On the eve of the centenary of the Great War there is an
obsession as to whether or not this was a necessary war? It was not until the
nineteen sixties when Charles Chilton radio play, The Long Long Trail was
transformed into the stage play “ Oh! What a Lovely War”( by Gerry Raffles and
Joan Littlewood) in 1963, then
subsequently released as the 1969 musical film (directed by Richard
Attenborough), did the question resonate in popular culture. The nineteen sixties was the anti-era, and anti-war was top
of the agenda. It saw the popularisation of the CND movement, anti-Vietnam war
protest and the belief that all wars are vulgar and therefore idealistically unnecessary. I consider myself to be somewhat of a realist. I know war is
vile and vicious, and I too wish I lived
in Walt Disney world where, cultural, religious , political ideology, and
tribalism are an irrelevance, where political power, money, imperialism, resources
and poverty are superfluous. As a realist I know the rose smells sweeter than the potato, it’s the idealists
who think the rose also tastes better. Both my Great-grandfathers fought in the Great War, they were
both part of Kitchener’s army, they both served on the western front from 1915
till 1918 they both saw action at Ypres ,Loss, Somme, Passchendaele. One was
rank and the other file and they both came home. At the time of their return they both thought it was a
necessary war, they believed in the ideals they were fighting for, self-determination,
equality, freedom. They believed they had laid down the foundations for a
better world with their sacrifices. It was only with the passing of the
years when they witnessed the betrayal
of their legacy that they questioned the
war, not was it necessary, but was it worth it. |
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CategoriesA DAY BY DAY ACCOUNT OF HOW THE GREAT WAR WAS PERTRAYED ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE BRITISH PRESSA DAY BY DAY ACCOUNT OF HOW THE GREAT WAR WAS PORTRAYED ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE A Necessary War THE GREAT WAR |
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