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These audio interviews were conducted by the BBC in the 60s and 70s. The images are from the Imperial War Museum film archive.
The focus is narrow, a very British story; that was Peter Jackson’s choice to give it intensity. So it’s not a broad overview #TheyShallNotGrowOld
The focus is narrow, a very British story; that was Peter Jackson’s choice to give it intensity. So it’s not a broad overview #TheyShallNotGrowOld
As you watch this, keep in mind that the British army also included millions of troops from the Empire; and all the armies sent by the Dominions (Canada, Anzacs etc); plus Chinese labourers. Plus Britain’s allies with their own huge armies. #TheyShallNotGrowOld
And worth adding, some of the footage in this doc was created in 1914-18 as propaganda. So, not all of it is authentic combat stuff; and some was designed to boost morale back home. #TheyShallNotGrowOld
That moment when the colour kicks in is jaw dropping. Audio dubbing is done with modern actors and shell sounds, so if you see a WW1 soldier speaking that is an actor overdubbing. Lip-readers were used to ensure dialogue accuracy #TheyShallNotGrowOld
The staggering thing is how many men survived the war. If you went off to the trenches, you had a 9/10 chance of coming home. But nearly half were injured. And how do you measure the psychological trauma? #TheyShallNotGrowOld
Contrary to the pop culture myths, the officers and generals were at great risk - junior officers often the first to be targeted by snipers. 11% of infantry were killed, but it was 17% of officers. 200 generals were lost or captured #TheyShallNotGrowOld
Here’s a short article on some of the other big myths about the First World War #TheyShallNotGrowOld https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25776836
The logic of the Somme was a massive surge to smash the enemy lines and end the war. But the artillery barrage failed to dislodge the Germans. 58,000 men were casualties in a single day. 19,000 died. The bloodiest day in the history of the British army #TheyShallNotGrowOld
Minor update on one of my earlier tweets, my apologies to IWM! https://twitter.com/ixk85/status/1061749203741933568?s=21
The horrible injuries of the war had a profound effect on the history of reconstructive plastic surgery - the medical historian @DrLindseyFitz is writing about it in her next book http://www.drlindseyfitzharris.com/2018/02/21/new-book-deal/
For excellent WW1 historians active on Twitter, see @sommecourt @Taff_Gillingham @JonathanBoff @ProfGSheffield @thehistorygirl1 - they know much more than me
Some debate upon the statistics of injured. My claim of “half injured” might be too high, but it’s tricky because psych trauma was less easy to diagnose https://twitter.com/thehistorygirl1/status/1061750989261299714?s=21
Here are the official casualty stats #TheyShallNotGrowOld https://twitter.com/profpeterdoyle/status/1052474637022650368?s=21
This film has covered the 4 years of the war in a single dramatic arc - obviously there were many terrible battles after The Somme. The Russians left the war in 1917 but in came America. This led to a huge German offensive which failed to stick #TheyShallNotGrowOld
Very good recent podcast by @ProfGSheffield on @HistoryExtra about 1918 and why the Germans eventually collapsed as a fighting force. https://www.historyextra.com/period/first-world-war/armistice-first-world-war-gary-sheffield/ #TheyShallNotGrowOld
The soldiers returning to society often struggled to fit back in. The trauma was often deep. Meanwhile, entire communities had changed - ripped apart by the deaths of so many #theyshallnotgrowold
Stats are hard, but estimates says 20 million people died in the First World War. It changed the world, empires fell, society changed; art, music, literature, poetry, film, gender roles. The Russians became communists. Middle East redrawn by Brits & French #theyshallnotgrowold
America soon became a rising superpower, while China was on its bumpy way to communism. The British Empire reached its absolute maximum size soon after the war, but it was a false zenith given what lay around the corner #TheyShallNotGrowOld
I hope you found #TheyShallNotGrowOld powerful. It’s not a global history of the war, it leaves SO MUCH out. It had to, I suppose. But please do read up on the wider aspects of the war and its consequences for the modern world. It was vast conflict that killed as many civilians
Oh and follow @daniel_todman too! He studies how we memorialise the war, which is a fascinating subject too
Forgot to say, Peter Jackson has transformed 100 hours of that Imperial War Museum footage and I believe - I may be wrong, but he said it - that it will be available to other documentary makers in its new sharper form. So #TheyShallNotGrowOld may not be the last of these films 
And don’t forget another brilliant filmmaker, Danny Boyle, gave us this today. Both #TheyShallNotGrowOld and #PagesoftheSea were @1418NOW projects https://twitter.com/1418now/status/1061574745068634112?s=21
