked into the trees behind. From now on matters went from bad to worse. Wherever I looked, right or left, were dead or wounded, quivering in convulsions, groaning terribly, blood oozing from flesh wounds ... We have to go back ... A bad defeat, there could be no gainsaying it; in our first battle we had been badly beaten, and by the English – by the English we had so laughed at a few hours before.’

Ask students to watch the programme carefully and note down any examples of similar experiences. When they have done this, they can write their own letter from the trenches on the theme of the shock of war. They could organise it along these lines:

Dear ...

Do you remember how I was telling you how grand it was to be a soldier back in August 1914? I told you about ...

Well, when we arrived in France it wasn’t too bad ...

However, I am now serving with the regiment in the front line, and it isn’t like it was back in August 1914. I can’t tell you everything, but here are a few things which have shaken me up ...

Of course it’s not all bad, because ...

I look forward to some leave and to seeing you though ...

Yours truly,

Activity 3
Make your own programme (1914–1916)

Students may have relatives who were involved in the Great War. They may have some papers, letters or other information about them. If so, they could create their own version of the programme, either using the same themes as those which appear in this programme, or using some themes of their own. They should focus on the first half of the war, from August 1914 until about May 1916.

They could simply write down their plans for your programme, or draw them up on a storyboard. Another good way to plan a television programme is to use presentation software such as Microsoft PowerPoint to plan the sequence of shots.

If they did not have any relatives in the war, or have no information about them, they can still create their own programme. A good place to start is the website ‘Trenches on the Web’ (see Links). Two sections of this will be especially useful: the Photo Archive (http://www.worldwar1.com/pharc.htm) has lots of images, and the Special Features section (http://www.worldwar1.com/sfindex.htm) describes the experiences of many different individuals, such as Francis James Mack (an ANZAC) and Thomas Davies (a black soldier in the US Army).